He averted his gaze and retrieved his flannel from the bench beside her. When he’d wrapped it around the Y in the stick, he handed her the makeshift crutch and sat on the bench with her. They spent another half hour or so at the lake to give Ryan more time to rest, and miraculously, the conversation stayed on safe topics. Ryan asked questions about the lake and the other trails they routinely hiked. She didn’t divulge much about herself, however, and the strange tightening in his chest returned. Not counting the confrontation with JP ten years ago, when he’d offered his life for June’s, he’d always been the one who needed protecting. First from John McKindel, the man who had put him through eleven years of hell, again when JP had set out to break him, and now from the incomprehensible goss
