Page 674 of Hell Hath No Fury
Okay, so perhaps that was a little judgmental. “I only—”
“Maybe you should keep your nose out of it.” He stopped so close to me, we were almost touching. “My child, my business.”
Scowling, I responded, “You asked me to look after her. This is me looking after her. Holding her in my arms while she cried over her mother’s abandonment was heartbreaking.” Tears glistened in my eyes at the memory. “I’m just trying to help.”
He seemed stunned as he studied my face. Then to my shock, his expression softened and his eyes warmed. Suddenly, he was unbearably good-looking. “Fine,” he said, his voice gentle. “ThenI’ll accept that your judgmental advice came from a good place and forgive you.”
I grimaced. “I can die happy.”
He leaned into me. “You are such a pain in the ass.”
“Back at you. You take everything I say the wrong way and assume the worst.”
“Backatyou,” he retorted.
Then his dark gaze dropped to my mouth and just like the flick of a switch, electric tension sizzled to life.
Feeling my body react, wanting to melt toward him, I retreated. “Well, then, maybe we should call a truce. From this point onward, we both agree to assume that the other has only good intentions.”
Foster considered this and said in a bored monotone, “I suppose we can try that.”
It was difficult not to offer a pithy response to his enthusiasm.
“Fine. Good. That’s settled, then. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I’d turned toward his door when he murmured, “Do you swim every night?”
Halting at the strange question, I glanced over my shoulder. His expression was unreadable. “I try to. Why?”
“Why do you do it?”
“Because I … I like it.”
He seemed disappointed by my answer.
I frowned. “I started night swimming after my parents died. Jade and I became guardians to Celeste and Luna. Moon had just left for college. Jade was getting her teaching degree and was almost finished … so I dropped out of college to look after the girls.” An ache flared inside me at the reminder of what might have been. “I wanted to be a teacher too. But the girls were more important. Losing Mom and Dad, bearing the responsibility of parenthood at twenty-one … suffice it to say, I didn’t sleep well for a while.”
His expression was filled with understanding, and something even more dangerous.
Tenderness.
“So you swam to exhaust yourself.”
I nodded, struggling to regulate my breathing. “Yeah. Then it just became a habit.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For what I said at the engagement party. For the unfair comments I’ve made since.”
Shocked, in a good way, I smiled at him. Really smiled.
He looked stunned, like I’d kicked him in the gut. He blinked a few times.
“Thank you,” I said. “And I’m sorry for insulting you in return. Let’s do better.”
Foster swallowed hard and nodded.
