Page 123 of When Love Takes Root

I nodded once. “Blue lights.”

“Oh, Josiah.”

“I wasn’t worried at first. I had my license. I wasn’t speeding. I was irritated more than scared.” My hand tightened around the edge of the counter. “Then they searched the car.”

Her voice went quiet. “What was in it?”

“Enough.”

She closed her eyes for a second.

“It wasn’t mine. I didn’t know it was there. But I was the one behind the wheel. I was the one with the keys in my hand. I was the one standing on the side of the road while officers pulled somebody else’s choices out of a car I had no business driving.”

Celeste whispered, “Did Zeke know?”

That question sat between us for a long moment.

“I asked myself that for years.”

She didn’t move.

“I know what he told me. I know what I wanted to believe. I know what the lawyer said we could argue. And I know what my family looked like when his name came up in that courtroom.” I looked back at her. “That’s where loyalty got ugly. It wasn’t just the car. It was the silence after. It was everybody scared of what truth might cost. It was me thinking I could carry it because I was young and strong, and nobody had taught me yet that strong people can still be used.”

Her hand went to her chest. “You did time for it?”

“Three years.”

Her mouth parted. “Three years?”

I nodded. “Three years.”

“For an errand?”

“For possession. For being in the wrong car with the wrong last name and too much loyalty sitting in my throat.”

A tear slipped down her cheek before she could stop it.

I shook my head. “You don’t have to hide that.”

She whispered, “I hate that happened to you.”

“I hated it too.”

“And Zeke?”

I breathed through my nose. “Zeke had to live with what his mess cost me. Whether he knew exactly what was in that car or not, he knew the life he was close to. He knew what could happen when you let dirty things sit too near clean people.”

Celeste wiped her cheek. “Do you still love him?”

“I do.”

“How?”

“With boundaries. With truth. With forgiveness that doesn’t pretend nothing happened.” I leaned back against the counter. “He had to earn his way back into my life. He did. Not with speeches. With years.”

She nodded slowly, tears still bright. “That’s why you’re so careful.”

“It’s part of it.”