“He made landfall yesterday, but I doubt he’s figured out my riddle. We’ll see if he earns the right to be a part of my life.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t test people like that.”What was happening to her brother?He never kept people around. He was a use-them-and-lose-them kind of lover.Who was this Daniels he kept going on and on about?
He gave her a look. “Yeah, maybe I should take things slow, like you. Speaking of which, or whom, your hubby was dead set on coming over here tonight. I told him, no way in hell.”
“Bean!”
He shushed with an upraised hand. “Hey, we had a long talk about what might or might not have happened in Niagara.”
“You didn’t!”
“I voiced concerns.”
“Shit, Forest.”
A single eyebrow lifted at her use of his given name, usually reserved for the most serious conversations.
“It’s my duty to look after you.”
“I’m the big sister here. Don’t forget it.” Technically, she was a few weeks younger than him, but when it had mattered most, she’d been the one who held him together.
All color drained from his face. “You stopped being my big sister the day?—”
“Stop. What’s done is done.”
They needed to move past what had happened. It was time to heal.
“Don’t lethimdefine who we are now.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“You and I are family. Brother and sister, nothing more, no matter the past.” She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body. She would not subject him to the burden of her naked flesh. “Put your arms around me, Bean. Hug me. I need it.”
“I can’t.” His body shook, and he backed away toward the door.
“You have to.”
“But the things I did?—”
“Were never your fault.” She prayed this wasn’t a horrible mistake.
He’d violated her in every way imaginable, forced by an even greater threat, as their foster father watched them play out his fantasies for his perverse pleasure. She hadn’t been the only one to endure forced orgasms.
Their bond had been born out of that abuse. It had tried to destroy them, but together, they’d found the strength they needed to be free.
“You can’t fix me.”
“Why not?” But she knew he was right. She’d said those same words to Ash.
Ice-blue eyes stared down at her. “Go to bed, my summer Skye. We’re watching your hubby play tomorrow night. He’s expecting you at the show. The annulment papers are ready, but I think Lover Boy is determined to keep you.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Friday passed in a blur.Her twelve hours extended to a fourteen-hour catastrophe as a multicar pileup had stressed the services of the emergency department. Like Bob had done many times for her in the past, she stayed to manage a trauma code while Bob tried to save another life.
Her cell phone buzzed nonstop during the chaos—Sam wondering where she was, Forest checking in, Ash asking if she was coming to the concert, and Reggie demanding to know how much longer until she was finished.
Finally, she had one of the nurses take the cell phone. It was too big of a distraction. Her hands were busy with more important things, like inserting a chest tube into a patient’s chest. Air escaped with a whoosh, and her patient’s blood pressure rose while his heart rate stabilized.
