through something traumatic because of someone else,” she says. “When they’ve hurt you, but they refuse to really take responsibility for it.”
Her words echo deep inside that locked chamber in my heart, and I have to turn away so she won’t see the tears in my eyes.
“To be honest, I didn’t handle it very well,” she says. “Not at first. He acted like he couldn’t imagine he did anything wrong. Like hey, maybe we could go out again sometime and didn’t we have such a great night together? It made me sick to my stomach. Most of the time I tried to avoid him. If I saw him somewhere, I’d turn and go a different way. But when I did run into him, I just made sure to never let him see that he’d won, you know? I kept my head up, and I held it together. I didn’t want him to know he still had any power over me.”
I nod and wipe the back of my hand across my cheek.
“Hey, are you crying?” she asks. I hear the knife hit the cutting board, and seconds later she has her hands on my shoulders, spinning me around. “What’s going on, Joey? Are you alright?”
She pulls me closer and wraps her arms around me.
I can’t help but sob into her shoulder and hold tightly to her. “I’m going to be okay,” I say through my tears. “I know I probably sound crazy, but I really appreciate you talking to me about it.”
“You don’t sound crazy,” she says. “You sound scared. You can always come to me if you want to talk about it.”
I pull away and sniff, wiping the tears from my face.
“Thank you, Leigh Anne. I can’t believe I just cried all over your shirt,” I say with a choked laugh.
“It’s okay, really,” she says. “And I understand if you’re not ready to talk about what happened yet. I’ve so been there. But just know that I’m here, okay?”
I nod and take a deep breath. “Thank you.”
Outside, the sound of tires crunching on gravel catch my attention. I stand on my toes to see out the window above the sink, grateful when my father smiles and waves.
Chapter Ten
The food looks so amazing, it’s making my mouth water.
“You really cooked all this?” I say to Jo, amazed. “I had no idea you were such a chef.”
“Jo is the best cook in the state, I swear to God,” Leigh Anne says. “Just wait ‘til you taste these ribs.”
“Yeah, if she doesn’t give up the recipe to this homemade bbq sauce soon, I’m just going to ransack her house and come find it for myself,” Knox said.
“Come on now, you don’t think I’d be dumb enough to actually write it down, do you?” Jo lifts an eyebrow and stares Knox down as she sets a basket of bread on the table.
It’s a gorgeous day out and the leaves are all just starting to change colors, so the forest is lit up with bright reds and oranges. Penny and Mason arrived with Penny’s twin brother Preston and his girlfriend Jenna, so we have a full, happy group. We all sit down at the large picnic table Knox made and Rob offers to say a quick prayer.
“Dear Lord, thank you so much for this delicious food that my daughter has prepared for us. Thank you for the gift of such beautiful weather,” he says. “And most of all, we thank you for this time spent with friends and family. Amen.”
“Amen.”
“Colton, pass me your plate, and I’ll get you started with a slab of ribs,” Knox says.
“Thank you, sir.” I hand my plate over and Knox loads it up with ribs that are dripping with bbq sauce.
Jo is sitting across from me, and she takes a heaping spoonful of coleslaw and then passes the bowl over. I cannot wait to taste all this food. There’s corn on the cob fresh from the grill, homemade bread, baked beans, and I heard a rumor there was a chocolate cake for dessert.
“How come you’ve never talked about how much you like to cook?” I ask as we pass the food around the table.
Jo shrugs. “It’s never come up.”
I take my first bite of the ribs and my mouth explodes with flavor. The meat is so tender it falls off the bone.
I literally moan, it’s so good. “Oh, my Lord, that’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life.”
Jo giggles and tries to hide her face behind her hands.
“You’re