He reached his hand up to cup her face. “I wish I had a camera. I’d take a picture of you right now. You’re so fucking beautiful.”
“You don’t need a picture. I’ll always be here. I had plenty of pictures, but none of them replaced you.”
“Thank God you came home.”
“I was home the second I saw you.”
He had waited eighteen years for Sutton’s return—hard, agonizing years for both of them. He was going to make sure each year they spent together would replace the time of heartache they had spent apart. If they lived a thousand years, maybe, just maybe, it would be even.
Chapter 25
“Come another inch closer, you little motherfucker.”
Sutton took off running across the gravel driveway. Leaping up, she jumped onto Tate’s back. “Don’t you dare kill Brutus!”
“Woman, you know better than to startle a man when he has a gun in his hand!”
Her arms circled his neck. “Please, don’t kill him. He’s just trying to find a place to sleep. It’s cold, and he’s probably hungry.”
“Do you see how fat that bastard is?”
“He’s not the one scattering trash everywhere. I’ve been setting out a plate of scraps for him so he doesn’t need to scatter trash everywhere.” From Tate’s angry reaction, she should have kept the last part to herself.
“Dammit, why don’t you just open the door for him and invite him for dinner?”
Sutton settled her chin on Tate’s shoulder as they watched the fat possum waddle across the yard toward the trash can, arrogantly ignoring them. Her possum definitely wasn’t the smartest one in the woods.
A pine cone fell down from a tree a few feet, dropping onto the tin roof of the shed. Their eyes went up to the tree to see a raccoon sitting on a limb, watching them balefully. Everyone in the mountains knew that in the hierarchy of aggravating animals, a raccoon always ranked higher than a possum.
“I told you it wasn’t Brutus. Isn’t he cute?”
“No.” He turned with her on his back and headed toward the house.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m locking you in the house while I take care of those two little—”
“You better not hurt a hair on Brutus or—”
“I have a name for that raccoon … dead meat.”
He was almost to the house when a car pulled into the driveway, and Sutton instantly recognized the man and woman who got out.
“Put me down.” She didn’t wait, wiggling off his back to run into the house. Her shoe was on the first step when Tate caught her hand, making her come to stop.
“Sutton, they want to see you.”
She angrily jerked around to face him, feeling betrayed. “You knew?”
“I saw them in the grocery store last night. They want to make things right. Look at them, Sutton.” He gestured toward her parents. “I lost my parents without being able to say good-bye; I don’t want the same to happen to you.”
“I said my good-byes to them years ago,” Sutton cried out, brushing her tears away, her gaze caught by her mother’s.
She was crying so hard her shoulders were shaking as she wrung her hands at her waist. Her father stared at her steadily, his face a mask of pain.
She quit fighting against Tate’s hold when it struck her how old they looked. Her mother had aged with wrinkles and lines making deep grooves in her skin. She was dressed in a casual dress that she once would have claimed she was too young to wear. Her hair had gone from the lustrous brown to all grey.
Time hadn’t been any kinder to her father. His hair was just as grey, and the strong body he’d had when she had left was frail. Neither of her parents was well.
“Their grief is killing them, Sutton. It’s all there if you look. The police notified them when Scott kidnapped you. They found out they had a granddaughter the same day they found out she had died.”
“I can’t,” Sutton sobbed out.
“If you can’t, I’m not going to force you.” Tate released her hand, stepping back. “It has to be your choice to forgive them—I found that out the hard way with Rachel. I can’t blame them, because I would have done the same if my daughter was seeing a man like me.
“I tried to do what I thought was best for Rachel, and it backfired on me. Cash was nearly killed Sutton, and Rachel ran off. I didn’t know where she was for months. Just think, you’ve seen Cash and Rach together, how happy they are. I have a niece on the way now, and that all could have never happened because I interfered. I don’t think deep down Rachel will ever forgive me. I broke her trust. I only had to suffer a few months before Rachel came back home, and it was a year before I think she said she forgave me.