Free In Tune (Red Bird Trail Trilogy Book 3) by Laramie Briscoe

have rent or not. He just doesn’t give a fucking shit about anyone but himself.”
    Liam pushed Cash back. “But you do, and you’re a good man. Now you’ve gotten your point across. Let’s go.”
    Liam turned them around, Tyler walking at their back, as Janet rushed out onto the porch, checking George out. “Get in your car and leave. Don’t look back.”
    Cash did just that, laying the seat back. “Harper, I don’t know what the fuck we’re gonna do.” His voice was defeated and quiet. Almost like he’d given up. She reached over and grabbed his hand, clasping their fingers together.
    “We’ll make it, I know we will.”
    He could tell by the way she said it she believed it, and if she believed it, then he knew he had to believe it too.

‡
Chapter Eighteen

    “H ow’s it going with the two of you?” Doc Jones asked Harper and Cash as they sat for another session with her. “I take it things are going well?” She nodded towards where they held hands.
    “Better than I expected.” Harper laughed. “I have to say, I was skeptical about coming to you at first; I wasn’t sure you could help me when I couldn’t help myself for so many years. However, I’m here to say I’m so glad I came. I talked to my dad,” she threw out there.
    “And how did that go?”
    “I had built him up so far in my mind to be the most awful man in the world, which made sense to me, because as a young child, monsters are the scariest, biggest things in your life.” She smiled over at Cash as she used his analogy. “In the end, he was a man with a secret drug addiction, who had needed money and took matters into his own hands.”
    “Did that make you feel better?” Doc Jones questioned gently.
    Harper thought on her answer for a few minutes before answering honestly. “In a way, yes. There wasn’t ever a part of me that wanted to believe he was evil, because if he was evil, then there was a part of me that could be evil. I had that blood inside me, and what would happen if the flip switched and I turned? I worried about that a lot. Seeing him again and figuring out that what he did was bad decision on top of bad decision put me at ease. He’s in a decent place in his life right now.”
    She continued after a moment. “Do I ever think we’ll be close? Do I even think I may speak to him again? I don’t know on both accounts, but I’m glad I talked to him, and I’m very glad I was able to put that part of my life behind me.”
    “Cash,” Doc Jones turned to him. “How do you feel?” She noted he had his arm behind Harper and was playing with the tips of her hair between his fingers. It was obvious that these two had turned a corner and it hadn’t taken much—just a push in the right direction.
    “Better and more secure in this relationship than I have in a long time.” He cleared his throat and adjusted his seat. “There was always a part of me that wondered if Harper would run, and there was a part of me that knew she would. I felt like she’d proven that part right when she left before, but things are different now. I’ve seen a part of her life and a part of her fear that I hadn’t known before.”
    “What was that?” Harper asked, genuinely curious. They’d never talked about this before.
    “That day when you came to the shop and brought me food. I saw you hit the ground when that car backfired. It wasn’t until that moment—looking at you and then looking at Layne—that I realized how upset you were about things. We give him a pass because he was in Iraq and he saw and did awful things, but it never occurred to me to put you in the same category as him because you hadn’t served in a war-torn country. There are scars and wounds that can’t be seen, and it’s not just people who have been in the military who have them. That day was the first day I got it.”
    She breathed easier, realizing for the first time he understood. “I’m glad you get it.”
    “I do,” he reiterated. “I really