Her Very Own Family (13 page)

“I know.” She really did. Even if things didn’t work out with Brady, she’d never put him in the same category as Darren. She couldn’t imagine him being that cold and unfeeling in the wake of some very nice times together.

“It’s more than a simple crush, isn’t it? You love him.”

“I don’t know. I think so, but how can I be sure? How can it be possible when we haven’t known each other very long?”

“I’ve never seen a manual that says two people have to know each other X amount of days or weeks or months before they can fall in love. It took me exactly one date to know your father was the man for me. Nothing had ever felt so right.” Her voice sounded dreamy, like she was floating back through time to those long-ago days.

“You didn’t think it was merely infatuation?”

Thomasina shook her head. “No. I’d felt that before, and this was different. Deeply different.”

Audrey looked up at the sky and thought she could see some of the brighter stars beyond the city’s lights.

“If you love him, tell him,” her mom said. “Life is too short to hide love inside yourself. It should be shared.”

Audrey thought about those words all night as she watched her mother sleep. Thomasina had lost the love of her life much too soon, and Audrey’s heart ached at the idea of losing Brady before she even had a chance to really be with him. As dawn crept over the plains east of Denver, she decided to tell Brady everything when she got home. And hope that he felt as much for her as she did for him.

When her mom woke again, Audrey went to sit beside her on the bed. “I thought about what you said, and I’m going to tell him when I get home. I want to do it in person.”

Thomasina lifted her hand to Audrey’s cheek. “I’m glad.”

Audrey leaned over and hugged her mom. “I’m going to the hotel to get a shower, but I’ll be back later.”

Thoughts about her mom’s health and her plans to tell Brady that she was falling in love with him had her so occupied when she stepped outside the hospital’s doors that she didn’t notice the reporters until it was too late.

“Miss York, how ill is your mother?”

“Are you here to reconcile with her?”

“Are you the person investigators are taking a closer look at?”

Audrey threw up her hand to block the camera shots and hurried toward the street crossing. Anger surged through her. Someone had told the press that she was here. Horrible memories of being hounded in the after
math of her mom’s arrest hit her and propelled her faster toward her hotel.

But the sidewalk leading to her hotel was blocked by more reporters. Panic pressed in from all sides. Not knowing where she was headed, she turned left and ran away from the questions and cameras. She turned corner after corner, likely getting herself more and more lost. She didn’t even turn to see if anyone was following her. It didn’t matter. Once she was running, she couldn’t seem to stop. Not until the wheezing began in her lungs.

She slowed then stopped, grabbed the top of a wrought-iron fence while she concentrated on slowing her breathing, calming herself so she didn’t have to resort to the inhaler in her purse. As she’d suspected, no one had pursued her this far, but she still couldn’t face going back. Not yet. But where was she supposed to go? Just wander the unfamiliar streets of downtown Denver?

She lifted her head and noticed she’d stopped in front of an old stone church. The sign said St. Elizabeth’s. She wasn’t Catholic, but it didn’t matter. She found herself heading toward the doors of what was likely the last place anyone would look for her. The air was immediately cooler when she stepped inside. She walked softer as she covered the length of the center aisle then slid into the front pew. Within the old walls, the world outside fell away.

But not her hurt, not her questions about why the reporters felt the need to hound her, why her mother was sick, why something always happened to ruin her happiness. She wasn’t even angry anymore. She was just
tired and confused. It took tremendous effort to lift her head and look at the sunlight streaming in the window.

“Why?” she whispered.

Brady dropped onto the couch, too exhausted to even open the fast-food bag containing his greasy dinner. What he wouldn’t give for some of Audrey’s delicious cooking right now. Since she’d been gone, his long hours had him subsisting on coffee and junk food of every variety.

But he wanted to be caught up with his work, maybe even be a bit ahead of the game, when Audrey returned so he could spend time with her. That was if she still wanted to after being away.

He flicked on the TV as the national news was beginning. Conflict, negative economic numbers, blah, blah, blah. Same news, different day. He was about to flip the channel when the photo that flashed on the screen behind the news anchor stopped him cold. He turned up the volume.

“Family reconciliation or a move to cover her trail? That’s the question many are asking tonight after
Audrey York, estranged daughter of former TV evangelist Thomasina York, was spotted leaving the Denver hospital where the elder York is undergoing treatment for breast cancer.”

The rest of the words making up the report faded away as Brady focused on the footage of Audrey, her startled expression as she’d emerged from the hospital to find cameras and microphones waiting for her. Her fleeing across the street, nearly being run over by traffic, to get away from the reporters.

Brady’s fists clenched. Hadn’t she been through enough?

He clicked off the TV and grabbed his phone. But she didn’t answer either her cell or her hotel-room line. He sprang from the couch and paced his apartment, feeling absolutely useless and like he wanted to wring someone’s neck, preferably the neck of one of those reporters.

When he placed another call, it was to Craig.

“What’s up?”

“I’ve got to make a quick trip out of town. I’ll be back in a couple of days.”

“Whoa!” Craig said before Brady could hang up. “We’ve got the Lakeview ground-breaking in the morning, in case you forgot.”

“I didn’t. Sorry to bail, but this is more important.”

“Audrey?”

“Yeah.” He glanced at his watch as he ended the call before Craig could ask more questions. He had to pack and hit the road.

