Page 95 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
“Dad has never tried, Thane. Not once. Last year, I went six months without even seeing him.”
Thane’s face falls into rigid lines of anger.
“How is that possible?” I didn’t mean to intrude, but six months? How does a child not see their only parent for six months?
She shrugs. “He paid the house staff to babysit me.” Kara turns back to her brother with her head down. “I know I haven’t made anything easy for you, Brad, but you’re better than Dad has ever been. I don’t want to lose you. Even when Dad eventually makes me go back to his house.”
“Is that what you want? To go back to Jonah’s?” Exhaustion drips from his words and his sagging shoulders.
She shakes her head. “No, but I can’t ruin your life forever.”
My heart catches fire as if it were in the house when the explosion happened.
“You’re not ruining my life,” he barks, causing us both to jump. “You’re not,” he says more gently. “And if you don’t want to go back, then you won’t. I’ll take care of it.”
Her head whips from him to me with hope shining on her face. “You mean it?”
“Yes.” He says it as if his word is law. “I’ll take care of everything. For you both.”
I shake my head. He truly believes that, and apparently, he keeps his promises.
And it’s exactly what Kara needed to hear. The change in her happens in the blink of an eye—as if the storm cloud she was drowning in has suddenly evaporated.
“I love you, Brad. I’m gonna go tell Rafe you’re okay. He’s in the waiting room because they wouldn’t let anyone but family in here.” Kara is already walking out the door when his weighted stare heats the side of my face.
Crap.
When her sneakers squeak down the hallway, the tension becomes too thick to breathe, so I hesitantly peer up at him.
“If they only let family in, how are you here now?”
“Boone said you saved his life.” It’s a terrible way to change the subject, but it’s all I can come up with.
Thane’s gaze burrows into me, and my throat dries up so quickly, I have the urge to clear it.
“I could smell gas, even though he couldn’t find a leak. Then I heard something ignite, a click, click, click sound, so I shoved him out the open door and told him to run. Then I heard the explosion and woke up down by the lake. How are you in here, Charlotte?”
My hand covers my grandmother’s ring—the one I always wear on my middle finger but now sits on my ring finger as proof of the lie we told.
The damn observant man latches onto the movement immediately, and his husky tone carries a hint of promise. “Come here.”
There’s no getting out of this. Not when my hands have swelled so much while I waited for him to wake up that I can’t get the damn thing off. I’ve tried.
“Fine,” I grumble, then hold up my left hand. “We told the hospital that we were engaged so they’d let me in here with Kara. It’s a little white lie so I could sit with you and be here for her.”
“You care about her…and me.”
At this point, I’m sure I more than care, but I’m not about to admit that. He’s still my freaking client. If it got out that I was falling in love with a client, my reputation would go up in flames.
“Come here, Charlotte.”
I refuse to meet his gaze, but I follow his command and stand at his side. He reaches out and takes my hand in his. His large thumb works over the aquamarine and diamond stones.
“I like how that sounds.” He’s so quiet, I can almost convince myself I made it up.
“It’s pretend.”
He doesn’t say anything as his thumb continues to swipe over the ring, back and forth on my finger. When I finally build up the courage to face him, I’m not at all surprised that his intense stare is already focused on me.
