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She just gave a nod, relief making her shoulders sag. “Thank you,” she murmured as a lone tear slipped free.
I just brushed that tear away and held her before I remembered. “Oh! I made you hot chocolate. It’s perfect for days like this.”
“Stormy days?” she muttered and swiped another tear away.
“Sure,” I answered with a smile.
But even on days when the sun shone and blue skies commanded the sky, there were still steel gray clouds in my world, still thunder and lightning and cruel storms. I lived in my world in the brief, quiet spells between the storms, standing in the eye of the hurricanes to face down the beasts who turned my world upside down.
But that wasn’t Anna’s world.
Not even remotely.
I didn’t know what her connection to Finley Salvatore was, but I knew whoshewas—and that was all good. She was honest and kind. She was pure, all the way through, untainted by this savage world. I poured her the hot chocolate and placed marshmallows on top, watching her eyes brighten as she swallowed her tears. See, she was good. The kind of good that something as small as a goddamn hot drink would brighten her damn world. They were store-bought marshmallows, too. But they’d have to do. It wasn’t anywhere near what I wanted to give her, wasn’t anywhere near the kind of comfort I wished she’d feel.
“Hot chocolate, huh? What else can you make?” she smiled.
“That’s basically it. Hot chocolate. So you better like it, ‘cause that’s all you’re gonna get, from me at least.”
“Great,” she muttered. “I’m gonna be as big as a whale.”
“A veryawesomewhale,” I countered.
Still, she drank the damn stuff, blowing gently and sipping, leaving the sticky, white foam on her lips. “It’s good,” she said, surprised.
“Of course, it’s good,” I chuffed. “I made it, didn’t I?”
She just chuckled and sipped some more, giving a sigh. But the way she looked at me was strange, as sadness crept into her eyes. I drained my cup and stifled a yawn. Barely any sleep last night and after the trauma of today, I just feltdrained.
“Come and sit, tell me about your lecture,” I murmured, and made my way toward the sofa.
She followed, bringing the hot chocolate with her, and as I sat, she started talking about the lecture on money laundering. The more she talked, the more at ease I felt. She was excited about the mechanics, telling me all the things the lecturer had gotten wrong.
“You have the same look as you did when you were telling Evan how to clean five hundred thousand dollars of her money.” I shook my head and smiled.
“What? No,” she lied. “I just have a passing interest.”
“Passing interest, my ass.” I countered. “You only look like that talking about laundering dirty money and Finley Salvatore.”
“Don’t say that.” Her face turned bright red.
“Okay,” I muttered and leaned back against the sofa’s cushions. “There’s a whole lot going on in your eyes, Anna. Something’s happened between you two, hasn’t it?”
I thought for a second, she was going to pull away, maybe even rise from the sofa and tell me to go fuck myself. But she didn’t, and for the first time, I realized she needed this. She needed someone to talk to. She needed someone toconfide in.
“You could say that,” she said finally.
“You want to talk about it?” I asked carefully.
She just looked away and murmured. “It’s complicated.”
“Complicated how?”
“Complicated that it could get me into a lot of trouble.”
Silence filled the void.Jesus.She was in deep here, deeper than I'd realized. “You’re not just talking about feelings here, are you?”
A slow shake of her head hit me hard.
