Opening his eyes, he started Ryan at the beginning when JP and Mike had manipulated Carol and convinced her that Luke had cheated on her with Becky. Then he moved on to the phone calls JP had made to June at the Ramshorn while he was in Devyn at football camp and the first letter he’d sent. The memory of his normally unshakeable mother clinging to him, terrified something had happened him, stole the words from his tongue. Clearing his throat and wrangling his emotions back under control, he continued. “If you want to know exactly what he wrote, you can read the notes later.”
“You kept them? Why?”
“They’re a reminder that JP didn’t break me, that I’m not what he said I am.”
Ryan leaned against him. He wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure him or herself, but either way, he was gratef
