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“No, please don’t,” I begged, blinking back tears. What had I done? The last thing on earth I wanted was for anything to come between my brother and sister-in-law simply because I had acted like an idiot. But that was exactly what appeared to be happening. And it was all my fault. “She was going to tell you.”
“Oh, was she? When, exactly, was she planning to do this? Not soon enough.” He shook his head in a cloud of disgust and disappointment. “She should have told me as soon as she knew anything. She should have—”
“Please, Cam. It was only because I begged her not to say a word to you.” I blinked some more, but it was no use. Tears streamed down my cheeks. There were few things in the world that cut me to the core the way my brother’s disappointment did.
“We’ll go to the police in the morning,” he replied. Not a word about forgiving Sara for doing as I’d asked.
What a mess I’d caused. My only consolation was in the knowledge that the majority of their anger wasn’t directed at me. There was some, of course. Because I hadn’t trusted my brother enough to tell him. Because I’d ignored the signs Guy had given me for far too long. Because I’d been stupid and hadn’t thought about the very real threat he posed to everyone in my life, assuming he would limit his shenanigans to me. And that they’d merely be his usual tactics, not anything that would truly hurt me, despite the fact that he’d already done precisely that.
“I’m sorry,” I said, but my voice cracked, coming out as barely more than a whisper. “I should have—” But my throat closed up before anything else would come out.
“Yes. You should have,” he clipped out. Then he stalked across the waiting room and checked on the three kids, taking a seat beside Elin, who was now dead asleep, even through all the emotion pouring out of us on the other side of the space. Almost as soon as he sat, her head fell over to land on his arm. At once, he turned back to his usual teddy bear self, wrapping an arm around her and drawing her closer the way he used to cradle me when I was a little girl.
I tried to blink my tears away, but it was no use. All I could do was stare at my hands in my lap and rethink all the things I should have done differently. It went back for years, so I could easily spend weeks going over them all in my mind ad nauseam until I made myself sick with it.
Levi reached out a hand and brushed a tear from my cheek. “So is this the only reason you wanted space? Because you didn’t want Guy to hurt me?”
I nodded, swallowing hard in the hope that I could move the massive lump away from my vocal chords.
“So if I don’t care? If I refuse to let him intimidate me away from you? Then we can keep going as we have been?”
“I—” My tongue was thick and dry as I looked up to meet Levi’s eyes. “Maybe we should see what the police say first?”
He shook his head. “I don’t care what the police say. No one’s going to keep me away from you. Not now. I’ll only stay away if you convince me that’s what you want and it has nothing to do with this son of a bitch. And I promise you, I won’t be easy to convince of that. Because I think it’s bullshit.”
“I’ve never been a good liar,” I said.
“Good.” The corners of his lips quirked up in a cocky smile. “But Cadence?”
“Hmm?”
“I still want more. A lot more.”
The lump in my throat grew so big I couldn’t take a breath anymore because of the way he was looking at me. Like he wanted to wrap me up in his arms and hold on until I gave in. Like he wanted to take me somewhere private and do things that would make my brother want to kill him. Like he wanted to kiss me.
And I wanted to let him. I wanted it really, really badly. So much I almost tasted the wanting.
But Nicky bust into the waiting room, grinning from ear to ear. The slamming doors woke the kids, and he rushed over to their blinking faces. “It’s a girl!”
