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“I was drinking a lot back then to cope with the end of my marriage,” Virginia admitted with an embarrassed look.
Reese closed the journal and scooted it across the table toward Virginia, who took it and then held it against her chest.
“Thank you for talking to us tonight,” Reese finally said but it sounded like there was a frog in her throat. “It’s really good to see you again.”
“Stop by anytime,” Virginia said, meeting them around the table. With her free arm, she embraced Reese in a quick hug. “She would be proud of you. You know that, right? You’re doing everything the two of you said you would. You’re successful in Dallas, organizing runway shows for designers. She was into art. You’re successful and Camree Lynn is bursting with pride somewhere.”
“It means a lot to hear you say that,” Reese said. The hitch in her throat said she was holding back. It probably shouldn’t surprise him that Reese had secrets. She’d kept a big one from him right up until she took off.
“I mean every word,” Virginia said as she walked them to the door. She put her hand on Darren’s shoulder. “If you ever want to talk...give me a call or come on by. I’d love to meet your girls someday.”
“Will do, ma’am,” he said.
Reese was quiet on the way to the SUV. He walked her to the passenger side with his hand on her elbow. Getting close to her was probably a bad idea on his part, but he could tell being in Camree Lynn’s house again, seeing her journal, had nearly knocked Reese on her backside.
After opening the door and offering a hand, he helped her with the big step up to the passenger seat. One look at her said the adrenaline rush she’d been running on had expired. He rounded the front of the SUV, and then reclaimed the driver’s seat.
It only took a few seconds to buckle up. He glanced over and noticed Reese wasn’t wearing hers.
“You might want to put your seat belt on or this thing will start griping at you,” he said, motioning toward the screen in his dash. Everything had technology in it now.
Reese stared ahead with a blank look on her face. “I recognized one of those names.”
Chapter Eleven
“Phillip Rhodes.” Reese involuntarily shivered after saying the name out loud. She buckled up so Darren could get on the road.
“The camp counselor?” Darren asked.
She nodded.
“He gave me the creeps. I even warned Camree Lynn about him. She seemed on the same page about avoiding the guy after he showed up in the barn and came on to me,” she explained.
“Why was he there in the first place?” he asked.
“Duncan hired him for seasonal work after the camp closed for the summer,” she said. “I’d forgotten all about him and the incident until Virginia brought him up again just now. I just wanted to block it out after it happened.”
“Did you tell the sheriff about him before?” Darren asked.
Reese shook her head. “There didn’t seem to be a reason to at the time. I mean, Camree Lynn didn’t want to be around him to my knowledge. I feel like she would have told me if that changed at some point.”
“Teenagers can be secretive,” he said.
She nodded. No one in the community knew what a jerk her grandfather was to his family. All of the Hayes kids had been trained to keep the secret even though Reese didn’t recall a particular conversation. It was ingrained in them not to discuss family matters outside of Hayes Ranch. Ranch hands were required to sign NDAs, so they legally couldn’t discuss anything that went on.
“What exactly did Phillip Rhodes do to you?” Darren asked as he white-knuckled the steering wheel.
The memory was so traumatic, she’d blocked it out. The details were coming back now, though, and they made her hands fist. “He cornered me in a stall, pushed me up against the wall and tried to force me to kiss him.”
“But you fought back,” he said.
“Hell, yes, I did,” she said. “He had grabby hands that were ridiculously strong. He pinned mine above my head easily.” She needed a second to breathe through the tightening in her chest at the horrific memory that she’d suppressed for so long. “I wasn’t going down willingly, so he dropped a hand and forced my face to be still.” Bile burned the back of her throat as she thought about it now. “I was young, so I panicked. I was somehow afraid the whole incident would be twisted around to become my fault. Duncan was so hard on us, especially the girls.”
“That son of a bitch,” Darren said under his breath. It was so low, she almost didn’t hear him. She had no idea if he was talking about Phillip or Duncan, but the label fit both, in her opinion. Phillip for being a jerk and Duncan for making her afraid to speak up.
More of the memory surfaced. “He licked my neck, which was disgusting, and then dropped his hand from my jaw and grabbed...” She didn’t need to go into detail. The thought of what he did alone made her cringe. “Thankfully, my brother Tiernan came walking into the barn. Phillip threatened me if I told on him, and I clamped my mouth shut while he pretended to be helping me clean out the stall.”
“Tiernan didn’t catch on to what was going on?” Darren asked.
