“Are you sure? If he’s violent?—”
“I got this. It’s okay. Thank you, though.”
“I don’t like this, Gina. I don’t want you to put yourself in harm’s way.”
“I promise you, if at any point I feel unsafe, I’ll call you. I just need to get my sister. And I know her. She’ll be really upset if I bring someone with me.”
“These situations, Gina, they can?—”
“Please.”
“Okay,” he says, nodding. “But I’m going to keep my phone on me. And I want you to call me in an hour. And I want theaddress of your sister. If I don’t hear from you in an hour, I’m going to be there at the door with the police.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he says, kissing the top of my forehead. “I had a good time tonight.”
“Yeah,” I say, smiling slightly awkwardly, because we’re both still naked, and this is just weird—but really nice.Fuck,I think to myself.I didn’t get to tell him my secret.
“It was a really great evening.” He presses his lips against mine. “Now get dressed. Hurry to your sister and call me.” We kiss, and I hold on to him. I don’t want to leave.
“Thank you for an amazing night. And yeah, thank you for caring about my sister.”
“Hey, I try to be a decent human being when I can.”
As I grab my clothes and start getting dressed, I realize that for the first time, I’m really seeing Hunter for who he is. He’s not just this gorgeous man. He’s not just a billionaire. He’s not just the teasing, grumpy man in the coffee shop. He’s not just the hot gardener. He’s not just the grandson of Preston Waverly, the eccentric elusive billionaire.
He’s Hunter.
He’s kind. He’s loving. He’s sexy as all get out. And I feel really honored to know him. I feel like I’m falling for him. And it isn’t just because of the sex. He’s become a part of my heart. He’s wormed his way into my arteries and he’s there to stay.
Fuck.
I am in even deeper now, and I do not know what I’m going to do. I know I can’t think about it now, because for the first time in my life, my sister needs me—and I will not let her down.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Hunter
“Good morning, Hunter,” my grandmother says as I enter the kitchen.
“Morning,” I yawn, still feeling super tired. I had a restless sleep waiting for Gina to get back from her sister’s. I wanted so badly to go with her, but she was adamant that she had to go alone. And then when she called me on her way home at 5:00 a.m., she was so disappointed that she hadn’t gotten her sister to leave with her, but she was comforted by the fact that the brother-in-law had left the house and supposedly gone to check himself into rehab.
I was quite annoyed that she didn’t let me go with her because I knew how these things went. Not from firsthand experience, but from life. Domestic violence is something close to my heart because I had a friend whose parents had gotten into some pretty bad situations when he was younger, and he ended up in the foster system. He’s shared stories with me, and I know how quickly these things could escalate. But I didn’t wantto scare Gina, and I wasn’t sure if that was really my place. Especially as I knew none of the facts.
“Hey, you look tired,” my grandma says, hurrying over to me. She presses her hand to my forehead and gives me a nervous look. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m fine, Grandma. It was just a late night. Thank you for asking.”
“No worries,” she says. “Because you know I’m?—”
“I’m fine, Grandma.”
“I know. I’m just making sure that—” She stops. She knows I don’t like to talk about it.
“I’m just going to go and see Granddad. He wanted me to discuss something about the private investigator before he showed up tomorrow.”
“Okay,” she says. “Would you like some breakfast? I can have the new cook, Willa make something.”
