Page 64 of The Promise Of Rain

“Jenny,” I growled, clear warning in my voice.“There will be honesty between us.”

She closed her eyes.“Not everything needs to be rehashed.I can’t, Deacon.Some things are better left unsaid.”

I pulled up to a stop sign and stared at her intently.

How could I go forward with secrets between us?

At this point, how could I not?

I was going against every single one of my instincts telling me to uncover the lies.

And asking her for the impossible.

While I’d moved on with other women, going so far as to get married, she’d remained alone.While I’d gone off to see the world and live out a dream, she stuck to Moose Lake, surrounded by people who assumed the worst of her.

And no matter how convincing the evidence was, I didn’t give her the benefit of the doubt.

Which made me as good as any one of them.

Worse.

Because she’d given me her heart.

All the times over the years I’d berated myself for my disbelief made sense.

Now.

I inhaled and calmed my heart rate.“They’re not your secrets?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong.I never cheated on you.I never wanted to.Everything that came between us had to do with other people.”

It didn’t escape my notice that she didn’t answer my question.“Do I need to ask again?”

“I won’t answer,” she whispered.

“Why?”I coaxed.“Do you think it will change my mind about you?”

A tear rolled down her cheek.“Yes.”

I jolted at the admission.“Is your secret the one that will make me change my mind about us?”

She shook her head.

I sighed.“I don’t like working in the dark, baby.”

She nodded but didn’t speak.

When we reached the old coffee shop just outside Peppergrove, I pulled into the lot and threw the truck into park before turning to face her.“Do you want this?”

She stared out the windshield, her chin trembling.“Your family will never accept me.”

I didn’t refute the possibility.If I wanted honesty from her, I needed to give it back.But the fact they might reject her infuriated me.

After leaving her on her own, it made some kind of cosmic justice that I might be the one to end up with no family.

“I don’t care,” I asserted fiercely.“You are my first priority.If my family won’t get on board, you’ll be my only priority.”

“You can’t walk away from your family,” she scoffed.