Shades of Truth

“That from a man who doesn’t want to see you hurt.” His words burrowed into her wounded heart and nestled there. She recalled his stricken expression when he’d knelt over her in the ditch. He’d feared the worst, and something told her he’d seen the worst before. And that the experience still haunted him. He looked at her now with a mixture of frustration and disappointment.

She dropped her gaze, fiddled with her shoelaces. “Take the next left to get to my street,” she said, loosening the laces pinching her swollen foot. She tried not to wince at the way it throbbed.

Ethan jerked the steering wheel right.

“Where are you going? I said turn left.”

“Not anywhere you’re going to be happy about.”