Whispering Rock (Virgin River #3)(91)

“Want to attempt an explanation?”

“Sure. Yeah. I had a Christmas present for Brenda. I bought it before… Before everything happened. I had this big idea I was going to take her somewhere nice—like maybe over to the coast to dinner or something, but the shit hit the fan. So I took her out to the site to park where I could give her this beautiful bracelet I bought her.” He smiled. “With your money, by the way.”

“And what happened?” Paul asked coyly.

“Well, it worked pretty good. She loved it. It was good for many kisses, if you want to know. But that damn little truck, you know? So I got this idea—I spotted your fifth wheel and helped myself to it. Honest to God, Paul, I would’ve asked—but I didn’t even think of that ahead of time.”

“So. Were you having teenage sex in my trailer?” he asked.

“Oh, hell no!” Tommy said. “Jeez, man, I’m not ha**ng s*x with Brenda!” Then he smiled. “I am having some very nice making out with her, however.”

“Listen, Tommy—maybe we should talk….”

“Aw, save it. I’ve had this talk a hundred times. I’m not having sex, much to my disappointment. I’d love to be having sex, don’t get me wrong. But Brenda’s a nice girl, and she doesn’t move fast—which I happen to like, by the way. And besides, I’m still a virgin. You tell anybody that, I’ll have to kill you.”

Paul felt himself smile. “So, what did you do in my trailer?”

“Come on, Paul. Don’t you think that’s a little nosy on your part?”

“Under the circumstances…?”

“Man, I just wanted to feel something soft up against me, you know? This month has been so ugly. So horrible. Tonight was actually nice. We just kind of held each other, made out like rock stars and—” He got this look on his face, this dreamy faraway look. “She said she loved me.”

“Whoa! Come on.”

“I’m pretty sure it was the bracelet.”

“Give yourself a little credit,” Paul said.

“I’m giving myself credit for thinking of the bracelet. God, she is so hot.”

“You can’t use my fifth wheel to make out in,” Paul said. “You’re going to end up having sex. I can smell it. I’d feel like an accomplice or something.”

“I hope you’re right,” he said with a laugh. “But I don’t think you are. At least not anytime soon. Brenda’s pretty worried about stuff like that. So…when did you actually lose it? You know.”

“I was over seventeen,” Paul said, smiling. “I think that’s graphic enough. Do you have condoms, in case…”

“Oh, brother,” he said. “Ask yourself. Did the general give the boy condoms? Holy shit, Paul—he watched me stretch ’em over bananas. I’m surprised he didn’t make me model one. He’s probably counting ’em every day when I go to school. I kind of want to throw a few away just to get his heart rate up. Yeah, I have condoms. And—I’m not willing to rely on condoms, how’s that? I’m not ha**ng s*x with anyone who doesn’t also have her own birth control—and we haven’t had that conversation, me and Brenda. You happy yet?”

“I’m getting there.”

“I’m not going to take advantage of Brenda. I really care about her. Nothing that risky is going to happen between us until it’s right for her. And when it’s right for her, she’s going to be safe and I’m going to make her safer. She’s important to me, man. I’m not going to mess her up.”

Damn, Paul thought. The boy’s got serious game. “You can’t use my fifth wheel to make out in,” he said, but he grinned when he said it because jeez, the boy was so cute. It made him nostalgic. He remembered a certain prom date that he was sure, sure was going to be it for him. It wasn’t. It came later, when he least expected it. Paul found himself almost hoping the kid could get lucky. “You understand, right?”

“Sure. But you’re not pissed off about tonight?”

“Nah, I can live with it. You’re sure nothing scary happened? Because if it did, even with a condom, we can still get ahead of it.”

“Yeah, I know about that, too. The little morning-after pill. Believe me, the only thing I don’t know about sex is how good it feels.”

Fourteen

It came too soon—the trial against Jerome Powell for rape. In the third week of January Brie and Mike returned to Sacramento so that she could testify against him. They went ahead of time so that Brie could be prepped. When the trial date arrived, Jack was determined to be there, but Mel couldn’t leave her women—Lilly had grown very ill and Vanni was in advanced pregnancy and in a state of grief. Paige and Preacher promised to back her up, as did John Stone, but still, it was very hard for Jack to leave her.

While jury selection and opening arguments were presented, Brie sat in the same room with her ra**st. With her were her partner, her brother, her father, her sisters. She was definitely shored up—but the fact was she could have had the entire Marine Corps marching band sitting with her and she would still have felt shaken and vulnerable. She revisited the crime in her mind, over and over. They were all hoping that this ordeal could be dispensed with quickly.