The thought of the reverend forcing a small, defenseless Grace to lie beneath him evoked a white-hot anger.
Pressing his thumb and finger into his closed eyes, Kennedy attempted to blot out the vision. It was making him nauseous. Nothing could stop him from feeling Grace’s fear and helplessness as an innocent child, the guilt and self-loathing she seemed to feel as an adult. What he now believed explained so much, didn’t it?
He understood why Grace had acted out in a sexual manner during high school. He’d heard that was common with people who’d been molested as children. He also understood why she’d been so desperate for attention. With such serious problems at home, her emotional needs weren’t being met. Even though the reverend was gone by the time she reached high school, things certainly hadn’t improved, at least not a great deal. Her mother didn’t have much of an education and wasn’t well liked. The best job she could get required her to work long hours for little pay. The Montgomerys were surrounded by suspicion, constantly the brunt of jokes or the subject of snide glances and unkind whispers, many of which ended with “white trash.”
The beautiful woman he’d just held in the water was anything but trash. Recalling the jibes and taunts his friends had lobbed Grace’s way and, worse, the adoration and hope he’d seen shining in her eyes whenever she looked at him, turned his guilt into a physical ache.
“Why?” he muttered. Why couldn’t he have stepped outside his perfect world long enough to show her some compassion? To help turn the tide of disapproval and dislike?
Obviously, he was as bad as Joe and the others. He’d done nothing. And yet she’d survived. She’d graduated from high school. She’d pulled herself together and gone to college, even law school. She’d become an assistant D.A. and never lost a case.
Impressive. Her accomplishments, once she left Stillwater, were more than impressive. And yet the scars remained. He knew that.
The day Clay appeared at school and bloodied Tim’s face came to mind. Clay was incredibly strong, and had been even in high school. As a junior, he could bench-press over three hundred pounds. A plaque still hung in the weight room with his name on it—the “Over 300 Club.” Kennedy hadn’t achieved that status until he was in college, and he’d never beat Clay’s record.
Had Clay or Irene discovered what the reverend was doing to Grace and killed him in an act of rage? Or had they acted more methodically to ensure that he could never hurt her again? It was even possible that little Grace had finally done something about the abuse, and her family was covering for her.
Regardless, Kennedy was certain the story they’d long told wasn’t true. Before finding that Bible and seeing everything the reverend had written about Grace, he’d been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes strange, inexplicable things happened. But he couldn’t accept that anymore. He suspected the Montgomerys were as guilty as everybody claimed.
But, knowing what he did, could he blame them?
The sun beat down on Grace’s tent. She rolled over, still sleepy but unable to tolerate the sweltering heat. It was fairly early in the morning—about eight-thirty, she guessed—but the boys and Kennedy were already up. She could hear them talking, smell the bacon frying.
“She knows you’re a nice guy now, right, Dad?” Teddy asked.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Kennedy replied, his voice low.
“She likes you. I can tell.”
Kennedy cleared his throat. “Teddy, that’s enough.”
“Okay. But you like her, too, don’t you? She’s pretty, huh, Dad?”
“She’s pretty,” he admitted.
Grace muffled a groan as she recalled the events of the previous night in brutal detail. She’d kissed Kennedy, offered to have sex with him. She should be embarrassed about that, except she knew she’d do it again if it would put what they were feeling behind them. She could sense trouble coming, trouble that seemed particularly ominous when she thought about the recognition on Kennedy’s face as she lied so poorly at her tent door a few hours earlier.
Why hadn’t she been stronger?
Rolling onto her side, she spotted the cell phone. It wasn’t until that moment that she thought of George. She’d lost the man she was going to marry. Almost every facet of her life had changed last night.
“She’s really pretty,” Heath concurred.
“Grab those eggs and bring them to me,” Kennedy said.
Throwing off the cover of her sleeping bag, she told herself she might as well face Kennedy and get it over with. Maybe they could simply forget their encounter at the lake. Pretend it had never happened and go their separate ways.
But she didn’t really want to forget what she’d felt.
“I can never get it right,” she muttered.
“I think she’s waking up,” Teddy said with an eagerness that made Grace smile despite everything.
“Stay here, Teddy,” Kennedy admonished. “Give her a chance to get dressed.”
“I was just going to say hello,” he muttered.
After pulling on a tank top and a pair of shorts, Grace gathered her toiletries, and stepped out of the tent wearing flip-flops on her feet. She knew her hair probably looked a fright since she’d gone to bed with it wet, but Kennedy didn’t seem to notice. He turned at the sound of her approach and something invisible passed between them. It wasn’t the self-consciousness she’d expected to feel. It was more indefinable than that. She’d never experienced it before.
Fleetingly, she remembered clinging to him, rubbing against him in the lake. Thank goodness they’d been dressed or things might’ve ended much differently.
“Morning,” he said, handing her a piece of bacon.
She mumbled a response, focusing on the salty taste of the meat so she wouldn’t have to consider that he now knew more about her than almost anyone else in the world.
“Pancakes will be ready in a few minutes,” he said.
“Smells great.” She wished she could read the expression in his eyes. “Do I have time to grab a quick shower?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll walk you over,” Heath said.
Grace took the boy’s hand.
“I’ll come, too,” Teddy said and insisted on carrying her bag.
The sound of an engine caught Grace’s attention as they started off. She glanced back, expecting it to be another camper coming or going. But that wasn’t the case at all.