Chapter 12

When Allison came into Rob’s house—drenched and shivering—she saw what was wrong with Cali.

The girl had been roughed up pretty badly. Her hair was tangled around her face, and her shirt was torn at the neckline. Her cheekbone was scarily red, her eye already starting to swell shut. And she was holding one of her forearms against her chest, like it hurt to move it.

She was huddled on Rob’s couch, tearstains on her cheeks.

Allison ran over to her immediately, crouching down beside the couch. “Oh my God!” she gasped. “What happened?”

“You’re all wet,” Cali said weakly, a very faint smile on her lips.

Allison made a choking sound and reached over to push the girl’s hair back from her eyes. Then she turned and looked over her shoulder at Rob, who was approaching with a couple of towels in his hands.

He offered one to Allison. “It was that…boyfriend of hers. I think she’s got a sprained wrist and might have a cracked rib.”

“Oh my God!” Allison quickly dried her face and hands. “We should take her to the emergency room.”

“I was going to,” Rob said, his voice still hoarse, although he looked a little more normal than he had out in the rain. “But I called Dee, and she said she was coming right over and she’d take her herself.”

Allison felt kind of sick at this piece of news. “Are you okay for now?” she asked Cali softly. “Can you wait?”

“Yeah. Everything hurts, but I think it’s going to for a while. I’ll wait for Mom.”

Allison’s chest ached as she smoothed the girl’s hair again and rose to her feet. “I’m going to get you some ice for that eye while we wait.”

Rob walked with her into the kitchen, meeting her eyes when she stopped near the refrigerator. “I know,” he said, very softly so Cali wouldn’t hear. “I should have just taken her right away. But she’s only fifteen, and she’s not my daughter. I don’t actually have any rights where she’s concerned.”

“I know you don’t. You did the only thing you could. Is Dee in any…fit state to…deal with this?”

Rob gave a half shrug. “I hope so. She sounded okay when we talked. She hadn’t been drinking, at least.”

“Well, that’s good.” Allison reached up to cup his cheek, since his face was so strained and the shadows under his eyes so dark. “Are you okay, baby?”

He leaned into her hand for a moment before he gently removed it, kissing her palm softly. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I want to kill that boy. You have to stop me from going to find him.”

Allison sucked in a quick breath. She understood the sentiment, and she hoped Rob wasn’t being literal, but she didn’t really know what to say. She just reached over to take his hand in hers and held it as she opened the freezer to get an ice pack from where she knew Rob kept them.

They returned to the living room, and Allison positioned the ice pack on Cali’s eye, and after a few minutes she asked the girl what had happened.

It was a simple story. Cali had gone over to her boyfriend’s house to hang out, and they’d gotten into a fight about his taking money from her, after which Cali had told him they were broken up.

The boy wasn’t all right with her breaking up with him, and he’d taken his anger out on her.

“Have you called the sheriff’s office?” Allison asked, looking between Cali and Rob.

When Cali didn’t answer, Rob murmured, “I wanted to, but she said no.”

“They won’t do anything to him. He’s only sixteen, and he just hit me a few times.”

“It’s against the law to do that. They may not do much this time, but if you don’t report it, then it won’t be on his record if he does it again.” Allison was hard-pressed to keep her voice calm, but she managed to do it. “Promise me that at the emergency room you’ll ask them to call the sheriff. They’ll want to talk to you about it and see what he did to you.”

“He’ll be so mad.” Cali’s voice was very small.

“So he’s mad,” Allison said.

“I’m not going to let him touch you again,” Rob said, an edge of warning in his tone that she knew he was trying to stifle.

Cali looked from one to the other and finally nodded.

Allison was relieved—partly because Cali wasn’t acting like a long-term battered woman. She didn’t think the girl had been hit by this guy before today. Hopefully she could get over it without lasting emotional damage.

Before she could reply, there was a loud, insistent knocking on the door, and Rob went to open it to Dee, who came in wet from the rain and in a state of dramatics about her baby getting hurt.

The woman would always annoy Allison. She was never going to like her. But Dee seemed focused and sober tonight, and she was at least acting like she was concerned about Cali, so Allison didn’t feel like they were sending the girl off to her doom.

Dee didn’t stay long. Rob helped Cali into the passenger seat of Dee’s car, and if Dee said anything to him, Allison didn’t hear what it was. Then Dee and Cali were driving off, and Allison and Rob were left alone in his house, both of them still wet from the rain.

