She felt her breath start to quicken and closed her eyes.
But then he was prodding the back of her head and even though he was being gentle, it hurt.
“Sorry.” He came back and sat in front of her, putting the cold pack to her head. “It doesn’t look too bad. There’s no blood.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” she said, wanting to downplay it. Her back felt like it was bruised and might even have some scrapes from the gravel. “Is the boy okay? That was Nicholas, right?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure. Could have been Mark. They look the same to me.”
She laughed. It was true. Both boys had beautiful big curls and a creamy colored light brown skin with big green eyes. Although if she was remembering right, Nicholas was the one who was a lot more likely to run away from the group like that. Mark seemed to stay glued to his mom’s side.
The van door opened and Bethany and Callie poked their heads inside.
“We heard what happened,” Bethany said. “That was incredible.”
“We should tell the newspaper,” Callie said excitedly. “They could do a human-interest story on it. You could be famous.”
Joy’s stomach pitched at the mention of that kind of attention. She shook her head, getting even sicker with the motion, but not caring.
“No,” was all she got out.
Kaeden took over. “We’re not calling the newspaper. None of us wants that kind of interruption to the retreat,” he said and Joy felt a little bad that he was sounding so stern with the young women.
“Oh,” they said in near unison.
“I guess not,” Bethany said, looking at Callie.
Joy started to panic. If the girls ignored him, things could go very badly for her. All she could think was if someone got a video of that, it could be all over the place in a heartbeat.
Surely not. It had happened so quickly and been over in seconds. There was no way anyone could get a phone out and open the camera.
Unless they were already filming.
Kaeden looked back at her and then back to the women. “I’m counting on you two to make sure no one gets any ideas about making this public.”
They nodded in unison, solemn now, and then murmured apologies as they closed the van door.
Joy pulled the ice pack off her head. “Thank you. Sorry about that. I just don’t like attention.”
He nodded and sat back down next to her. “I get it.”
She hoped not. She knew he was already suspicious of her and she’d probably just made more of that than a normal person would have, but she didn’t want to take a chance on her picture being put online or anything.
God what she wouldn’t give to have a normal life again.
“You feeling up to coming on the hike this afternoon?”
She had to admit, she wanted to go. She fought a smile. “Sure. I’ll be there.”
What she really wanted to do was jump up and says yes and ask if he’d hold her hand. Okay, not really, but that was the feeling she got at his question. That kind of excited bouncy feeling in your belly that you got back in high school when the boy you had a crush on talked to you in the hall.
He stretched his legs out into the center aisle of the van. “So are all our activities keeping you from other things this week? Or someone else you usually hang out with?”
She shook her head. Her heart shouldn’t be kicking into gear at the fact he seemed to be hinting around for any news of a boyfriend. Surely he had to know she wouldn’t have slept with him if she was involved with someone else.
But maybe he didn’t know that. Maybe that was what she sensed in his past. Maybe a girlfriend who cheated on him and taught him this utter lack of trust.
No, the way he was about holding himself at arm’s length with people couldn’t come simply from a bad breakup or a cheating woman. This was more.