“No, I don’t. And neither do you.” Her mouth fell open, but I took another step closer, enough that she had to tilt her chin to look up at me. The proximity made my stomach muscles clench, because I couldhave touched her so easily if she’d let me. God, I wanted to touch her again. “She wasn’t supposed to be out with me that night. He thought she was studying for a test in her room. Instead, she wrecked the car he bought her, even though she didn’t want one.”
“What would have happened if he knew it was her?”
“He’s always threatening to send her away.” I held her gaze. “I’m completely convinced she’s got ADHD, if he’d care enough to get some testing done, get her support and tools and medicine if she needs it. But he won’t because he thinks it’s bullshit. An excuse. Instead, he thinks he can discipline her enough that she’ll change. He’ll send her offif... if she doesn’t get her grades up. If she doesn’t start paying attention in school. If she’s not better, if she isn’tperfect, if she doesn’t pretend to be exactly what he wants, he hangs it over her head like a weapon. A school for girls on the West Coast that can ‘handle problems like her,’” I repeated dully. “I will not let him do that. It’s a hidey-hole for rich assholes to send the kids who can’t get in line, and it would destroy her to be treated the way they treat those girls.”
Her chest rose and fell as she listened to me talk. “How long until she turns eighteen?”
“She just turned seventeen.” Analise’s face appeared in the front window, her happy smile turning a crank underneath my ribs. I raised my hand in a short wave. “When she turns eighteen, she’s coming to live with me.”
“Does your father know that?”
“No, and I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he realizes he can’t use her as a weapon against me anymore. I’ll be the source of his anger every fucking day of the week if it means he ignores her. It’s when he notices her too much that things get bad for Analise.”
My fists clenched at my sides, and Remi noticed. I wanted to tell her that I hated him. That my hatred made me more like him than I wanted to admit. Now that I’d unlocked my words, I wanted to give all of them to her.
Slowly, she reached forward and slid her palm down my forearm, holding my clenched fist with her cool, slim fingers. My pulse raced at the simple touch, and she seemed oblivious, staring down at our hands until my fingers relaxed. She didn’t wind them together, instead wrapping her fingers around my palm and setting her other hand on top of mine.
“You’re a good man, Archer Evans.” Her gaze was so direct, so forthright, that it almost took me to my knees.Shealmost took me to my knees, and I wondered if she had any idea. “You’re determined to hide that, though, aren’t you?”
I pulled my hand from hers, wishing I could slow the frantic pounding of my heart. “I don’t need anyone to know what happened that night.”
Remi tilted her head. “I won’t tell anyone about the accident,” she promised. “But I wish you would. Someday, at least.”
There was no point, but it didn’t feel like the right moment to tell her that. Athletes had overcome far worse scandals than this one, and I’d do the same.
Even kids like Gavin, sweet and impressionable and kindhearted, would forgive me eventually, as long as my performance on the field was impressive enough. It was a double-edged sword, being a celebrity in the world of sports. We were forgiven probably far more easily than we should have been.
The sky had gotten darker as we stood and talked, and a slight chill in the air made her shiver.
“You’re cold. We can go inside.”
She breathed out a laugh. “Family room before date six,” she said under her breath. “Unbelievable.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Remi smiled. Not a forced one, not tight or uncomfortable, but an amused, secretive smile that made me want to kiss her soundly on the lips. “Yeah, we can go inside.”
The sound of the front door opening made us both turn toward the house. Analise was pulling her bag over her shoulder. “We need to go, Archer.” She gave me a meaningful look, and the worry in her eyes was enough to make me stand up straighter. “Dad’s on his way home.”
“Ah.”
Gavin was behind Analise, wearing plaid pajama bottoms and a shirt with a sleeping moose on it.
“So you can’t see my room?” he asked. I swear, the way that kid looked at me gutted me in an entirely different way than his mother. Scooped hollow. Scraped raw by both members of the Sinclair family.
Remi and I traded a look, and she slid her hand over Gavin’s back. “They have to go home, bud. And you need to get to bed anyway. It’s a school night.”
The disappointment in his face broke my fucking heart. I found myself crouching in front of him again, like I had when I’d arrived. “Will you show it to me the next time I come over?”
His eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re coming back?”
Even though my sister was watching and Remi’s eyes were wide with shock, I looked at Gavin, then up at his mother and held her gaze. Her breath caught audibly in her throat. If she could hear my heart, it was the unsteady thrumming that would’ve given me away.
“Yeah, I’ll be coming back.”