They passed a sign saying they were nearing Spokane. They’d talked for so long that Cassie didn’t realize how close they were—the miles had sped by with barely a notice. All at once Cassie’s heart started racing at a frantic pace. Her palms grew sweaty and she found it difficult to breathe. For a moment she thought she was going to be sick.

“Steve,” she whispered, her voice in a panic. “I need you to find a spot to pull over.”

He glanced away from the road. “What’s wrong?”

She felt all the blood drain from her face. “I don’t know … please, just pull over.”

“Okay, hold on.” He pulled off the interstate and found a spot off the road and put the truck in park.

Cassie opened the passenger door and leaped down. Her head started to spin and she reached out and placed her hand on the side of the truck in order to keep her balance.

Right away, Steve was at her side. “Cassie, what’s wrong?”

She was familiar with this feeling. It’d come over her far too often while married to Duke. “I’m afraid,” she whispered.

Steve frowned. “Afraid of what?”

“You won’t understand.” Leaning against the truck now, she covered her face and took in deep gulping breaths in an effort to gain her equilibrium.

“Explain it to me.” His voice was gentle, encouraging.

Cassie hardly knew where to begin. “I’m seeing my sister for the first time in more years than I can remember. I was eighteen and in love for the first time in my life. My father in particular didn’t want me seeing Duke. So Duke convinced me our only option was to run away and get married. Karen found out that I’d withdrawn my graduation money out of the bank—I think she might have guessed what I intended to do. We had a huge fight. She said I was stupid if I couldn’t see the kind of man Duke was, and I said she was jealous because she was so ugly and such a loser no one had ever fallen in love with her. We hurled some hateful accusations at each other … We haven’t seen each other since that night … I said things I regret and, well, I … I don’t think she’s ever forgiven me.”

“That was a lot of years ago, Cassie,” Steve said, in the same gentle tones he’d used earlier. “I’m sure she must regret what happened, too.”

Cassie had hoped that would be the case, but there’d been precious little contact from either of her sisters, and what there had been was stilted and awkward. When Cassie reached out to her sisters she’d gotten a less-than-welcoming response. Neither Karen nor Nichole seemed interested in connecting with her.

“Surely you’ve seen your family since you’ve been back?”

Cassie dropped her hands, straightened, and shook her head. “No. Not since the night I ran away with Duke. One of the first things he did was move me as far away from my family as he could take me. I wasn’t allowed to have contact with them … The last time I was in Spokane, I was a teenager.”

“But I thought you said your mother recently died.”

“She did.”

“You weren’t at the funeral?”

Clenching her stomach, Cassie held back a sob. “No … I had no way of getting to Spokane; I was thousands of miles away. Mom and I talked and we made peace … but that isn’t the case with my two sisters.”

“Your younger sister lives in Spokane, too?”

“No, Nichole and her husband are in Portland.” Both her sisters had done everything right. Cassie was the black sheep, the outcast, and she didn’t know if that would ever change. She longed for a deeper relationship with her sisters, but to this point she’d seen no evidence either Karen or Nichole were interested.

“Don’t your sisters realize everything you’ve been through?”

“No.” That Steve would ask the question showed he had little concept of the complicated relationship Cassie had with her siblings. She didn’t want to explain further. As it was, she’d said more than she intended.

“But—”

Cassie could see he wasn’t going to let this drop. “They don’t know,” she said, her voice shaking. “They don’t realize … They seem to think it was my choice to stay away. They’re angry for what I put my parents through. My father died far younger than he should have … Mom, too, and they believe my running off with Duke contributed to all that. The truth is, it probably did.” All at once it came to her what she needed to do. She had the answer to all this.

Her head came up and she cried, “Steve, leave me here.”

“Leave you on the side of the road?” He shook his head as he spoke. “I’m not doing that. What are you thinking? There’s nothing around here for miles.”

“Not here here, but somewhere close. We could find a diner or something, and I’ll stay there and wait for you.”

“Wait for me while I do what?” He frowned, clearly perplexed.

“While you meet my sister.”

His automatic response was to shake his head. “No way. Sorry, but I’m not doing that.”

Her heart continued to pound so hard her ribs ached. “You don’t understand. Please. I don’t know that I can do this.”

“You can and you will,” he insisted. “Where’s the gutsy girl I met that first day in the Habitat office? The one who challenged me every time I turned around?”

“That same woman is shaking in her shoes.”

“Cassie,” he said, and placed his hand on her shoulder. “You’re stronger than you think.”

“Says who?” She certainly didn’t feel any of that resolve or courage now.

“I do,” Steve challenged. “You’re one of the strongest women I know. You escaped a brutal marriage. You took your husband to court and stood up to him. If that wasn’t enough, then you started over with nothing in order to make a new life for yourself and your daughter. In my book that takes courage; that takes a strong woman.”

Cassie straightened. She had done all that and more.

“And you did it on your own, Cassie. You didn’t have anyone to lean on, did you?”

She shook her head.

“That’s what I thought.”

“You’re a good mother to Amiee.”

Cassie was almost able to smile. “The kid’s got a mouth on her.”

“Really?” Steve said, feigning surprise. “I can’t imagine where she got that.”

She did smile then, although the amusement quivered at the edges of her mouth.

“You can do this, Cassie. I know you. After everything you’ve endured, this is a piece of cake; it’s nothing.”

“You haven’t met my sister,” she said, slowly expelling her breath.

“Is she anything like you?”

Cassie thought back to the days she’d shared a bedroom with Karen. “We’re nothing alike … Karen was the organized one and I was the slob. Because Karen couldn’t stand my messes, she took masking tape and divided the room in half and I wasn’t allowed to cross the line.”

Steve grinned.

“She resented the fact that I got top grades and I barely needed to study. School always came easy to me. If I’d gone to college … I had a full-ride scholarship. My parents were so proud.”

“You gave it up when you married Duke?”

Cassie nodded, not wanting to explain that she’d been pregnant and blinded by love. The scholarship was only a small sacrifice compared to everything else she’d lost because she’d been young and foolish. She’d lost her self-respect. She’d lost all contact with her family. She’d lost all self-esteem and pride. Loving Duke had come at a high price, one she’d repeatedly paid through the years. Her stupid tax for sure.

“Did Duke …” Steve hesitated, almost as if he could barely speak the words. “Did he ever hit Amiee?”

“No. He knew …”

Steve frowned waiting for her to continue.

“He was well aware I would do whatever it took to protect my daughter, and if that meant doing him bodily injury I wouldn’t hesitate. I swore to him if he ever laid a hand on her, he would pay and the cost wouldn’t be cheap.” He’d slugged Cassie for her impertinence, but somehow her threat had gotten through to him. One misplaced slap, one blowup aimed at their daughter, and he’d need to sleep with one eye open for the rest of his life.