Open Arms Read Online Free Page B

wondering why she was noticing things about Rob today. His forearms, his chest, his hands. He suddenly looked much less like some generic Boy Scout on a good deed and much more like a strong man, a man with an edge.
    “Rob?”
    “Yeah?” He glanced at her.
    “Why are you doing this?”
    “What? Eating lunch?”
    “No. You know what I mean.”
    He was silent. His reasons and motivations were both muddy and crystal-clear, his personal interest in her all mixed up with a genuine desire to help someone in trouble. So he told her the truth, but not all of it. “Because ten years ago, my younger sister was attacked and I remember what she went through. I just want to be here for you, if I can.”
    Tammy stared at him. She hadn’t been expecting that as an answer. “What – what happened to your sister?”
    Rob leaned back a bit in his chair. It pained him to talk about this; he hated even thinking about it. But if he wanted Tammy to open up and talk to him and Julie about what had happened to her, he’d have to show her that talking wouldn’t kill her, no matter how much it hurt to do so.
    “My sister’s name is Christine. She lived in Denver, and she was twenty-two years old and she worked as a receptionist in an office building downtown. She left work this one day and was attacked as she walked through the parking garage to her car. The guy – he didn’t know her. He had just come in off the street and hid out, waiting for a woman to walk by.”
    Tammy swallowed hard. An image of a man hiding behind a restaurant dumpster in an alley came to her out of nowhere.
    “He snuck up behind her when she was unlocking her car. She never saw him coming. He smashed her head on the roof of her car and pulled her down on to the ground. He – he kept her face-down the whole time.”
    “Wait,” Tammy said. “You mean – she was – that he –”
    “Yes. He raped her.”
    “Oh, God,” Tammy whispered. “Oh, Rob. I am so, so sorry.”
    “After the rape, he beat her within an inch of her life. He only stopped when someone else came in to the garage and started walking towards them. He jumped up and ran. I’m absolutely convinced that if that other man hadn’t come along when he did, Christine would have been beaten to death right there.”
    The man hiding behind the dumpster had a knit hat. A green hat. Tammy got to her feet. “Stop.”
    Rob stood up too. “Tammy?”
    She turned away from him, suddenly finding it hard to breathe.
    “Tammy, are you OK?”
    She went over to the sofa and sat down. She wrapped her arms around herself, hugging herself. She started rocking back and forth, trying to catch her breath.
    Rob knelt down in front of her, not touching her. “What do you need me to do?”
    “Go. Just go. Please.”
    “No. I’m not going to do that.”
    “Just go , Rob, OK?” It was getting harder to talk.
    “No. I’m staying right here with you.”
    She felt hysteria rising as she realized that he really meant it – he wasn’t going to leave. He was actually going to see her like this, and there was nothing she could do about it. Her breath was coming faster now, her body shaking wildly.
    “Tammy, listen. You’re having a panic attack.”
    She closed her eyes.
    “I’m not going to touch you. But you have to calm yourself down. You have to slow down your breathing.”
    She opened her eyes again. “I can’t!”
    “You can.” He moved closer. “You just need to focus, OK?”
    She shook her head.
    “Listen to me. Just listen. I want you to pick one thing in this room, OK? One thing to look at, to focus on. Can you do that?”
    She looked up at him.
    “Trust me, Tammy. Find one thing and look at nothing but that.”
    She looked at the table in front of her, saw the vase of flowers that he’d brought her the day before. She focused on the largest one, a bright red dahlia. She nodded.
    “OK. Now look at it, and try to take a deep breath. Don’t let yourself breathe out until you breathe in for