You Only (Cameron Farms Book 1) - Melanie Jayne Page 0,60

escaped and she turned and buried her face in his chest. “He begged for my forgiveness.” He heard her muffled words.

“As he should have.” He kissed to top of her head. God, he wished that Joe wasn’t dead so he could punch him.

She turned her head and rested her cheek against his chest. “He didn’t know what to do. I mean we can say, ‘Joe should have done this or that’, but he’d never dealt with mental illness. It wasn’t something that was discussed openly. It was a dirty secret.”

“You forgave him?” He knew the answer, but he had to ask.

“I did. I honestly believe that he did the best he could. He made mistakes but he loved her. It was terrible for him, too.” She sighed. “At the end, when he was getting close to dying, he was sort of fading in and out.” She paused to clear her throat. “He kept asking me to forgive him. He would cry and plead. The end was near and he was still worrying that I was carrying that with me.”

Finn felt like he had run a marathon. He was overwhelmed and exhausted. She had stopped talking and he couldn’t think of where to start or what to say. His brain and emotions were on overload. He just held her in his arms.

Minutes passed. Finally, she shifted away from him. “I should go, it’s getting late.”

He let her pull away and watched her stand. He stood also. “I’ll drive you home.” He wanted to pick her up and take her to his house and lock the door.

“I’ll be all right.” She ran her hand down his arm. “It sounds crazy, but I feel kinda energized. Like telling you all of that, made me better.” She gave him a brave smile, “But I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“You sure that you’re OK to drive?”

“Honestly, yes.” She held his hand as they began to walk toward where her SUV was parked.

“Call me when you get home.” He thought about following her to make sure she was safe.

“I’ll call when I turn in the drive.” She gave him a small smile as they stood beside the driver’s side door.

“I’d rather you called when you were naked in bed,” he teased, wanting to hear her laugh.

She moved into his body. “I know that was hard to hear, but thanks for listening.” She stood on her toes and his lips met hers.

“Drive safe, honey.” He watched her climb into the driver’s seat and continued standing in place as he watched the red taillights fade into the night.

He heard the Benton’s backdoor open and close, then footsteps on the deck.

“Want to come in for a drink or do you need to be alone?” Jasmine was wearing one of Izzy’s sweatshirts that hung to her knees.

“How much did you hear?” His voice sounded raw.

“I kept the others out of the kitchen, but I checked a couple of times on you two. I caught a little. I can guess the rest.” She ran her tongue over her lips nervously,

“I had no idea.” He felt like crying.

“I know. I knew that nobody had ever shared that with you.” She laid her hand on his arm, comforting him. “Change anything?”

“Jazz, it changes everything.” Their eyes met and she nodded a few times.

“I’m going to head home.” He wanted to be alone to process what he’d heard. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with all of this information. He really hadn’t known Hale at all. Christ, she’d been so brave even though she was terrified. Now so much about her made sense.

“Get some sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She kissed his cheek and walked to her back door.

He knew it would be a long time before he fell asleep.

Chapter Nine

October

“Goddamnit. This cannot be happening.” Hale slammed the chair back from her, jumped out of it, and started pacing around the room. “Christ, this sucks.” She glanced at the clock. It was four in the morning, too early to call Wes. Moe would understand her waking him, but there was little that could be done at this hour. She’d run the numbers multiple times and each time the outcome was the same. Over one hundred thousand dollars was missing.

This was going to be a huge problem for the department and Finn. Her concern was that the embezzlement had been going on for some time, and Wes didn’t catch it. That department’s budget and bookkeeping had many carryovers from