A Tender Touch

“It was self-defense, right?”

He looked out over the ocean. “Right. We all kinda fell into that shaft together.” Then he looked back at her, the tenderness and honesty in his eyes making Freddie realize that he was a very different man from Gary. “And it just seems as if…as if I’ve been trying to climb out of that dark pit since then. I don’t know.” He shrugged, turned away. “I thought maybe you’d understand.”

“I do,” Freddie told him, her pulse flowing and crashing just like the evening tide. “I do now, Clay.”