Oh.
Crap.
“That’s not until February, though, right?”
“Which is next week, Squirt. We leave in five days.”
Shit.
“You know what, it doesn’t matter. When will you get here? Thursday?”
It was Saturday now. It wasn’t going to take her until Thursday to get there unless she drove like a snail. Which is no doubt what he wanted her to do.
“I can’t believe it’s February next week.” How had she let that slip her mind?
“It’s all right,” he said soothingly. “We’ll postpone the trip. It’s fine.”
Fine? No, that wasn’t acceptable. It was their first big trip as a family. And they were taking the kids to the theme parks in California.
It was something they’d planned for ages. How could she have forgotten? She’d even given all the kids money to spend on vacation for Christmas.
Idiot.
It was all Cash’s fault. She’d been so busy worrying about him that she’d forgotten about everything else.
“You’re going on the trip,” she said firmly. “I’ll just stay for a few days.”
“You’re not traveling all this way, staying a couple of nights, then driving back.”
“Why not? That might be all I can handle.”
“Greer . . . no. We’ll go another time.”
“You will not,” she said fiercely. “You’re not going to disappoint those boys because of me.”
They’d had a hard life and they deserved to go have some fun, and she wasn’t going to stand in their way.
“Go on your trip. I’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, not happening. I’m going to be hours away while you’ll be here for the first time in years. In the place where . . .”
“I was beaten and r-raped?” It was so hard to get those words out. Her instinct was to deny it. To try and pretend it didn’t happen.
But she’d worked past this.
It did happen.
And she couldn’t ignore it. Because if she tried to do that . . . well, it just made everything build up inside her. And then she might do something she’d regret.
She had the scars as proof of that.
“I’ll stay. Livvy and the boys will go.”
“You won’t let Livvy and the boys leave the state without you.” That was something she knew for sure.
“Fuck. No, I won’t.”
“Idiot,” she muttered.