then rubbed her eyes.
“You were there with all those bodies? All alone?” Rose cupped her hands over her mouth. “Oh my God, Sage. I can’t imagine. The heat … the stench. What did you do?”
There simply weren’t words to describe it. In fact, she was fairly certain that she’d blocked a lot of the time out. So she simply said, “I waited. They finally came and, well, that’s my story, the source of my, well, weirdness.”
“It isn’t weirdness. You lived through something unspeakable. Something so horrible, I can’t even begin to wrap my brain around it. I’m so, so sorry.” Rose threw her arms around her sister and hugged her hard, then leaned back. “And you told this to Dad?”
Wearily, Sage nodded. “I did. He’s the only one I told.”
“And he reacted poorly. Shame on him. But after hearing this, I’m more certain than ever that he simply couldn’t handle the hurt he felt for you. Then before he could make it up to you, he had the stroke.”
“If you’re right and he was upset about me, maybe the extra stress …?”
“Absolutely not.” Rose shook her head. “His blood pressure was off the charts and had been for some time. He and I discussed it because his treatment regimen wasn’t proving effective, so don’t add that worry onto your shoulders. They already have enough to bear.”
Sage gave a little sigh of relief, and Rose continued, “This is the most horrible story I’ve ever heard. I’m so, so sorry you went through this, Sage. It’s no wonder you laid down your scalpel and picked up a paintbrush. I’m amazed you came out of that village able to speak a coherent sentence. Going through what you went through would have driven me insane.”
“I’m not mentally healthy.”
“Maybe not entirely, but you’re getting there. I think you took a great big step here today.” Rose gave her sister another hug, then looked from Sage to Colt and back to Sage once more. “Now, I think I’ll mosey back to Angel’s Rest. I have a chapter to finish, and you two need to talk. Colt, you can find your own ride back to town, right?”
Continuing to stare blindly out at the water, Colt nodded. His voice sounded scratchy and rough when he replied, “Thanks, Rose.”
Sage stole a glance at Colt, then said, “I’ll walk you to your car.”
Once the sisters were out of earshot of Colt, Sage asked, “Well, what did you have to promise him to convince him to come?”
“Nothing at all. He acted like he wanted to talk to you.”
Glum, Sage kicked at a stone. “Probably can’t wait to call things off between us.”
“Now your self-pity is showing. Stop it. It’s unattractive.”
“It’s not self-pity. It’s sadness. I can’t be the woman he needs and deserves.”
“Sure you can,” Rose scolded. “You took a big step forward just now. You are healing, little sister. Slowly but surely. I am so proud of you. I admire you so much.”
“I love you, Rose.”
“I love you, too. And so does that man down by the lake. Have faith in him, Goober, and in yourself.”
Sage sighed and smiled. “Are you ever going to quit calling me that stupid name?”
She is an amazing woman. Colt was shaken down to his core. Poor, poor Cinnamon. He’d known that whatever had her spooked was bad, but he’d never guessed it would be this horrific. And here he’d been pushing her into therapy. Who would want to talk about that? Who would want to remember it? No wonder she painted nightmares. She’d lived them.
He needed to move, to run, to exorcise the anger and the images her words had placed into his brain. His gaze landed on the rowboat tied at the end of their pier. That’d do. A minute later, he’d loosened the line, manned the oars, and headed out.
He rowed hard and long, digging the oars into the water, wishing the ungainly rowboat was a slim skiff that he could send skimming across the lake. As it was, he got the boat going a decent enough speed. Most important, he drained himself of the sharp edge of his anger. He could probably talk to Sage now without erupting like an idiot.
He was still furious, and if he could transport himself to Africa and stab this Ntaganda guy through the heart, he’d do it in an instant.
The world could be an evil place with evil people doing evil things. To think that gentle, tender-hearted Sage witnessed something like that, lived through something