“I’m sorry. I had to walk away or I was going to hit him.”
“I know.” She paused, and when she spoke again, it was with a firmer voice. “Before you beat yourself up for losing your temper, I want you to consider something.”
He glanced at her, waiting for her to elaborate.
“You walked away. If the situation were reversed, he wouldn’t have.”
They sat in silence for a while, and the anger drained out of him, allowing Justin’s words, echoing what he’d thought so many times himself, to bob to the surface of his thoughts. Becky was a strong, independent woman, but the need to take care of her was instinctive, and in the low that followed the high of his fury, those thoughts seeped through him like poison.
“I know it’s an old fashioned idea that it’s my job to take care of you, all the more s
