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‘For what?’
‘Letting her down before. Not being there when she needed me. My ignorance. My youthful idiocy. My many shellfish...’ He screwed up his face at that wrong word. ‘I mean selfish failings.’ He threw up his hands then collapsed backwards this time like a sack of potatoes tossed into a cart. ‘All of the above.’
‘That is the brandy talking.’ She touched the back of his hand. ‘You are so pickled in it you really aren’t thinking straight.’ She quashed the urge to brush the hair from his face. ‘It will take some time for your mind to fully comprehend things—but you will work it out.’ As one who had had the ground ripped from beneath her feet and her world destroyed in a split second, she understood what it felt like to be flung into the void. ‘I sincerely doubt a daughter will prove to be that much of a challenge to a man who can build a successful business from scratch on little but his own wits.’
‘I hope you are right, Hattie.’ His hand twisted and his fingers laced with hers, an innocent gesture which somehow felt profound. He tugged her closer and stared deep into her eyes as if the depths held all the answers. ‘But what if I do it all wrong?’
She gave in to the urge to touch his face. ‘You won’t.’
His gaze bored into hers while his fingers gripped her hand for all he was worth, as if she alone were the only thing that felt stable in his world. ‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Because I believe in you.’ She succumbed to the overwhelming need to wrap her free arm around his shoulders and was powerless to do anything other than cuddle him close. ‘And I promise that you will have my help. As you say, at least I used to be a little girl, so how hard can it be?’