“I told Cali to text me when she’s all done and they’ve gotten home,” he said.

“Good. Poor thing. The whole situation is awful. Do you think she’s actually going to report it?”

“I don’t know. I hope so. I’m going to talk to the sheriff tomorrow either way.” He was rubbing his wet hair. “I didn’t tell Cali, but I’ve already called Mitch. Someone will be paying that boy a visit.”

“Good.” Allison let out a breath. “That sounds like all you can do, then.” She looked up at him, her heart so full she could barely swallow over the pressure. “So you didn’t really need me, then.”

“Yes, I did,” he rasped, reaching out and pulling her into his arms. “I needed you. I need you, Allison. So much.”

She squeezed him with both arms, believing him since his whole body was confirming his words.

“Please don’t leave me,” he mumbled against her hair.

“I won’t.” She felt like she might say more—like she might try to explain some of the revelations she’d had this evening, but the only sound she could make was a sudden loud shiver.

Rob released her and looked down at her, his eyes full of emotion she couldn’t possibly mistake. “You’re freezing. Let me find you something to wear.”

“You need to change too. You’re just as wet as I am—plus, you don’t have a shirt on.”

They both went into his bedroom and found clean shirts and sweatpants to wear. Even with a drawstring, they would barely stay up on Allison, but they were better than her soaked leggings.

She was towel drying her hair as best she could when Rob sat down on the side of the bed. He didn’t speak. Just watched her.

She put down the towel. “Are you okay, Rob?”

He half nodded, half shook his head.

She went over to sit beside him, wrapping her arms around him.

He made a hoarse sound and kind of collapsed onto the bed, pulling her with him. The position wasn’t entirely comfortable, so after a minute Allison said, “Maybe we should get under the covers.”

Rob moved immediately, and soon he’d pulled her into his arms beneath the sheets and comforter. She burrowed against him, finally feeling warm and dry and comfortable. Finally feeling loved and trusted and needed.

Rob held her tightly, almost too tightly, and the tension in his body felt so urgent that it worried her. “Rob,” she asked after several minutes. “Are you okay?”

It took a little while for Rob to answer. “I haven’t been okay at all without you.”

“I’m here now.”

“And you’ll stay?”

“I’ll stay.”

They still had other things to say to each other, but this seemed to be enough for the moment. Allison held onto him until his body finally started to relax. She wondered if he would pull away from her then and try to get some sleep, but he didn’t. He started to stroke her hair and back, and it was the sweetest thing.

After a couple of hours Rob’s phone buzzed with a text. He reached to check it. “She’s home. Feeling better after the drugs they gave her. She reported it to the sheriff’s office. Dee’s still there with her.”

“Good. Good. That sounds like it went as well as it could have.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe you should try to get some sleep,” she said, stroking his chest over his T-shirt. “It doesn’t look like you’ve gotten much for a while.”

“I haven’t.”

“I can’t believe you cleaned your house.”

He paused before he answered. “I didn’t think you’d noticed.”

“Of course I did.”

“It was the only thing I could think of to do. I couldn’t do anything else.”

“Well, you can sleep now. Everything is okay.”

“Is it okay with you too?” He’d lifted his head to peer at her face in the darkened room.

She gave him a trembly smile. “I really think it is.”

This was apparently the right thing to say. He smiled back and drew her into his arms once more.

Allison felt better now. Relaxed. Safe. Treasured in Rob’s arms but also really needed.

She felt good about him and about herself for the first time in a really long time—and she felt nothing at all like a trophy.

Both she and Rob had to wake up early the next day. It was a workday, and unfortunately businesses kept running, no matter how many personal crises you’d worked through the day before.

They didn’t have much time to really talk before work. They’d slept later than they should have, so Allison needed to rush over to her house to shower and change for the restaurant. Rob kissed her before she left and asked if she’d come over that evening for dinner.

She said yes.

Any more relationship talk would have to wait until then.

Allison spent the day in an exhausted and strangely giddy haze. It felt like she could actually breathe, like she didn’t have to stay on guard against something she might let herself do or become. Chelle told her that she looked gorgeous, and when Allison doubted the veracity of this compliment, Chelle just muttered that love tends to do that to a woman.

Allison didn’t even feel obliged to object.

