My voice was too curt. Too sharp. It made me shake my head. But all he did was stand and grip my chin before turning my watery eyes up to his.
“Firefly,” he muttered as he smoothed a thumb across my cheek, catching a tear I didn’t realize had fallen. “Talk to me.”
I just slowly shrugged. “What’s there to talk about?”
“How much debt did your father put you in?”
“Ghost,” I whispered.
“Talk to me, Jaz,” he said with a growl in his voice. “Let me help.”
“You can’t help. I just have to dig my way out of it.”
“How much more do you have to go before you’re done digging?”
I swallowed hard. “Last time I checked? Fifty grand.”
He swore beneath his breath. “What did it start at?”
“Gee, I?—”
“Jasmine.”
I sighed heavily and closed my eyes. “One-fifty.”
I heard the shock in his voice. “A hundred and fifty grand?!”
I slowly opened my eyes as his hand moved to cup my cheek. “He took out credit cards in my name when I turned eighteen. It was what he used to drink and pay bills for a while, until my credit was ruined. The job at the law firm was the only job I could find that paid me the kind of money I needed to be paid while also giving me the experience I needed for law school one day.”
“Is that your dream? Law school?”
I nodded slowly as tears crested my eyes. “I want to help women like me, who are taken advantage of by the men in their lives. Now I understand that I had a lot of legal discourse at my disposal, but I didn’t know that when I was twenty and just figuring out what in the hell my father was doing when I tried to buy my first little podunk car from a dealership.”
“I’m so sorry, Jaz.”
I looked off to the side and cleared my throat. “You’re sure my father’s okay?”
“He’s fine.”
“I’m just so worried someone will try and use him to get to me. He’s not a strong man. Never has been. He’ll give me up in a heartbeat.”
“You really think so?”
I shrugged softly. “If they offer him the right kind of things.”
His arms enveloped me, and I simply sank into him.
Into his warmth.
Into the protective safety net that had become his embrace.
“Have you eaten since I left?” he asked.
I just shook my head softly and closed my eyes, settling my ear against his heartbeat.
“You hungry?” he asked, sliding his fingers through my hair.
I just shook my head again as I threaded my arms around his waist.
