“I trust my gut. That’s the important thing.”
He shook his head. “Sounds like you’ve made up your mind.”
“I have.”
The woman had been very kind to stay with the kids—which reminded him that he needed to find them before they became wrapped up in another show.
“Are you okay here? I’m going to go grab the kids and get them some dinner, and then we’ll be back.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine tonight. Take the kids home to their own beds and I’ll be in touch with you in the morning with an update.”
“Are you sure? I don’t feel good about leaving you here by yourself.”
“I’ll be fine. To be honest, after all this excitement—plus the medicine they gave me—all I want to do is sleep.”
That didn’t completely convince him, but he didn’t know what else to do but take the kids home to preserve as much routine for them as possible. He couldn’t spend all night in the waiting room with them, especially if Tricia didn’t need him.
“You’ll call or text me right away if anything changes, right?”
“Yes. Definitely.”
“If you send me a list of what you need to be more comfortable, I can run it back tonight.”
“Just my bag from the car.” She gave him a sheepish look. “I’ve had an emergency hospital bag packed for weeks. Even before I came out here, I brought it with me to Idaho and grabbed it on impulse on the way out the door this afternoon. It’s got my phone charger, a robe and some slippers and a couple of magazines I’ve been meaning to get to.”
This didn’t surprise him. Tricia was just about the most organized person he knew. It was what made her brilliant at her job as director of a nonprofit charity in San Jose.
“I’ll grab your bag. If you think of anything else, call me.”
To his alarm, she started to tear up again. “I will. Thank you, Cole. For everything. You’ve always been the one person I can count on in this world.”
He managed not to snort his disbelief. She must be on some serious drugs if she could say something so ridiculous. He hadn’t been around when she needed him. First he had been too busy partying on the circuit, then he had been paying the price for all that hard living. A good chunk of their relationship over the past decade and a half had been long-distance.
He couldn’t repair all that he had done. If he had learned one thing in prison, it was the lesson that a guy could only fix what was in front of him. He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “You know I love you, squirt.”
“I do.”
“Your only job right now is to take care of yourself and those little spudnuts in there, got it?”
“Is that an order?”
“If that’s what it takes. Just rest. I’ll be back in a minute with your bag.”
“Thank you.”
She leaned back against the pillow, looking pale and fragile. Her foot was up on pillows and her big abdomen stretched the sheets.
He again fought the urge to find her SOB husband and knock some sense into the man. Barring that, the only thing he could do was bring her bag back and then take care of his children.
Copyright © 2015 by RaeAnne Thayne
ISBN-13: 9781459294943
Snowfall on Haven Point
Copyright © 2016 by RaeAnne Thayne
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com
Snowfall on Haven Point Page 32
