Loving Georgia ✔️

Chapter 05

Georgia hugged Kelly and made her promise to update her when she got to her aunt's. She needed to know she was safe. There was a small part of Georgia that was afraid Kelly would go back just to stop the constant fear. But if she did ... Georgia knew it would be the end.

There was nothing she could do to prove that he was a . She hadn't been there in years. Kelly wasn't willing to report him or stand against him. Nobody would.

Georgia lowered herself to the ground once Kelly was out of sight, and dangled her fingers in the creek. That little pit of stress and angst bubbled and boiled in her gut. She hadn't felt that in a long time. The same methods she had used many years ago were things she didn't touch anymore; drugs, alcohol and sex with men that were bad for her.

Her eyes drifted shut. The air twirled around her shoulders, cooling against the beating sun. Grass squelched underfoot in the distance, creeping up in volume until a twig broke a few metres behind her.

'Can I interrupt?'

Georgia smiled to herself, nodding to She wondered if when he saw Kelly leave.

'Did you follow the pegs?' She shuffled back to the blanket, wiping her hands on her skirt as he sat beside her.

'Something like that,' he answered. 'It's nice, what you've done here. It used to just be ... grass and water. And trees.'

'Sometimes it just takes a little magic, and a place can be reinvented. Or enhanced. I don't know, but I like it.' Georgia shrugged, tucking her favourite bookmark into the book and closing it. 'Besides, it really is still just grass and water ... and trees.

'It feels different though. Better.' Jeremy twiddled a small leaf between his fingers. 'Is she okay?'

'She will be.'

'Can I help?'

'Can you get rid of people?'

He laughed. 'I wish. No, but I can try to find her a safe place to live?'

Georgia sighed. The leaves danced above her, light filtering through, occasionally blinding her. 'You don't have to live in the cottage, Jeremy. I'll talk to June; she can't force you out.' Her words were quiet.

'I don't mind.'

'What happens if she holds on for longer than you think? Will that make you mad?' She looked up at him with her green eyes.

The sunshine around him made it feel like a dream. Sitting under the trees with a gentle wind, a beautiful woman watching him with pale green eyes, nothing but honey in her veins. To him, she was perfection.

'Did June change you?' he asked, changing the topic. 'The you that I see and you from that picture, they're from two different worlds.'

Georgia frowned. 'No. I became a different person on alcohol and drugs. I went to a dark place and forgot that life doesn't have to be shit. June just reminded me that it's okay to cry but only if you get back up and try again.'

Jeremy took a moment to watch the wind flicker through her dark brown hair twisting over her shoulders. There was an air of grace about her that he didn't understand. In that moment he knew that this was going to be a summer of change. He had always dreamed of escaping Woodside as a teenager and had vowed he would never return. Even the day before he came down to see June and work out a plan, he had been complaining to Faith. Now, he wanted to move back. To come home to a woman who was in love with the world in a way he'd never seen before. But it wasn't that simple.

'Have you always been this person?' she asked him.

'What do you mean?' His brows crinkled as he looked up at the sky.