Into His Keeping Read Online Free PDF Page A

safest option for her.”
     
    Drifter searched Holdin’s face worriedly. “Are you okay with us?” he asked with more insight than a boy his age should have. “You can’t hurt her anymore. I’ll not let you.”
     
    Jill answered before Holdin could. “Of course he won’t hurt me! I know I’ve only had a short time to tell you about your father but I thought you got him. He’d never hurt me. Never.” Jill glanced up at Holdin worriedly. “We can talk about this in the room.”
     
    “Mom, you’ve been in pain over him since the moment you remembered. You haven’t told me everything but I’m not an idiot. I can read between the lines. That and I can hear you crying at night. Every night, since you got home from the hospital.”
     
    “Oh geez, baby. No, not because…” Jill looked up at Holdin again. The man before her was so much more than the lover she’d known. He was a stranger. And yet, looking at that face, hearing his voice, all of it nearly cut her in half.
     
    Her memories had been brand-new. Intellectually she’d been aware they were events from fifteen years ago, but that didn’t do a thing to distance her from the pain of them. She hadn’t really had fifteen years to get over them, to coat them with the protective cushion of time. Emotionally, she’d been ripped away from the love of her young life just two weeks ago. She’d lost her father at the same time.
     
    Jill tried again as she turned back to her scowling son. “Try to understand. When I remembered everything, it was not fifteen years old for me.” She took a shaky breath as both sets of eyes watched her intently. “I lost my father, who I loved very much, Drifter. I’ve never mourned him. But you’re right, I also lost Holdin at the same time. For me, it all just happened and I was very much in love with your father. Then there was the urgency of everything. It’s overwhelming. I’m so sorry.” Jill’s shaking hands covered her face a moment. “I’m sorry I worried you. So sorry, baby.”
     
    “Mom,” Drifter started, but Holdin interrupted him.
     
    “Jill, relax. It’s going to be all right. This is a huge shock to all of us.” He dropped to his haunches beside them, bringing his big body to her eye level. One large hand rested on the table, the other on the back of the bench seat where both Jill and Drifter sat. “But you did the right thing coming to me, coming here. We can get through this. Now come home so we don’t have to do this in front of the whole town.” Holdin moved his hand to place on top of Jill’s, which were flat on the table.
     
    The connection was warm and comforting. They hadn’t touched yet. Jill’s hands naturally turned over to grip his as she looked into his eyes and smiled a bit sadly.
     
    “You’re doing it.”
     
    “What?”
     
    “Taking possession of me. You did it the first time I saw you.” Jill chuckled softly as she looked around her son into the eyes of a man who wasn’t quite a stranger but wasn’t her Holdin either. “I’m not eighteen anymore. It doesn’t work that way.”
     
    Holdin’s head tilted to the side slightly, his grip tightened on her hand and his lips ticked up in a slight grin. “Yeah? Is that what I did?”
     
    “You know it is. I was barely hired here and hadn’t even stepped out of the store’s office and you had an arm around me. Mr. Blain agreed you could show me the staff room, not take possession of me.”
     
    “I was showing you around. As I recall, I didn’t get my arms around you for a week.” Holdin’s voice dropped as he looked into her eyes and remembered that first kiss. But she wouldn’t let him enjoy it.
     
    “Bullshit. You might as well have hung a sign around my neck that said Holdin ’ s girl ,” Jill accused in soft tones that sounded of youthful embarrassment and shy pride. Her smile and voice were at odds with the words.
     
    “Hey, hey, can we not scar me for life?” Drifter interrupted, glancing