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“Please hold Mom and Bubbles back. They can yell at me tomorrow. I’m going home. Landon’s with me. I know everyone is worried…and, okay, pissed off, but please, Dad, call off the dogs tonight. I worked a ten-hour shift, broke up with Derek, got my ass chewed out by Landon and you. I will see you first thing in the morning and give you a chance to do it again in person. Promise.”
Her plea must have worked. “Thanks, Dad. I love you too. Here,” Sunnie said, handing the phone back to him. “Dad wants to talk to you again.”
“Aaron,” Landon said to let him know he had the phone back.
“Walk her into the pub and all the way upstairs to the apartment. Don’t leave there until you know she’s okay—and I don’t just mean physically. The reporter told me she took a hit and a hard shove to the ground. She might talk a good game, but I can tell she’s shaken up, and what could have happened is going to sink in soon. Finn was at the Orioles game. I finally got ahold of him and he’s on his way home. Yvonne and Padraig are downstairs at the pub. Stay with her until Finn gets there.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And, son,” the emotion was thick in Aaron’s voice when he continued, “thank you for taking care of my little girl tonight.”
“I didn’t—”
“Yes, you did. I’ll talk to you in the morning. Goodbye, Landon.”
The call disconnected just as they arrived at the pub. Landon parked the cruiser, then walked around the car and wrapped his arm around her waist, allowing her to lean on him as she walked slowly, careful not to put too much weight on her ankle.
“Sunnie. I wish you would let me—”
Before he could repeat his request to take her to the hospital, she shook her head. “Elevation, Advil, and ice. It’ll be fine by morning.”
Landon could only assume Aaron had texted her family about what had happened, because Padraig and Yvonne were there to greet her with hugs. Along with more than a few, “What the hell were you thinking’s” from Paddy, while Yvonne whispered, “At least you saved the purse.”
Sunnie broke away after a few minutes, and he noticed she was starting to look tired. He helped her upstairs.
“Finn will be home soon.”
Sunnie nodded, her steps slowing as they reached the apartment. Whatever strength she’d had left had been expended on the phone call and the walk upstairs. She dropped down on the couch, her elbows on her knees, her face in her hands.
“Sunnie?”
“I’ve never been hit before. It hurt.” Then she gave him a regretful look. “I should have given him the purse. I was just so pissed off at Derek. I struck out without thinking, you know?”
He nodded, and then sat next to her, pulling her toward him until her face rested against his shoulder.
Neither of them spoke as they let the night play out in their minds. Landon couldn’t stop thinking of all the things that could have happened, his terror growing more and more until he thought he’d explode.
He gripped her tighter, afraid he might be hurting her, until she matched his strength, her arms a vise around his waist. He wasn’t sure how long they remained that way, just holding each other.
She fell so silent, he thought perhaps she’d fallen asleep.
Then he heard Finn’s footsteps on the stairs. Her brother was coming up fast, taking them two at a time.
Sunnie’s head lifted from his shoulder as Finn entered, kneeling in front of her.
“Jesus, Sun. Are you okay?”
She nodded as Finn brushed the back of his knuckles gently over the coming bruise, his eyes dark with anger.
“The fucker hit you?” Finn was the textbook description of an overprotective brother.
Landon recalled the night of their junior prom. A guy in their class had asked Sunnie to the dance. He wasn’t someone they hung around with, but he was a decent guy. Even so, Sunnie had only been a sophomore, and Finn had insisted she and her date go to dinner with him, Landon, their dates, and two other couples.
Landon and the other guys had stopped by to pick up Finn and Sunnie in the limo before going to get the other girls. Finn had come downstairs first, and he raised a threatening finger in their faces, saying, “I don’t want to hear one word about my sister.”
Landon had looked at one of the other boys, both of them confused—until Sunnie walked in. She’d worn a skintight, shimmery aqua dress that had hugged her newfound curves like it had been custom-made for her and reminded Landon of a mermaid—the sexiest mermaid in the history of the world. Her blonde hair, typically pulled back in a braid, had been loose and wavy over her bare shoulders. She wore makeup, her eyes accentuated by mascara and her lips shiny with pink gloss.
Landon hadn’t considered Sunnie a girl until that moment.
