<em>You look wonderful by the way Claire.</em>But she didn't, she thought as she took a small step back so the men could embrace.  Not anymore.  Under her clothes, she wasn't pretty anymore.  She had scars and her skin was puckered in places.  The car accident last year had taken its toll on her body, and while she was grateful to be alive, she also knew that she wasn't pretty anymore.<br/><br/>Gavin tried to tell her she still was, with his touches and his words, but she didn't believe it.  She remembered the look of pity in the eyes of the jurors as they'd been shown pictures of her injuries during the trial only a few months ago.  She knew what that accident had made her.  But she was still herself.  She still helped Gavin with their business and their homes and loved him with all her heart.  Little had changed between them, only that she wanted the lights off when they were in bed.  Everything else remained the same.<br/><br/><em>Not everything,</em>a little voice inside her voice nagged.  Before, she'd been able to talk to her husband about anything.  There was nothing that she kept locked up inside her.  That had changed.  She refused to talk to anyone about the accident, the trial, the fact that the jury thought that the man who'd hurt her deserved probation.  Those things were off-limits for her.  Whenever Gavin had tried to talk about them, she'd changed the subject.  She could tell that he didn't like it, but at least he'd eventually stopped bringing it up.<br/><br/>As the men started toward the house, she grabbed Landon's arm, pushing the negative thoughts aside.  She tried to bury it all anyway, and now, Landon was here.  She smiled at him, trying to make it as bright as before and hoping the shadows in her eyes were hidden.  "Come on, let's get you inside.  Go get settled into your room while I get lunch on the table.  I made chicken fajita tacos and guacamole.  Homemade salsa, too," she said.  In college, she'd been a horrible cook, but over the years she'd really taken a liking to it, and poor Gavin had tried everything she ever experimented with, good or bad.  And in the early days, whenever Landon had come to visit, he'd had his share of her experiments, too.  Now, she stuck to tried and true recipes.  "None of it will kill you, I promise," she teased.