Page 24 of Tangled Hearts
“Are you planning on staying?” I ask as we pull into the parking lot for Safe Haven.
“I hope so.”
I put the car in park and climb out, mulling over his words. So is he just here to see if he can replace the family he lost? If that’s the case, can I really fault him for that? I mean… not really. Not if he’s serious. Not when he has blood ties that I never will. It would be unfair for me to expect him tonotstay when I want nothing more than to belong to this family.
I’m almost at the door when I realize I’ve basically left Nic in the dust, and when I turn around to go back to him, I slam against his solid chest. His hands come up to grip my arms, and I tilt my head back to look up at him. His smile is… fuck. Something else. I really need to add that smile to the mental tally of things wrong with this man. It can go right besidesmells good. “We’ve gotta stop meeting this way,” he says, smile still in place.
“You don’t like me running into you over and over?” I ask, slightly breathless for some odd reason.
He makes little circles on my skin with his thumbs before he drops his hands and takes a step back. “At least this time you didn’t yell at me. Is that athird time’s the charmthing?”
My cheeks heat, and I try to laugh it off. “Sure. We’ll go with that.” I need to get away from him… like, now. So I turn and head into Safe Haven. Sasha waves at me with a raised eyebrow as she glances at Nic, but I’m already on my way to Lexi, so I wave back without stopping. I can explain later.
Nic falls into pace beside me, and I can tell he’s looking around and taking it all in. “We’ve done a lot of fundraising for this place,” I say conversationally. “When I was here, it wasn’t nearly this nice. It was fine, but nothing like this.”
“Oh?”
I can tell he wants to ask more, and I can tell him more. At least a little bit, anyway. “Yeah, I was fourteen when I came here. It’s really special to me, so I asked Dad if we could make some improvements, and he let me be in charge of a fund specifically for it. I was seventeen when I started working on it. In that time, I’ve helped raise over half a million dollars to improve the building and the quality of life for the kids here. I spend a lot of time at The Hart Foundation, but most of my time is spent here.”
“I’m starting to see why Holden talks about you so much,” Nic says quietly.
Something about that makes me bristle, especially since I can’t tell if he means it in a bad way. “Anyway, here we are,” I say, stopping in front of Lexi’s door.
I give it a slight knock.
“Go away!” she yells, but she sounds more sad than angry. Poor thing. I hate this so much for her. She’s too young to be fighting such big demons.
“Lexi, it’s Eli. I brought a friend with me. Can we come in?” There’s a long pause, and then the door’s opening and she’s peeking out at me.
Chapter 9
Nic
“Is your friend nice?” Lexi asks.
Well, that doesn’t bode well for me, since it’s clear I’m not anywhere near the top of Eli’s favorites list, but he shocks me by kneeling at her level and smiling. “Sonice. Would you like to meet him?”
She looks between me and Eli for a second, and then she nods, opening the door the rest of the way. He stands up and steps inside, and I follow, mute, and still a little in my own head at how easily he got her to accept us into her room.
She leads us to a twin-size bed along the wall, and Eli drops down beside her. I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing here. Maybe I should have just stayed at the hotel or driven myself so that when the plans changed, I didn’t have to ruin things for him.
“I’m Lexi.” Lexi’s trembling voice pulls me out of my internal spiral, and I look at her.
The nerves in her expression are easy to see. She’s clearly worried I’m going to reject her or make her feel bad. “Hi, Lexi. I’m Nic. It’s really nice to meet you.”
Eli glances up at me, then turns his full attention to her. “Having a hard day, huh?”
She nods, tears welling up in her eyes. “Yeah. I miss my mommy.”
Same, kiddo. Same. Eli sits down on her bed and pats the spot next to him, waiting until she climbs up beside him. She slumps against his side and he wraps a protective arm around her. There’s something sweet and familiar about it, like they’ve done this many times already. She trusts him. It’s easy to see. And the love he has for her is basically radiating from him.
Holden was so right. Eli really does pour his entire heart into everything he does here.Thisis the Eli Holden wouldn’t shut up about. Not that I mind the snarky version of him, but this is the first time I’ve seen the man my brother goes on and on about.
Lexi sniffles and buries her face in Eli’s side. I’m not really sure what I’m doing here. This is not my moment to see. I shouldn’t have come, but it’s too late to leave, so I take a few steps back and sit along the wall. I would leave the room entirely, but there’s no way I’m going to give Lexi even the slightest idea that I think there’s something wrong with her feelings or the fact that she’s showing them so openly to Eli.
“Your mom was a special person, Lexi,” Eli says, brushing Lexi’s hair back off her face. He lets his fingers idly play in it, and I catch her slight nod.
“I know. I miss her, Eli. What if Miss Sasha is wrong, and she’s not with me? I don’t feel her anymore.”