She got off midafternoon, as she normally did, and was tempted to walk over to the hardware store so she could get a glimpse of Rob. She managed to forgo that silly mission and instead went to the Walmart in the next town over to catch up on some shopping she’d gotten behind on because of all the heartache.

Things might be better with Rob now, but she still was really tight on money. She couldn’t be eating out all the time because she didn’t have food in the house.

While she was there, she looked at the clothes section for the first time in her life. She had more designer outfits than she knew what to do with, but she didn’t actually have very many lying-around clothes. Most of the clothes in the store she wouldn’t dream of wearing, but she bought a couple of pairs of yoga pants that looked decent enough, and then she went to look through the pajamas. Arthur had wanted all of her sleepwear to be slinky and sexy, and she only had a couple of comfortable pajama bottoms. She found some light cotton ones that looked cute enough. She could tell the quality wasn’t as good as most of her clothes, but she didn’t see why it mattered.

At least they were cheap.

She actually had a little bit of a shopper’s buzz as she left the store, and she had to laugh at herself.

When she got home, it was just after five, so she made herself sit down and work on some jewelry instead of stalking Rob’s house. She was still working on that choker necklace, which was incredibly intricate, so it forced her to concentrate.

She blinked when her phone buzzed, and it was Rob telling her he was home. It was almost six already, and she’d had no idea.

She put down her tools and ran to check the mirror. Since her hair was in decent shape, she grabbed her purse and hurried across the street.

The door was open, so she knocked on the storm door and let herself in.

“I’m in here,” Rob called out.

She found him slouched down on the couch in the living room. “What are you doing?” she asked.

He gave her a tired smile. He’d finally shaved this morning, but he still didn’t look quite like his normal self. “Sitting.”

“Did you get anything to eat?”

“Not yet. I was waiting for you.”

“You look tired. Do you want me to fix something?”

“Not yet.” He stretched out his arm toward her. “I want to sit with you for a minute.”

When she took his hand, he pulled her toward him with surprising force. She ended up on his lap, laughing and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“That’s better,” he murmured, nuzzling her face as he slid both of his hands down her back until they were cupping her bottom. “I wanted to make sure you were still…”

“I was still what?” she asked liltingly, tangling her hands in his hair.

“Still mine.”

She could feel him smiling, even as he pulled her into a tight hug. She hugged him back and after a while said against his shoulder, “Are you really okay, Rob? You seem…different.”

“I am different. I lost you and I got you back. I don’t want to do it again.”

“I don’t either. So let’s not.”

He eased her back so he could see her face. “Is it all right if I ask a few questions, just so I can stop worrying about some things?”

“Of course. What are you worried about?”

“We’re…dating now, right? For real?”

“Right. For real.”

“Exclusively?”

“I hope so.”

This evidently was what he wanted to hear, because his face relaxed slightly. “You said when we first got together that you weren’t ready for a relationship, and so we were taking it slow. Do you still want that?”

She shook her head, knowing with certainty the answer. “I’m ready now. For anything.”

His lips turned up in a little smile. “I really want to tell you I love you, but I’m afraid it might be too soon for you.”

She gave a little gasp, her heart doing an embarrassing jump. “It’s not too soon.”

Now his eyes blazed up to match the little smile on his face. “I love you, Allison Davies.”

“I love you too, Rob West.”

He kissed her then, and she kissed him back, and both of them were eager and emotional and a little bit tired. She ended up slumped against his chest again, feeling like she might actually cry.

“Okay,” Rob murmured. “That’s good. That makes me feel better.”

“Me too.”

He stroked her back the way he’d done last night. “I know you were worried about a lot of things before. I know a lot of the problem was me, and it’s something I’m going to work on. I wouldn’t let myself be needy with you or open up if it made me feel out of control. I didn’t want to feel the way I’d felt in relationships before, but that meant I couldn’t do a real relationship at all. I’m not promising it will be fixed overnight, but I am going to change. I hope you know that.”

“I do. Thank you.”

“But there were other things you mentioned.” He paused. “You said you never intended to stay here in Fielding for long. Did you mean that?”

She felt a little pang—that everything in the world hadn’t been miraculously fixed. But the issues didn’t seem to be so monumental as they had before. “I…I wasn’t planning on it. Right now I don’t even know anymore. I don’t want to work at Dora’s for any longer than I have to. I do know that.”

