A pain unlike anything he’d ever experienced before pierced him. God, it hurt, to think of Joy being afraid . . . being alone. He covered his face with one hand. After a moment, he slowly lowered it.
“That’s why she left, isn’t it? She’s afraid to get too close to anyone. She’s afraid she’ll subject them to potential pain and . . .”
“Loss,” Seth said when he faded off. Everett turned and saw Seth’s gaze on him, cold and flinty. He felt the judgment in the other man’s stare. He returned the look unflinchingly.
“I’m in love with her,” Everett said.
“Jake was in love with Alice. Or so he said. Once.”
“Well, I’m not Jake,” Everett snarled. He started toward the path.
“Where are you going?” Seth asked.
“To Chicago.”
“Everett, wait.”
Everett almost didn’t stop—why should he? Seth had almost as much faith in him as Joy, but he wasn’t the one he had to convince. It was Joy to whom he wanted to prove himself. It was Joy he needed to see. At the last moment, however, he thought of how much Seth had endured and how much he loved Joy. He thought of how much Joy adored her uncle, and his feet came to an abrupt halt.
“What?” he said, not turning around.
“Joy begged me not to tell you any of this. I’ve broken my vow to her.”
Everett turned around slowly. Seth had stood and faced him.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t have complete faith that she’s telling the truth about this procedure she’s having done in Chicago. I think things could be worse than she’s letting on.”
“What makes you say that?”
Seth inhaled slowly and released it. “Because after she decided to move to Chicago and separate herself from me, I started to suspect that if she ever had a return of her cancer, if she ever had to go through treatment again, she would keep it from me.”
“You think it’s the main reason she moved to Chicago, don’t you?”
“So that she could live her life privately. Alone. Yes.”
“I won’t accept that,” Everett said. “Even if she doesn’t feel the same way about me as I do her, I won’t let someone I care about suffer alone like that.”
“I admire your steadfastness.”
“But you thinking I’m blowing hot air?” Everett challenged, taking a step toward Seth. A cool breeze caused the trees to quake and sigh and the water to ripple along the shore behind them.
“No, it’s not that,” Seth finally replied. “The fact is, there’s something about Joy that I didn’t understand until last night when we spoke after her exam.”
“What?” Everett demanded.
“It’s about Jake—Joy’s father. I always knew that Joy didn’t share my contempt for his leaving, or her mother’s heartbreak. Until last night, I’d just assumed Joy’s attitude toward her father was the understandable loyalty a child feels toward both of their parents.”
“She’s amazingly forgiving about the fact that her father abandoned them when her mom was so sick. It really struck me, her attitude.”
Seth nodded. “Last night, she got really emotional when I encouraged her to tell you about her history of cancer and why she was leaving Vulture’s Canyon.”
Everett stilled, realizing Seth was getting to the meat of things. “What did she say? Seth?” he prodded when the other man hesitated. Dread filled him. “Did she tell you she thought I couldn’t handle dealing with her being ill? She thinks I’m like her father, doesn’t she? A glory hound who only cares about himself?”
“No,” Seth said in a ringing tone that brought him up short. “A little part of her—the scared kid in her—is afraid that she’s like Jake.”
Everett blinked. “I don’t understand. How could she think that? You told me she walked every step of the way with her mother during her treatments . . . all the way until the end.”