Page 27 of Embracing Us

“Put her to bed,” he suggests.

“I’m not bloody touching her,” I reply, bluntly. “Maybe I should call Linda.” I pull my phone from my pocket and go to hit call, but my confidence wavers. This is the last conversation I want to have with her, telling her that the daughter she loves was promiscuous in her absence.

“Do you have her father’s number?” Jace asks.

“No, I’ve no reason to. I’ve never even met him.”

“Pack what you need, and we can go back to mine. Staying here isn’t a good idea. Is she breathing okay?” His eyes run over the limp comatose body on the bed. Her chest rises and falls with each breath. “Yeah, she’s alive. Get what you need and let’s go. You can call Linda from the car. She can ask her dad to check on her.” I move to the drawer I was working on before Marina interrupted me. “Max,” Jace says, “you have to tell Linda. She needs to know about this. For both your relationship’s sake and to give Marina support.” I nod but don’t respond.

Jace lifts a blanket that is folded on the chair in the corner of the room and lays it gently over her. I’m surprised by his thoughtfulness. “It’s such a shame really, isn’t it?” he whispers, obviously not wanting to wake sleeping beauty.

“What is?”

“Her lack of confidence. For a beautiful girl, she spends her time trying to knock everyone else down to make herself feel better. It makes me wonder what happened to cause such low confidence.” His insight is startling. His gaze never moves from the woman on the bed.

“Linda blames herself,” I tell him. “She said she was too soft with her whilst she was growing up.”

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “Someone has hurt her. No one becomes that bitter without reason and being spoiled isn’t one of them. She’s nursing a broken heart, I’m sure of it.”

“Maybe. There’s been a few men since I met her mother and before that from what Linda has said,” I concede, placing the final items in my bag then sliding the paperwork Linda said we needed in a folder, her divorce papers being the most important. “Whatever it is, I wish she’d sort herself out so she could have a good relationship with her mum. It would be the final piece of the puzzle.”

“Stranger things have happened,” he says, nudging my shoulder with his fist. “But right now, let’s focus on getting you hitched to that angelic woman of yours.”

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