Chapter 39

Lying on her side, she curled against the base of the oak and tried to cover herself, the sexy knee-high split in her skirt suddenly annoying. She pulled at as if there might be enough fabric for cover but, of course, there wasn’t. Skin was everywhere.

A squirrel chattered high above her, intruding when she knew he was complaining about her encroachment. She looked up to find his tail flicking, little hands pleading, and she began to cry and hated him for making her do it, yet when he leaped to another branch and hurried away, she cried all the harder. She was asleep, cheek in the dirt, when Harley found her. “How ya doing?” he asked, brushing her face with a nearly indiscernible touch as she turned to him. She had no answer.

“Nobody knew,” he said, settling beside her.

“I knew.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

She flared. “So it’s all right to crash and burn?”

“It’s gonna happen. How you handle it is what’s important.”

“Youhandled it. I just…”