Mindy, I think you did a superb job with the baked beans.” Judy wiped her mouth on her napkin and laid it on the side of her empty dinner plate. “And the hamburgers were great, Slade. Grilled to perfection.”
“Yes—Dad-dy.” Mindy finished off her chocolate milk.
Slade pointed to his mouth and waited until his daughter had used her napkin to clean hers before saying, “With compliments like that, I could get used to cooking.”
Judy rose and began taking the dishes to the sink. “My contribution to this dinner is to clean up.”
“I’ll help.” Tory stacked several plates on top of each other.
“While you two are doing that, Mindy and I will take a walk down to the barn. I wanted to check out how the painters are coming along.”
Tory put the plates into the sink. “If it doesn’t rain, I think they’ll get finished by the wedding.”
When Slade and Mindy left the kitchen, Judy brought a platter and bowl over to the counter. “She’s every bit as cute as you said.”
“And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’?” her sister asked, again that innocent expression on her face.
“I know you, Judy. Is Mom watching the kids so you could come early and pump me for information?”
“Why, Victoria Alexander, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Brad—”
“You haven’t suddenly changed. You’re dying to know what in the world has gotten into me. Don’t deny it.”
Judy placed one fisted hand on her waist. “Okay. I’ll admit Mom and I were curious.”
Tory barked a laugh. “Merely curious?”
“You weren’t even dating anyone the last time I talked to you, what, a week before you made this grand announcement that you were getting married. What’s going on?”
“I’ve known Slade for some time. I don’t tell you and Mom everything.”
Judy’s expression sobered. “Have you told Slade everything? Does he know what happened?”
Chapter Six
Tory started rinsing the dishes off to put into the dishwasher, but her hands shook so badly she nearly dropped a plate. Judy reached around her and turned the water off.
“Tory, you can’t keep running from the truth.”
A band about Tory’s chest tautened, constricting the air in her lungs. She drew in a deep breath, then blew it out through pursed lips. Once. Twice. Still she felt as though she were suffocating. Clasping her wet hands together to still their trembling, she closed her eyes, wishing she could block the world out as easily as flipping off a switch. Life wasn’t like that. She’d learned that painfully. There were times she felt as though she were running as fast as she could and going nowhere.
She focused on the feel of Judy’s arms around her as she said, “The truth? You don’t think I’ve faced it? I have every day for the past four years. As much as I want to forget, I can’t. I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve tried.” Tears, from the depth of her bruised soul, filled her eyes and coursed down her cheeks.
“Does Slade know about you being raped?”
The question struck Tory with the force of a sledgehammer. Even though she didn’t move, she felt as though she had been knocked back against a brick wall. “No, I don’t see why I should share my past with him. It’s in my past. It has nothing to do with my future.” Shame and humiliation nibbled at the edges of her mind. She shut down, refusing them entry.
Judy’s arm tightened about Tory. “Who are you trying to kid? Our past has everything to do with our future.”
Tory wrenched herself from her big sister’s embrace and put several feet between them, anger surging to the surface. “If I tell Slade, it will be when I want to.”
Judy held up her hands. “I agree, Tory. I won’t say a word to him. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think he has a right to know.”
“Why? Because you think I’m tainted?” She remembered the looks she’d gotten, the whispers behind her back after she’d brought charges against Brandon Clayton. Cold fingers spread out from her heart to encompass her whole body. She’d felt as if she were the one who had done something wrong, not Brandon.
Horror replaced the concern in her sister’s expression. “No! Never! You know better than to say that. Who held you when you came home that night? Who wept with you? Took you to the hospital? Stood by you through the trial?”
“Why are you doing this now, right before my wedding?”
Judy covered the short distance and clasped Tory’s upper arms. “Because I’m worried about you. Because I want you to be happy. And if that means with Slade, then great. But I know a marriage must be based on the truth.”
“I haven’t lied to him.”
“But you aren’t telling him everything.”
“I doubt I know everything about him. Who does until they have lived with someone for years, if even then?”
“That’s a cop-out, Tory.”
“No, what I’m doing is what I must do to survive.” Tory yanked away from Judy, sucking in deep breaths of air, her heart pounding against her chest.
“Survive? You—”
The sound of Mindy’s and Slade’s voices drifted to Tory. The slam of the front door followed by footsteps nearing the kitchen prompted Tory to swipe her hands across her cheeks. She spun about, her back to the entrance while she tried to compose her shattered nerves.
She wasn’t the same person she’d been four years ago. She had a right to put that life behind her and move forward. To forget the pain. To grasp on to what happiness she could.
“Tor-ee, I—heard—the ani-mal under—the—house—a-gain.”
Forcing a smile, Tory turned toward Mindy. “You did? She must be making her home there.”
“Yep. I—showed—Dad-dy.”
The questioning probe of Slade’s gaze skimmed over her features. Tory concentrated her attention on the little girl, praying he couldn’t see beneath her false facade. “Was everything all right at the barn?”
Mindy nodded. “You—aren’t—done?” She glanced at the dishes still stacked at the side of the sink.
“Nope. Judy and I got to catching up and forgot to work.”
“I—can—help.”
Tory clasped her shoulders, wanting to drag the child against her and hold on to her forever. “You’ve done enough. I don’t want to tire my best worker out.”
“Besides,
