Rob rounded Kari’s bed and took the seat her mom had vacated. “Don’t be too hard on her,” he said. “She really hung tough all this time. You’ve been on a vent for two days. And—it was her, Kari, who told us where to find you. She told me about Jake. She was terrified for you. It’s been hard—but she’s been pretty brave about the whole thing. I don’t know that I could have chosen between my kids.”
For a long moment, he held her hands and didn’t speak.
“Could I have some water?” she whispered.
He leapt up, nearly turning the water pitcher and the glass over. “Uh, no water, but how about some ice?” With the same infinite patience that he’d piped on Swiss dots, Rob held a spoonful of ice chips to her lips. Kari sucked them greedily, relishing the cool relief they brought.
“Better?” he asked.
This time when she spoke, her voice was stronger—still raspy, but more understandable even to her ears. “Am I going back to jail?”
“No!” he said. “You’re not under arrest. You’re no longer even a person of interest in the investigation. It’s over. Like I said, your mom has stepped up to the plate big-time. She’s fully cooperated with the DA. She went on record to explain what happened ten years ago. Jake—well, Jake’s pretty much been caught red-handed. He’s going away for a long time, I’m afraid.”
Kari closed her eyes. Four years of pain and deprivation, and it had all been for nothing.
“Not nothing,” Rob said. She realized she must have been whispering the words aloud. “Sam Franklin says he’ll see what he can do to get your conviction reversed. And the insurance company is satisfied you didn’t have any knowledge of the arson...so they’re cutting a check.”
Kari stared up at him as she tried to take in what he was saying.
“You understand what I’ve said?” he asked. “You’ve got this expression on your face like I’m speaking Greek or something.”
Kari managed a laugh that ended with a painful cough that ripped through her. The cough dwindled into a sob she couldn’t seem to hold back.
“Shh, shh,” he crooned. “It’s gonna be okay. It’s gonna be all right.”
“No. It won’t. It can’t be all right for you,” Kari told him. “You were right. I took away your dad, as surely as if I killed him myself. If I hadn’t made that confession—”
“No.” His voice was fierce, and he gathered her up in his arms. “That’s not on you. Your mom, yeah. But mostly Jake. He was old enough to know the consequences. He was the one who started the first fire...and the second. And all of them. But you were a kid, Kari. You were just a kid.”
“I don’t deserve your forgiveness—”
“I don’t deserve yours. You’ve been through almighty torment... I have brothers, and I get it. I get why you did what you did. But Kari—” Now it was Rob’s eyes that were shiny and bright with emotion. He averted his head. “What I don’t know is...can you ever look at me and not see the guy who put your brother behind bars?”
A huge weight lifted off her shoulders, and she felt as light and free as the day she’d walked out of juvie. “Rob... Jake put himself behind bars. Not you. Not me. His choices. His consequences. You believed in me... I think you were the only one who really, really believed in me from the very start.”
Kari pressed her cheek to his chest and relished the way she heard the steady, reassuring thump of his heart. It was a good heart, one she could trust with her very life.
“Oh, man... I’ve been sweating bullets, thinking you’d hate me forever.” He held her away from him and beamed at her before he swiped away something that looked suspiciously like a tear. “Got something in my eye,” he mumbled.
“Does that mean you’ll be hanging around, helping yourself to my baking?” Kari asked.
“As long as you’ll let me hang around.” Rob engulfed her in another tight embrace. “I nearly lost you. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good,” she mumbled against his shirt. “Because I could use a man who knows how to make roses.”
Rob lifted her chin and held her face in his hands. “Honey, I’ll make you dozens...and all the lace you’ll ever need. Just say the word.”
She reached up to meet his lips as they slanted toward hers, laughing, crying, not believing how all her bad luck could turn on a dime with the right man. “Rob Monroe, you just consider it said.”
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460389355
Out of the Ashes
Copyright © 2015 by Cynthia R. Reese
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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.
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