“But you—” His handsome face is a mix of sadness and anger and worry.
“I’m okay.”
He hugs me then. I close my eyes, breathing in the scent of his cologne. His dad smell. “You should have called.”
“I didn’t want to wake you last night.”
He pulls back with a frown. “You wake me whenever you need me.”
I nod as Lyra pushes her way to the bed to hug me, dragging along a huge stuffed teddy bear.
“It’s the biggest one I could find in the gift store,” she says, perched on the end of the bed. Lyra and I were friends growing up but the distance between my father meant that I didn’t have muchto do with the royal family, or Spencer, my half-brother who lives at the castle with Dad. Lyra’s return to Battle Harbour coincided with my reunion with my father, so it was fun to hang out with her again.
It’s even better now that she and my brother have finally gotten their act together and realized what everyone else has known for years: they’re meant for each other.
“Maybe if you walk around carrying it, it can be a buffer for when cars hit you,” she adds.
I watch as Lyra looks for a place for the bear and settles it on the floor beside my bed. “I’m hoping this is the first and last time for it.”
“Your mouth to God’s ears,” Dad mutters.
Lyra looks at him strangely. “Since when do you talk about God?”
“Since my youngest daughter is lying in a hospital bed after getting hit by a car, and I only heard about it a half hour ago,” he says through gritted teeth.
“I just got off the phone with Stella, and I was going to call you,” I apologize.
Or she was going to call him. If he hadn’t heard from Stella, then who told him? I might not want to know that. Spencer’s network takes over all of Battle Harbour so it could have been anyone.
“You should have let me know last night,” he chides.
“Mom was here.” And I didn’t want the two of them in the same room because that only gives me a headache, and I already had one. “She’s my contact person.”
Spencer clears his throat. “She shouldhave called.”
There is no love lost between my mother and Spencer. Dad is perfectly civil, but the same can’t be said about my mother—with anyone.
There’s a knock on the door, and at first, I’m relieved that a nurse wants to do anything to me so I can slip out of the conversation. But then I see it’s not a nurse. Or a doctor.
It’s a billionaire.
“Ashton,” Lyra says in a low voice. She gets up to hug him, while Spencer and Dad just glare.
Seriously glare. If they could will magic flames to shoot from their eyes, Ashton would be crispy fried.
Detangling from Lyra, Ashton holds out a hand to my father. “Sir.”
He hasn’t even glanced at me. In fact, no one in the room is paying attention to me. Why is that, when they’ve come to visitme?
“Don’t think you’re getting away with this?” Dad rumbles.
“Dunc, it was anaccident,” Lyra points out.
“I want to express my heartfelt apologies for injuring your daughter,” Ashton says, finally dropping his hand. “It was not my intent to cause her any harm.”
“But you did,” Spencer cuts in. “Look at her.”
Four headsfinallyturn to me. “Hi.” I wave.
