“Haven’t the faintest idea. Any suggestions?”
“Actually, I do.”
His words took her by surprise and that didn’t happen very often. “Where?” she asked, a breathless quality to her voice, her mouth and throat still so parched she felt she’d eaten a bowl of cotton for lunch.
“My aunt’s. She has extended an invitation for you to stay with her.”
“Why? She doesn’t know me.”
“I asked her to.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want you to be alone right now.”
“Do you think I’m helpless?”
“No.”
“Do you think I’m in danger?”
“It’s a possibility and my aunt can certainly take care of you.”
“Is she with the police?”
“She’s retired from the army, but her last job was teaching people how to defend themselves.”
When he had said retired, a vision of a woman in her sixties or seventies, white haired, bent over, popped into Emma’s mind. Even if his aunt had taught self-defense and had been in the army, she was hardly someone who could take care of her. “How old is she?”
“Forty-six.”
“And she’s retired?”
“Only from the army. She writes children’s books now.”
Conflicting images flowed through her mind—none of them of someone who she thought could protect her. “If your aunt’s forty-six, how old are you? Twenty?”
“Thirty-six, so she’s more like a big sister than an aunt, and she won’t let me call her Aunt Grace. Just Grace.”
His answer sent relief through her and she wasn’t sure why. “I still don’t understand how a stranger would want to help me.”
“You’ll understand when you meet Grace. My daughters practically live over at her house. They think she’s cool.”
“Daughters? You’re married?” Of course, he would be. Why would she think otherwise and why had she bothered to ask?
“My wife died four years ago. I have fifteen-year-old twins who have tested this father’s patience on more than one occasion.”
Exasperation roughened his voice, masking his Southern drawl. Emma laughed. “That’s what teenage girls are put on this earth for.”
“To test fathers’ patience?”
“To be exasperating.” Memories of her own father, absent from her teenage years, flooded her mind and all laughter faded.
“Then they have fulfilled their calling. So what do you say? Want to spend some time in Crystal Springs recovering?”
Thinking about the blank pages of her mind chilled her to the marrow of her bones. Whom should she trust?
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