Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
“Sonny—”
His fingers flexed around her thighs.
Gracen laughed, and slapped his hands. “Be nice.”
“I’m trying. It’s an involuntary reaction to a name I’ve never really liked.”
“Just listen.”
Malachi tipped his chin up. “Okay, I am. Sonny, what?”
“I didn't ask for details, but some of the things he said made it seem like his fiancée’s father makes things hard just because he can. If someone saw us on the walk, and passed the message along, would that be a problem?”
“Frankie Beau can make anything into a problem if it suits his needs,” Malachi said honestly. “No doubt, there’s a passage he’ll find in the bible to make it into truth for anyone who says anything different, too.”
Gracen scowled. He could still see her guilt swimming behind her eyes.
“If it was because of the walk with Sonny,” Malachi added, “it’s really not your fault, babe. I got the impression Sonny knew what he walked into with my sister and her family.”
It wasn't his anymore.
He wanted the distinction clear.
“The best thing any one of us can do when it comes to that church and its people is to leave them be,” he murmured.
Gracen let out a hard breath. “How does that help, though?”
“Well, if everything is exactly as everybody wants it to be, then you don’t have to worry about what someone might do otherwise, right?”
Her brow knotted at the question. “That’s how that pastor gets away with everything. He bullies and—”
“I know,” Malachi interjected.
Better than anyone, he opted not to say.
He didn’t need to.
“It doesn’t change the fact that you can’t help those who don’t want it, and you can’t fix what’s not broken,” Malachi explained. “If someone from the church has put in place rules and Delaney’s cousin or my sister follows along, there’s nothing anyone can do.”
“What about when someone wants out?” she asked. “Or when the intimidation turns into something else?”
On the back of his mind, the burnt pizza joint and his once-friend’s apartment came to the forefront, but Malachi pushed the red flag back down. He simply saw the warning for what it was.
“Listen,” he told her, standing up but not before dropping a quick kiss to her forehead and then the tip of her nose. “There’s not a lot you can do, so if Delaney’s fine with keeping a distance because she was told to, that’s what you should let her do. It’s better for everyone involved.”
Malachi shrugged, adding, “Including you, babe.”
“I don’t like it, though,” she insisted.
Well, what could they do?
“You don’t have to,” he muttered, turning away for his bag again.
As he dug through it, Gracen asked, “What are you doing?”
“Looking for the bike keys. I tossed them in here before I jumped in the shower.”
“The bike is fine.”
“I’m gonna move it to the backyard,” he said, giving her a look over his shoulder. “If you don’t mind.”
“I mean, there’s a fence door that opens to the back. The bike could fit through it. I don’t care if you park it back there.”
Good to know.
“That’s where it’ll go, then,” Malachi told her.
“But why?”
Aha.
The keys had fallen to the bottom of the bag. He produced the keyring for Gracen to see, but she didn’t seem all that impressed by the sight. Probably because she figured out exactly why he intended to park the bike in the back.
“You’re worried somebody from the church might see it,” Gracen whispered. “You don’t think anybody would make an issue with you being here, right?”
“I’m just thinking ahead, babe. Trying not to add to any other problems already going on, you know? The last thing I want to do is make issues.”
It wasn't a big deal.
He didn’t want her to worry.
Her expression said too late.
Chapter 27
“You don’t have to do this.”
Gracen’s comment finally tore Malachi out of his head. He snapped up in the passenger seat, no longer intent on twisting the ear loops of the blue medical face mask like he’d done from the second she pulled into the manor’s long, winding drive.
“I’d like to meet your grandmother,” Malachi said. “I want to.”
“You just seem ...” Gracen trailed off and gestured at the mask now hanging from his thumb. “Distracted, I guess. I parked a minute ago.”
Malachi glanced out the window, noticing the surroundings had come to a standstill with the engine of the car turned off. He’d not stopped fidgeting with the mask when she had taken out the keys from the ignition, either.
“It’s fine,” Gracen told him, but it took effort to hide her hurt. It wasn’t okay at all. “I didn’t bring up a visit with her, and not everybody is comfortable coming to the manor, so—”
She’d grabbed the car keys from her lap and extended them across the middle console for him to take, ready to tell Malachi he could drive himself back down the hill. She could call when her visit with Mimi ended to get a ride.