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“Just be careful. Don’t let him hurt you again.”
“He won’t,” Tessa said, wondering at the conviction in her words.
Mitchell’s entire body flexed. “He’d better not,” he growled, his lips thinning. “Because if he does, he’ll have to answer to me!”
Tessa nearly laughed. “I’ll tell him,” she said, smothering a smile.
“Do that. I’d love to have a crack at McLean.”
She couldn’t help laughing then, eyeing his shorts and wristwatch. “I’ll warn him. You just take care of Dad.”
“I’ll try,” Mitchell said, crossing his arms over his bare chest as Tessa dashed back to the car.
“So how did he take the news?” Denver asked, once Tessa was in her seat and he’d rammed the car into gear.
“As well as can be expected.”
“That well?” Denver asked dryly.
“Actually, he implied that he’d do you bodily harm if you hurt me.”
“Did he?” Denver’s crooked smile stretched across his face. “Protective bastard, isn’t he?”
“Maybe he just doesn’t want to pick up the pieces again,” she said softly.
“He won’t have to,” Denver swore. He turned the car onto the main road and slipped a pair of aviator sunglasses onto his nose. “I won’t hurt you, Tessa. Never again.”
A lump swelled in her throat when he linked his fingers with hers. “Don’t worry about it,” she whispered, blinking back hot tears. “I won’t let you.”
* * *
The California sun blazed hot in a hazy blue sky. The fronds of tall palms moved in a whisper-soft breeze as Tessa and Denver pushed open a courtyard gate and walked together along a flagstone path to the front door of his Spanish-style condominium. Vines, laden with fragrant purple flowers, climbed across the overhang protecting the door.
“It’s beautiful here,” Tessa commented, wishing she could hate the place.
“It’s home.” Shoving open the door, he carried her bag inside.
The interior was bright and airy. A staircase curled upward on one side of the entry, while two steps led to an expansive living room. The western side of the building was walled in two-story high panes of glass that offered a panoramic view of the sun-washed Pacific Ocean. “This isn’t anything like I’d imagined,” Tessa remarked, walking across the gleaming hardwood floor to French doors. A redwood deck stretched across the back of the condominium with steps leading down to the beach.
Tessa kicked off her shoes and grinned as she felt sand between her toes. “How did you find this place?” she asked, when Denver joined her. The tide lapped around her toes, frothy water swirling around her ankles. Salt spray misted in the air, carried inland on a warm Pacific breeze.
“I bought it from a friend of mine—a guy I went to school with. He and his wife divorced and he wanted to sell it fast. I’d been living in an apartment and this place seemed more permanent.”
“And that was important?”
Unconsciously he rubbed the back of his scarred hand with the fingers of the other. “It seemed to be at the time,” he whispered. “I’d been out of the hospital about six months and was working for a big firm not far from here. I decided it was time to grow some roots.”
“So you’d never have to go back,” she guessed, her heart constricting.
“There wasn’t a reason to go back. Mom and Dad were dead, Colton was God only knew where, and you—” He sighed loudly, then gazed deep into her eyes. His own were shadowed with an intense pain that sliced to the bone. “I couldn’t deal with you,” he added.
“Why not?”
“Everything was too fresh, I guess.” Frowning, he stared at the ocean, watching as sailboats, dark against the horizon, skimmed along the smooth surface of the sea. “Colton had convinced me that you were part of your father’s scam.”
“My father’s what!”
“His embezzling.”
