Vanessa crossed her arms over her chest, uncomfortable.She didn’t want him to think her feelings had changed.She couldn’t have him following her around or knocking on her door.“Did I make myself clear when we talked earlier?”
“Yes,” he said gruffly.
“Good.”
Emily hung upside down from the tree branch like a monkey.“Mr.Paul!Look!”
He looked.
Vanessa stood silent as Emily performed minor acrobatics.She was adorable, but not athletically gifted.Paul inched closer to the tree, as if anticipating a fall.Tension radiated from his body.Although Emily was only four feet off the ground, Vanessa sensed that he was imagining worst-case scenarios.
“Catch me,” Emily said.
Paul stepped forward the second she let go of the branch.Emily dropped into his arms.When he tried to put her down on the ground, she clung to his neck.The sight broke Vanessa’s already-bruised heart.
“Say goodbye, Em,” Vanessa prompted.“We have to go.”
“Will I see you tomorrow?”Emily asked Paul.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“Why not?”
Paul didn’t answer.His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat, as if he’d swallowed past a lump there.Vanessa could have intervened, but she didn’t.She let the painful moment play out.Emily hugged Paul with renewed fervor.The little girl shared his sadness, even if she didn’t know the reason for it.He accepted the embrace, and hugged her back.
“I have a dad,” Emily said finally.
“I know,” Paul replied.
“You don’t smell like him.”
“I don’t?”
Vanessa remembered the scent of Bennett’s cologne, which he’d applied liberally, along with hair gel and expensive accessories.He’d been obsessive about his appearance, and had often refused to pick Emily up for fear of getting mussed.
“You smell like a tree,” Emily said, sniffing him.
“Hmm.”
“My dad didn’t want me.”
Paul absorbed the words like a blow.He didn’t criticize Bennett, though Bennett deserved it.He didn’t voice his feelings, whatever they were.He closed his eyes, shook his head, and said nothing.
Vanessa felt her own emotions welling up.She had to end this before they were all openly weeping in public.She peeled Emily out of Paul’s arms, with his cooperation.Emily made a sound of protest.
“Goodbye,” he said, and turned around quickly, as if he couldn’t bear to watch them go.
Tears blurred Vanessa’s vision as she carried Emily to the car.The little girl kicked and shrieked, gearing up for an epic meltdown.Vanessa ducked behind the vehicle, but she didn’t try to wrestle Emily into the car seat.
She sank to her knees on the asphalt and held her daughter with trembling arms until the sobs subsided.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Paul stood atthe edge of the parking lot until Vanessa drove away.
When the pressure in his chest eased, and he was capable of moving again, he walked around the side of his truck.He didn’t want anyone to see him in his current emotional state.He wasn’t supposed to be out in public, anyway.Climbing behind the wheel, he considered his next step.The cabin held no appeal, but he couldn’t continue following Vanessa around.She’d made her feelings about him clear.
He shouldn’t have come to the hospital.For the past four hours, he’d been surveilling the parking lot, plagued by memories of his parents’ deaths and visions of his own demise.But he couldn’t bring himself to leave, in case she needed him.
