With sudden resolve Ginny went back to her car, leaving the overlook to drive farther away from town. The mountain roads became steeper as she passed the Last Riders’ clubhouse, then steeper still after passing the Porter’s.
Tightening her grip on the steering wheel of the rented car, Ginny turned into a rutted driveway, coming to a stop when she saw the two-story house that she grew up in. In her mind, she replayed images of that long-ago day when she watched Freddy give rides on the ATV that he had been proud of buying. That ill-fated day would live in her memory for the rest of her life.
Losing Leah and Freddy had left a hole in her heart that would never heal, which was compounded by being removed from her brothers’ house.
Ginny held back from confronting them overtly, demanding to be let back into their lives, like the angry, grief-stricken child she had been when she was forced to leave. Instead, she had left the choice of seeing her to them, fearful of being permanently barred from them forever.
Swallowing the thick lump in her throat, Ginny got out of the car. The house had been painted since she visited at Christmas.
She had come here many times after getting her license, so many times that she’d lost count. Each visit had been accompanied with a gift and a prayer for a different outcome than her previous visits.
Yet another prayer that had gone unanswered.
She had stood outside that door, begging them to just let her come inside to talk, only to be met with complete silence. Uncomfortable and forlorn at being ostracized, Ginny had left just as she had arrived—alone.
The large house held so much love within. She had ached for it every day since it had been denied to her. Had they even missed her? Had they even opened the presents she left on their doorstep every Christmas? Opened the birthday cards she sent? The uncashed checks contained another painful reminder of them each time she looked at her bank balance.
Encasing her heart in steel, Ginny walked to the front of the car, raising her voice so that her brothers could hear every word she said. “I love you, but I can’t keep doing this. If you don’t come out this time, I won’t be back.”
The wind above stirred the trees’ bare limbs, making a mockery of the stillness from inside.
Looking away from the house when her brothers didn’t come barreling out, Ginny took one last look around the side of the mountain that had been her playground. The tree where she parked the car next to still held the bullseye target that Silas had hung; he’d taught her to use the same bow he learned on. The small wooden shelter that Jacob taught her to build when she was eleven years old was still standing, despite being covered with vines and old leaves. Walking to the small pit where Isaac taught her to build a fire without matches and where they celebrated her success by toasting marshmallows on a stick, held nothing but the ashes of just one more memory that was going to have to last her for a lifetime without the opportunity to make more.
Her family taught her every possible survival skill, yet nothing could have prepared her for being stonewalled by the ones she loved the most. As much as she had succeeded without them, it didn’t make them any less important to her as the years passed.
Walking back to the car, she glanced once again at the empty porch. Ginny remembered the first day Freddy brought her here. How scared, sullen, and alone she felt. That whole first month, she must have called Will a hundred times to come and get her, yet the Colemans had showered her with love until, gradually, as the months passed, the calls became fewer and fewer. She had grown to accept and return the love they had unselfishly given to her.
The excited expectations she began the day with were dampened with the fear of Gavin never being emotionally ready to have a new woman in his life. However, coming here was restoring her optimism about Gavin. Planning to pay forward the unconditional love and understanding she had been given in her life to Gavin would steadily lift the bleakness from finding out the details of the horrors that he had survived.
Ginny cut the thought off sharply. Her family’s love had boosted her during the darkest days after she had to leave and it had carried through until now. Gavin’s torture had been so extreme that he wasn’t able to find his way out of the darkness, even with the help of The Last Riders. He wouldn’t be reaching out for any emotional connection, regardless of any attraction he felt toward her.