“Well, of course not. I never expected you to. You’re taking classes again, so you can get a degree and get a better job. Right?”

“Right.”

His hand had grown still on her back, and she was sure he was going to say something about how there were plenty of job possibilities for her in the area. It wasn’t true, but he’d want to be encouraging.

When he finally spoke, it wasn’t at all what she’d expected. “You know, Charlotte isn’t very far away.”

“What?” she asked, lifting her head.

“Charlotte is only an hour or so away. If you want to work there, or if you end up managing to get your jewelry shop going, we could make it work. Or there’s Asheville, which is a decent size and even closer. We could live halfway between the city and here. Then neither of us would have to drive so far.” He gave her a quick, nervous look, evidently misreading her stunned expression. “I mean in the future, of course. Way in the future when we’re ready to make decisions like that. I just wanted you to know that you’re not trapped here, just because you’re with me.”

She was crying now, and it was absolutely ridiculous. She buried her face in his shoulder for a minute until the wave of emotion had passed. “You mean you’d actually be willing to move?” she gasped at last.

He lowered his eyebrows, clearly confused by her reaction. “Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t really want to live in the city. I would hate it like nobody’s business. But I’m not joined at the hip with this house or anything. Of course I would move, if it could get you closer to what you want.” His confusion was changing to a kind of bemused pleasure as he recognized her joyful expression. “Didn’t you know that?”

“I do now.” She pressed clumsy kisses against his mouth and chin.

He appeared to think this was a very good idea, because soon he was kissing her back. And then his hands were moving all over her body, and then he was taking off her clothes.

She was fumbling with his clothes too, but he was quicker. They were both so aroused and urgent and emotional at the moment that they couldn’t even be bothered with foreplay. As soon as Allison had freed his erection, he was positioning her over him, and she was lowering her hips to take him in.

He kissed her as they started to move, building a rhythm of fast, tight little pumps. Allison wasn’t sure she could come, but she loved it. Loved how he felt inside her, loved how he was already huffing in pleasure and an overflow of emotion. Loved how he was holding her bottom in his hands, guiding her motion. Loved how they both were in the same mood, needed the same thing from each other.

They didn’t last long. When she wasn’t making any strides toward coming, Rob shifted his arms so he could find and rub her clit. She gasped as the pleasure started to build, and soon she was riding him hard, reaching orgasm just as he lost control.

Both of them cried out with their release and then held each other tightly, panting in the aftermath.

“I love you,” Rob mumbled, still trying to press kisses against her hair.

She believed him, without question.

“I love you too.”

And she knew he believed her too.

A month later Allison was peeking again at the note Rob had left her on his napkin this morning.

He still came to eat at Dora’s on weekdays, and he’d never stopped giving her notes. This morning he’d written, I love the way you laugh, like it’s something secret. I love everything about you. R.

She wondered if anyone had ever had a better boyfriend than she had.

Not that he was perfect. They’d gotten into a stupid argument last night because she was reading over her assignment for class a second time. He’d told her it was an easy class and she could probably pass without reading it once. But she wanted to do the best she could in school, so she needed to really know it. So they’d argued over dinner and then gone to their separate corners until bedtime, when they’d both finally said they were sorry and got to have some makeup sex.

But overall, in general, she couldn’t imagine a better boyfriend than Rob.

“How many times are you going to read that today?” Chelle asked, coming over to stand beside her with a knowing smile.

Allison blushed slightly and stuck the note back into her pocket. “It hasn’t been that many.”

“If you say so.”

“I guess it’s silly,” Allison admitted. “But it makes me happy.”

Chelle’s expression changed. “That’s not silly. And you deserve some happiness. So does Rob. You both have had a hard time and deserve to be with someone good. So I’m happy for the two of you.”

“Thank you. I still can’t believe it’s really happening with him and that nothing serious is going wrong.”

“It’s the real deal. Anyone can see that. You know what comes next, don’t you?”

Allison gave Chelle a mock-stern look. “Don’t you dare start talking about that! It’s too early for it yet.”

“Maybe. But I’ve seen Rob’s face when he looks at you, and I guarantee that man already has a ring for you.”

Allison knew he had a ring. His mother’s ring. She was hoping that one day he would give it to her. She would say yes without hesitation.

But she hadn’t been lying to Chelle. She and Rob were still working out how to be together, despite all of their issues from the past.

They weren’t ready for marriage yet.

