“We don’t have to make bracelets if you don’t want to,” Sunny said to her. She was a gorgeous woman with dark-blonde hair and a sweet smile. “We can do something else. Watch TV. Or I brought other things to do. I wasn’t sure what you enjoyed. Oh, I also got you this.” She held out a small tablet. “It’s an eReader. Do you like to read? It’s all right if you don’t, I just thought you might get bored in here.”
“I like to read. I used to have access to the library at Forrest’s house.”
“I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through. That horrible man making you do things by threatening your sons. I’d like to get my hands on him.”
Sunny sounded so fierce that Betsy found herself smiling. Ink was right. She did like Sunny. And it was clear Duke adored her. He’d given her a lingering kiss goodbye, with his hand wrapped around the back of her neck in a clear mark of possession.
It had given Betsy goosebumps. And the way he’d looked at her…as though she was his whole world…it was magical.
She wanted that.
You can have it with Ink…look at everything he’s done for you already.
It was scary though. Letting herself fall in deep with someone. But she’d already given him so much. That last piece shouldn’t be hard, right?
“I could show you some of the books I like. They are…well…” Sunny trailed off, looking uncomfortable.
She was making a complete mess of this. Here was this kind woman trying to help her and Betsy could barely speak.
“I’m really sorry,” she told Sunny. She ran her hands down her thighs. “I’m out of practice at talking to people. I haven’t had another woman to talk to in…well, there was a girl at the…umm…club where I met Ink.”
“Another Little?” Sunny asked quietly.
“Yeah. But that was different. I seem to find it easier to talk to people when I’m Little.” In fact, it was hard to switch to being Big this morning before Sunny and Duke arrived.
“I get it,” Sunny said gently. “I did bring something else for us to do, if you’d like.”
“What’s that?”
Sunny reached into her bag and gave Betsy a shy look before unrolling a large piece of paper. On it a field of sunflowers had been sketched out along with a sunset in the background.
“Duke drew it for me to color in. Would you like to help?”
“Wow, it’s gorgeous. I’d love to.”
Sunny gave her a warm smile. “I know you don’t like people touching you, Ink warned us. But if you ever want a hug, I’m here. I know you’ve been through a lot, Betsy.”
“Ink said that you know about how we met and about Forrest.”
Sunny gave her a sympathetic smile. “Yeah, I do. I can’t imagine what your life has been like, but you’re safe now. They’re safe. Ink’s a good guy, Betsy. He’ll take care of you.”
“I’m not sure that I’m good enough for him,” she whispered the awful thought that had been circling inside her head.
She’d been so focused on getting the boys safe, on getting out from under Forrest’s clutches that she hadn’t thought too much about the future. But now she as wondering if she deserved to be happy.
“Betsy, that’s not true.” Sunny reached out hesitantly and squeezed her hand.
“He’s a good guy. He could have left me with Forrest and just walked away. I know I hurt him by deceiving him but he forgave me.”
“Because you didn’t have a choice.”
“But I still feel so terrible.”
Sunny bit her lip, studying her closely. “I have a suggestion for getting rid of your guilt, but I’m not sure how you’ll feel about it.”
“What is it?” she asked, willing to entertain any idea.
“Well, normally I’d be all for doing whatever you needed to in order to get out of punishment. Not that anything seems to work with these daddies.”