He ran his thumb over her cheek. “You are so beautiful.”
She stared up at him in shock when she realized she felt beautiful when she was with him.
****
“Are you a virgin?” Gage asked suddenly.
She felt her face heat and guessed she was bright red. “I…” she stammered.
“It’s all right, sweetheart. I don’t mean to embarrass you, but I have to know. The last thing I want to do is hurt you.”
Brylee shook her head. “I … no, I don’t think so.”
“Sweetheart, you have to know if you lost your virginity.”
“I … I was moved out of the house that Larkin and I stayed at. I’m not sure why they moved me. Tommy, he was a foster kid that lived at the house they put me in. One night, he stuck his thing in me, and it hurt really bad, and I screamed. The foster father pulled Tommy off me. I heard him later say there was blood, and that means I’m probably not a virgin.”
Gage felt a rage build in him. “How old were you, sweetheart?”
“I think twelve or thirteen.”
“How old are you now?”
“Larkin and I think we’re either twenty-three or four.”
“You don’t know?” Gage asked.
Brylee shook her head. “No, neither of us have birth certificates. We made our birthdays together because we like to think we’re twins.”
Gage smoothed the hair from her face. “When is your birthday, sweetheart?”
“We decided on June twenty-fifth because it’s exactly six months from Christmas.”
“That’s a good day,” Gage told her.
Brylee grinned up at him.
“What happened to Tommy?”
Brylee bit her lip. “They moved him to another house. Not long after that, I was moved back to the house Larkin was at.”
“Did they take you to the doctor?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“He didn’t get in any trouble?”
She shrugged. “I don’t think so.”
Gage tightened his arms around her and set his chin on the top of her head. “I’m so sorry you went through that.”
“It’s okay. I was moved back to the house Larkin was at, so I was happy.”
Gage wished he could get his hands on the kid who hurt her and the foster parents who hadn’t done anything for her. “Have you talked about this with anyone?”
She shook her head. “No, not even Larkin.”
“Why?”