“I don’t care.” He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the road. “The bastard put his hands on you. Hehurtyou.”
“I’m okay, Olly.”
A big yawn stretched her mouth at the exact wrong time, and she couldn’t hide the grimace of pain when the yawn strained her tender throat.
“The fuck you are!” He swung a glare in her direction. “The asshole choked you, Scarlett. He could havekilledyou.”
Yes, she was quite aware of what had happened to her, as well as whatcouldhave happened. She was also aware of the true source behind Olly’s rage.
“This wasn’t your fault.”
And she really was okay. She was sore and her head was still throbbing. But all things considered, the night could have been a lot worse.
“I should have been there.”
“There was no way for you to know what was going to happen.”
“I should’ve seen this coming. I should’ve done a better job at sticking close to you, and I should’ve?—”
“Oh, so you can see the future now?” she quipped. “Because that’s the only way you could havepossiblyforeseen what happened tonight.”
“That’s not the point, Scarlett.”
“It’s the exact point, Olly.” Shifting in her seat to better face him, she hid a wince when the seatbelt rubbed against her tender hip. “You know, and I mean this with the upmost respect…but one of these days, you’re going to have to realize you’re not that powerful.”
The man flinched almost as if she’d slapped him. “Excuse me?”
“I’m serious. You can’t protect everyone all the time, Olly. I know you want to. It’s one of the things I lo…er… like about you.”Phew, that was a close one.“But you are not responsible for what other people do. You’re just not.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it to me.”
Olly grew quiet then, and for a minute, Scarlett was positive he wasn’t going to say a word. But then…
“I almost didn’t go into the house that night.” The guilt and shame in his eyes when he glanced her way broke her heart. “The night that bastard attacked Izzy. I was tired, and I’d had a shit day, and Izzy had assured me she was fine. So when we got off the phone, I took a shower. A fucking shower.” He chuckledhumorlessly. “Because I was going to just call it a night and go to bed.”
Oh, Olly.
“What made you change your mind?”
A ghost of a smile lifted one corner of his mouth as he changed lanes to pass another car. “A commercial, believe it or not.”
“A commercial?”
He nodded his handsome head. “I got out of the shower, climbed into bed, and turned on the T.V.” Olly’s shoulder lifted with the smallest of shrugs. “I fell asleep to the T.V. back then.”
When he didn’t offer more, Scarlett asked him, “What was the commercial?”
“It was stupid, really. Some cell phone company. They were offering a promotion at the time. Family and friends. And there was a scene that showed two grown siblings on opposite coasts talking and laughing…and all I could think about was the conversation with Iz. And the more I replayed it in my head, the more I realized how scared she really sounded.”
“So you went to her.”
Another nod. “And we know how that turned out.”
“Yes, we do.” She swallowed. “You saved your sister.”
“I almost didn’t.”