Chapter Four
Sunny woke to fingers running through her hair and no idea what had happened. She yanked away, nothing working quite right.
“It’s me,” shouted a voice she recognized even through the blind panic.
She paused, blinking as the room came into view, as she found herself in the familiarity of her office.
In front of her was Gracey, another worker at the shelter, her blue eyes wide.
“I found you on the ground,” Gracey said, her voice full of unshed tears. “What happened? Are you okay?”
The call came back to Sunny.
Despite the fear, though, the immediate crisis being over let her breathe. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I got a call.” It sounded sostupidwhen she said it out loud. “I just panicked, I guess.”
Gracey let out a long breath, as if that was an answer she understood and could accept. Then again, panic attacks were a normal occurrence around here.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Gracey said, that hesitation saying she’d donesomething.
“Okay…”
“I called the landscaping number…”
Sunny held in a curse, not wanting the poor girl to feel worse. “You didn’t need to do that.”
“I didn’t know what else to do. You’re the one who always tells me how to handle this stuff!”
Sunny used the desk to get herself to her feet, glad to find they held her. “It’s okay. I’m not mad. What did they say?”
“They’re sending someone over to check. I didn’t know if someone had broken in here or poisoned you or…” Gracey’s bottom lip trembled.
Sunny sighed, tugging Gracey to her feet and into a tight hug. The girl was a sweetheart, too fragile for what she’d been through. She didn’t withstand the blows of her past but molded from them, changed into something new and dented. “I’m okay—I promise.”
“We can’t do this without you,” Gracey said.
“That’s not true. This place was here before me—it’ll be here after me, too.”
Gracey went to argue, but Sunny stood straight, trying to show her how to pull oneself back together. Everyone lost it sometimes, and the past became too much.
But after that?
The only choice was to lift her chin and keep going. It was a lesson Gracey needed, the girl still too fragile, too willing to crumble and freeze.
“This place is more than me. It’s every woman who comes through those doors, and we all leave a mark. Eventually, I’ll be gone, but this place?” Sunny held her hand out. “This place will stay. Now, will you go check on everyone? Make sure no one else saw what happened, and if they did, make sure they’re okay?”
“You’re going to wait here?”
Sunny nodded. Thelandscaperswould arrive soon. Since she’d been the reason they were coming out, they’d demand to see her, to know she was okay, which left her holding the ball.
She took a seat at her desk, busying herself with paperwork, scolding herself for letting her paranoia get the best of her.
A few minutes later, a buzz from the doorbell filled her office.
She rose, left her office, then went to the intercom by the entryway. “Hello?”
“It’s us,” came a rough, masculine voice. “We got a call?”
Sunny hit the button to open the outer door, and on the camera, in walked a man who she’d seen from a distance a time or two. Huge, with his blond hair back in a bun behind his head. He wore a pair of faded jeans and an old shirt with a band name on it that had seen better days.