Her breath trembled.
I leaned closer until my forehead rested against hers, until she had no choice but to feel every word.
“So be careful when you look at me with those eyes,” I murmured. “Be careful when you kiss me. The part of me that loves you is not gentle, sweetheart. It is hungry, possessive, and old enough to know exactly what losing you did to me. It will not survive letting you go again.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Edwina
Snowhadbeenfallingsince morning, thick enough to soften the city and cover the pavements by the time we left for Helena’s favorite burger place. London looked gentler under it, wrapped in winter light, almost innocent.
Helena was already smiling before we reached the café, but the moment she saw him outside with snow caught on his dark coat and his hands tucked into his pockets against the cold, her whole face lit up.
“Uncle Hayden!”
She ran toward him before I could warn her about the pavement, and he bent down at once, catching her in his arms as if his body had been waiting to know how. Life had given him fatherhood late, yet somehow he held her as though the instinct had always been there.
“There’s my girl,” he said, his voice rough as ever, though Helena pulled a tenderness from him no one else could reach so easily.
Helena wrapped her arms around his neck, then pulled back just enough to look at him with sudden seriousness. Her little brows drew together, and for the first time that day, the happiness on her face made room for something hurt.
“You didn’t come,” she said.
Hayden went still.
I saw the words hit him. His hand tightened gently against her back, and his face changed in a way that made my chest ache despite everything.
“I know, sweetheart,” he said.
Helena’s mouth turned down. “I waited.”
His throat moved. “I’m sorry.”
She studied him with the sharp, honest disappointment only a child could give. “Didn’t you miss me?”
Hayden closed his eyes for half a second, then opened them and looked straight at her. “I missed you every day, little star.”
“Then why didn’t you come?”
His jaw tightened. He looked at me once, guilt cutting across his face, then turned back to Helena. “Because something very sad happened, and I had to go far away for a little while. I should have told you. I should have called.” His voice roughened. “I’m sorry I made you wait.”
Helena did not forgive him at once. She only kept looking at him, still hurt, still thinking. Then she touched one small hand to the front of his coat and said, “You have to say next time.”
“I will,” he said at once. “I promise.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Real promise?”
“Real promise.”
For a moment, she remained solemn, as if weighing the worth of his word. Then she leaned back into him and rested her cheek against his shoulder. “Okay. But I was mad.”
Hayden’s arms closed around her carefully. “You can be mad at me.”
“I was very mad.”
“I deserved that.”
She nodded against his coat, satisfied with this answer, and he kissed her hair with a tenderness that looked almost painful on him.
