Page 23 of Second Chance Serenity

“You messed up, Michael. We were friends. I was thrilled for you and my sister, and for whatever reason—I don’t need excuses—you turned your back on all of us. I’m begging you not to do that again. I’m asking you, as someone who used to love you like a brother, to watch over my sister.”

“Doesn’t sound like she wants me to.”

“She may not. But I do,” Carter replies. “Because even though you broke her heart, you’re still the only other person I trust with her life.”

CHAPTER 8

Reyna

Day three is far worse than days one or two.

Everything hurts. My head, my neck, my arms…there’s not an inch of my body that doesn’t ache as though I was thrown from a moving vehicle. I lie back on my bed, a heating pad on my back, a warm washcloth over my eyes.

Elijah and Lance are out in the living room installing a state-of-the-art security system that, personally, I think might be just a bit excessive. Carter and my mother are out grocery shopping for me before he heads back to Boston.

He’d wanted to stay, insisting on sleeping on my couch, but with Knight Security and my parents watching my every move, I don’t see much of a point. He has his own life, two small children, a wife, and a business to run. The last thing he needs to do is stick around and babysit me.

Babysit. Is that what I agreed to by allowing Knight Security to assign me a bodyguard? Michael’s handsome face fills my mind, and my belly churns as I relive what I’d said. “Not Michael.” Does he even realize the only reason I can’t be around him is because I don’t trust myself not to fall in love with him all over again?

My phone buzzes, the vibration like nails on a chalkboard to my sensitive ears. I reach over and retrieve it, but it falls from my nightstand, and I hit the ground with a heavy thud after it.

I groan, shooting pain firing straight up my back.

My door is thrown open, and the light from outside is nearly blinding. I have to narrow my eyes to see the bulky man framed in my door.

Michael.

Of course it would be Michael.

Why is he even here?

“Did you forget how to knock?” I groan as I start to get to my feet.

He rushes in and lifts me as though I weigh nothing, depositing me back on my bed. I look up into his dark almond gaze and hate the way my stomach twists at the sight of him. So handsome. So masculine.

So strong.

Why did he have to break my heart?

“I heard you fall.”

“And your first thought was ‘Hey, I’m going to bust into her room without asking?’ I could have been changing, you know.”

“Do you often fall when you change?” he asks, the corners of his lips lifting in a quirky smile.

I glare at him. Michael has always had this innate ability to diffuse my anger. No matter what was wrong, Michael could always make me feel better. Maybe that’s why it hurt so bad when he went away? Because there was no one to help me pick up the pieces he’d left behind. After all, how do you keep your head above water when the only person capable of settling your storm is the one who caused it in the first place? “Why are you even here? I told your company I didn’t want you here.”

“Elijah needed a few extra cameras,” he says. “I brought them from the office and was going to help finish the install since he’s running behind on an update that’s due.”

“Good. Then go do that.” Lying back on the bed, I place the washcloth over my eyes, then reach for the covers. But I don’t have to reach far because Michael is tugging them up for me, basically tucking me into bed.

I swallow hard, tears stinging the corners of my eyes.

He’d done this once before. When I’d had the flu and my parents were both working. Carter had a job interview, so Michael and his mother came over to sit with me. He’d tucked me in while she made soup.

The memory assaults me like a battering ram.

“I’m sorry, Reyna. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

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