That evening she made dinner for Rob and his parents.

She’d wanted to spend more time with them, but she couldn’t always go up with Rob when he visited them once a week. Last Saturday she’d had a craft fair to attend—which had gone incredibly well and made her decide that she really needed a website—and the Saturday before she’d gone to visit Vicki.

So they’d invited his parents to dinner, and Allison was preparing the meal.

She made pasta and salad, and Rob bought bread and wine, and everything turned out just fine.

She really liked James and Tari, and not just because they were Rob’s parents. They were smart and funny and no-nonsense and had a huge number of stories to tell about their lives. After she served cookies and ice cream for dessert, they all went into the living room to sit.

She checked her phone quickly as they changed rooms and was glad to see a text from Cali. The girl was doing better. She hadn’t gone back to that boyfriend, and she seemed to be behaving better overall. The episode had evidently scared Dee, who was genuinely trying to be a somewhat decent mother. Allison didn’t know how long it would last, but at least it was encouraging for now.

While Rob was making his parents laugh about an annoying customer who had come into the store yesterday, Allison went to get something she’d found in the basement the other day.

“Where did you dig that thing up?” Rob asked, staring at the guitar she handed him.

“It was in the basement. Chelle’s husband tuned it up for you, so it’s all ready to go.”

“What am I supposed to do with it?” He was smiling, but his question appeared genuine, like he had no idea what she wanted him to do.

“Your mom mentioned that you used to sing a few hymns that she loved, so I thought you could play her some now.”

“Oh, I would love that. Please do,” Tari said with a smile.

Rob had drawn his brows together in a questioning look at Allison.

She gave a little shrug. “You seemed to enjoy it that night on my birthday. You might as well play a little for fun. I love to hear you.”

“We do too,” his mother added.

Rob sighed, looking sheepish in that way he had but also rather pleased.

It wasn’t a big gesture. It was just a little thing. His mother had told Allison that he’d played and sung all the time when he was married the first time, but he’d stopped after Marie had started cheating on him and he hadn’t picked up the guitar since. She assumed he had bad memories associated with it, and she wanted him to have new ones, better ones, now.

So Rob sang “Be Thou My Vision” and “It Is Well with My Soul,” and his mother was in tears at the end of it.

When he’d finished, he put the guitar back in its case and reached out to wrap his arm around Allison. He gave her a quick kiss, and she was sure he understood why she’d asked him to sing.

“You know,” Tari said with a smile, “your father wrote a song for me when we were courting.”

“He did not!” Rob replied, staring in surprise at his dad.

“Nah,” James said.

“He did too! He’ll never admit it, but I still know all the words. It was the most romantic thing.” Tari gave Rob a teasing smile. “You should considering doing something equally romantic for your young lady.”

“He already does,” Allison said, giggling when Rob gave her a warning poke. “You should see the notes he writes me every morning after breakfast.”

“Does he really?” His mother’s eyes were wide. “I never would have believed it. Love letters?”

“Not really. They’re just little notes on napkins. But I guess, put together, they have ended up as a love letter. I have them all, even the very first one he wrote me.”

Rob was groaning, exaggerating his displeasure at this discussion of his romantic habits, and James was chortling softly.

“Didn’t you think he was fresh,” Tari asked, “writing you a note like that when you didn’t even know him?”

Allison looked up at Rob. “I thought he was amazing—and that he had the kindest heart I’d ever known. I still do.”

Rob’s face softened, although he leaned down and whispered, “Don’t lay it on too thick. They’ll never believe it.”

After his parents left for the evening, they stood on the front step waving them off, and then Rob took her into his arms as soon as they walked inside.

“What are you doing?” she murmured, responding immediately to his touch.

“I’m loving you,” he replied, just a little thickly. “Is that all right?”

“It sounds good to me.”

He just held her in his arms, standing in the entryway of her house.

Eventually she looked up at him and smiled. “I saw Keith today in Dora’s. He said he still owes you a hundred bucks.”

“Would you tell him to shut up about that?”

“Well, you won the bet, didn’t you?”

“I won something a lot better than the bet.”

Allison had absolutely no objection to this sentiment, and she made it clear to Rob with a kiss.

So Rob spent the rest of the evening loving her, and it was like nothing Allison had ever dreamed of before she’d moved to this little town last year.

But, as it turned out, loving him back was what she’d wanted all along.