High Bluffs (High Bluffs Trilogy: Book One) by Sally Royer-Derr

Author:Sally Royer-Derr [Royer-Derr, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

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Joanna clicked off the TV when Rick’s motorcycle roared in the driveway. Jilly had gone to bed about an hour ago, leaving Joanna to stew about Simon’s words. She stared at the now-blank TV screen, still wondering about what had happened in Rick’s teenage years and if he had a history of violence she didn’t know about. Not that it really mattered. Everyone had some kind of secret from their past. He’d been just a kid back then. Kids easily fall into trouble. It was likely a circumstance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The whole situation was hard for her to imagine, knowing Rick as she did now. Simon had gone as far as showing her a copy of the police report in which Rick had been arrested for assault. The injuries Rick had inflicted on the other guy were substantial in the assault charge. But one could rarely see the whole picture of a situation from only one simple piece of the puzzle. A reason must exist for this assault. He had to be protecting himself or someone else. I know it is true, but what were the circumstances? There has to be a good explanation why he attacked that other guy.

“Hey!” she greeted him at the door. He smelled sweet, like cinnamon and powdered sugar. She sniffed his neck. “Mmmm, you smell yummy. Working in the bakery tonight?”

“Yeah, they were short, so I helped out.” He kissed her. “What were you doing?”

“Just watching TV.”

He took off his coat, and they sat on the couch. He grabbed the remote, but Joanna took it away from him.

“Let’s talk a little,” she said.

“Okay.” He looked at her. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Simon stopped by today and told me some things I wanted to ask you about.”

He grimaced at the mention of Simon’s name. She’d always known the two men did not care for one another. Seeing how they reacted even to each other’s name was a dead giveaway of the negative feelings between them. “Joanna, you can ask me anything.”

“Were you charged with assault and hospitalized for depression?” She touched his arm. “It doesn’t matter to me, I just want to know what happened from you.”

“Yes, both of those things are true.” He sighed. “When my mom died, I went through a bad phase. I mean really bad, Joanna. I didn’t care about anything I used to and I just didn’t want to be around here anymore. Everything seemed so pointless, and I had no idea of what to do in my life. I started hanging with a rough group in Portland. My cousin lives there, and I would visit him a lot. This group had so many distractions, and distractions were exactly what I was searching for at that time. Through these friends I met a girl who I started seeing. This girl had an abusive ex-boyfriend who wasn’t over her.”

Joanna nodded. I knew there was a sensible reason for what happened.

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