Free When It's Right by Jennifer Ryan Page B

with flowers from the garden sat on the bedside table. The flowers and the pretty bedspread that Dee had chosen touched Gillian’s soul. No one had ever done something so nice for her in her whole life. No one had given her pretty things just to make her happy.
    She put her hand to her mouth to stop the sob that squeezed her throat tight and threatened to escape.
    Dee and Blake exchanged a concerned look. Blake raised his shoulders, letting Dee know he didn’t know what was wrong.
    â€œIf you don’t like the room, we can change whatever you don’t like. I can put you in with Justin if you’d rather be with him.”
    Her grandfather walked in through the adjoining door. “Gillian, we can fix whatever’s wrong. Just tell us,” he coaxed.
    She stood in the middle of the room, staring at the bed and night table, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “Stop. Just stop. Stop being nice. I don’t have any defenses for nice. It’s too much,” she said and looked from her grandfather to Dee. “Please stop.” She turned to Blake and hoped he’d understand. Someone had to understand. “She polished the furniture. She put a pretty blanket on the bed. She put flowers in my room.” She couldn’t hide the misery in her voice. “Don’t you see? You can’t do this to me.”
    Justin snuck past their grandfather and came to her. He wrapped his arms around her leg and held tight. “Do we have to go now?”
    Blake came forward and kneeled in front of Justin. “Your sister is very tired. She’s in a lot of pain. She hasn’t quite accepted that we want to be nice to her.”
    â€œRon used to smile. It wasn’t a nice smile. It usually meant that I had to hide, and then he’d yell at Gillian. Sometimes he hit her,” he said as if Gillian wasn’t standing right there.
    Blake looked up at Gillian’s devastated face, her eyes filled with anguish. Everyone had a breaking point. She’d reached hers. That she took a deep breath and pressed on made him all the more proud of her.
    â€œYour sister is just now figuring out that not everyone wants to hurt her,” Blake said as he looked up and met Gillian’s steady gaze. No tears, just a sense of utter defeat. They’d overwhelmed her with kindness, and she didn’t know how to deal with it. “Can you get yourself into that awesome bubble bath by yourself?”
    â€œYeah. I take a bath alone. She just checks on me to make sure I’m okay.”
    â€œGreat, why don’t you go get in, and I’ll check on you in a minute. Okay?”
    Justin went into the bathroom across the hall and closed the door, leaving it open a crack.
    Dee stepped forward and stood beside Blake when he rose to his feet again. “Bud and I will go in the other room and turn down the bed for Justin. I’ll find him a spare set of clothes. I’ll put his things in the drawers. Would that be all right?”
    At Gillian’s nod, Dee and Bud left through the adjoining door, closing it behind them.
    Blake remained only a ­couple feet from her, the closest she’d allowed him so far. “You’re going to feel better in the morning.”
    Gillian let out a deep sigh and frowned. “I’m going to feel like an idiot in the morning. She did all this for me, and I was nothing but an ungrateful shrew.”
    â€œNo, you weren’t. You showed her that the effort she put into making you welcome here was worth it, because you appreciate that she made the room nice for you. You could have walked in and said, ‘Yeah, it’s fine.’ Lots of ­people just look at the surface. You saw the details. You saw the love she put into this room for you, and it scared you half to death because for the first time you see that someone wants you. They want you here. I want you here. You may not want to hear that, but there it is.”
    He gave her a