“I’
M SO SORRY
, honey,” Thomasina said from the other end of the phone line. “I never thought about reporters. Why would they show up now? My case is old news.”

“It’s the new angle of investigators possibly arresting someone else. They think it might be me.” Audrey tried to keep herself from sounding so drained, but she didn’t fully succeed.

“That’s ridiculous.”

“In the absence of any other information…”

“They should be finished with this already.” Thomasina sounded so agitated that Audrey worried about her. But something in what she’d said clicked.

“You know who it is?”

“Yes, but I had to keep quiet until they had the evidence to make an arrest.”

All the possibilities ran through her head again, but she couldn’t pinpoint one over another. How could she when she hadn’t even suspected her mother? “Who is it?”

Her mother remained silent on the other end of the line.

“Mom?”

“Okay. It’s Adam.”

Audrey let out a slow, sad breath. Adam Quinn had been her mother’s assistant for years, choosing to stay with her even when he got better job offers. She’d always thought it was devotion to her mom and the cause, but it now appeared otherwise. Was anyone what they seemed on the surface?

“They found more irregularities than what they could connect to me. Evidently he was skimming long before I started down my own wrong path.”

“I’m so sorry, Mom.” Adam had been like a son to Thomasina, even there by her side in the days after her mother’s arrest when Audrey herself had pulled away.

“This in no way lessens how much I hurt you or my own mistakes, but I do know how that betrayal feels.”

A knock on Audrey’s door made her jump and stare at it as if the dead bolt would unlock itself and let in whoever had found her. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll call you later, and I’ll come back to visit when I find another way in where I won’t be seen.”

Another knock, more insistent this time.

“No, you stay there until you hear from me.” Thomasina sounded surprisingly forceful. “I’m going to see if they can get a move on with Adam’s arrest. I don’t want you to go through this anymore.”

“Audrey?” said a male voice from the hallway.

Her gaze shot to the door. Had she finally cracked? Because that had sounded like Brady.

“Okay,” she said to her mom and hung up.

“Audrey, are you in there?”

Her shaky legs carried her toward the door. When she reached it, she was afraid to look through the peephole, afraid that if she saw no one she’d know her mind had finally flown the coop.

With breath held, she leaned forward and peered through the peephole.

Brady stood on the other side of the door with a worried expression tightening his handsome face. Afraid he’d disappear if she didn’t get the door open quickly,
she fumbled with the lock before managing to fling the door wide.

“Brady?” she choked out, hardly able to believe her eyes.

He took her in his arms. “I’m here. Shh, it’s okay.” He guided her farther into the room and locked the door behind them. Then he pulled back and framed her face in his hands. “Are you all right?”

She nodded and blinked against happy tears. “I am now.”

“I was worried about you. When I saw you on the news, you looked so scared.”

The mention of the news shattered the wonderful spell of him showing up on her doorstep like a knight in shining armor. She broke contact and walked across the room, hating how reality catapulted fantasy out of the room.

“You shouldn’t have come.”

Brady took a few steps into the room. “Why? I thought you were glad to see me.”

Audrey hugged herself. “I am, I really am. And that’s why you should have stayed away.”

He came up behind her and spun her to face him. Confusion pulled at his angular features. “You’re not making any sense.”

She closed her eyes and tried to find the right words. When she opened her eyes again, she looked up into his beautiful green ones. “I care about you a lot. That’s why I don’t want your life to be touched by all this mess.”

“I’m a big boy, Audrey. I can take care of myself.”

“But what if being associated with me hurts your business?”

“It won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

He stared down at her, and her heart hurt so much to see that he realized she was right. With a touch so gentle it was hard to believe it belonged to a man like him, he caressed the curve of her jaw.

“Maybe not. But if that happens, we’ll deal with it. I won’t be bullied, and I won’t let them bother you, either.”

Audrey knew she should convince him to stay away for his own good, but she had no more strength left to try. She wanted him here, holding her, so she didn’t have to face everything alone. She walked into his arms, and it felt like home.

“I
STILL CAN’T BELIEVE
you’re here,” Audrey said hours later as they lay on the bed together. They were still fully clothed and had done nothing more intimate than kiss, but that was what she needed.

“You’ve said that.” He planted another gentle kiss on her lips. “About a dozen times.”

“Well, I can’t.” She shifted so she could meet his eyes. “I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and it’ll have all been a dream.”

“So I’m the stuff of dreams, huh?” He winked at her, reminding her of the way he’d teased the day they’d gone canoeing.

She gave him a wicked look. “I’m not telling.”

“I have ways of making you talk.” He rolled so that he was leaning over her.

She giggled and swatted at him, to little effect. He kissed her, ending her mock struggle.

When Brady pulled away, he stared down at her, a hint of seriousness filling his eyes.

“What?”

“I need to apologize to you.”

“If this is about missing dinner again, you’ve already apologized.”

“It is, but it’s more than that.” Brady rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.

Nervousness surged through her as she lifted onto one elbow to look at him. “What is it?”

He took a deep breath, then let it out. “I deliberately stayed away from dinner.”

“Oh?” Audrey tried to ignore the punch to the gut and the ache that invaded her heart.

“Doubt got the better of me.” With another exhaled breath, Brady continued. “I was engaged once, in love, the whole thing. But a few days before the wedding, I caught my fiancée kissing another guy when she thought I wasn’t around. I was about to confront them when what they said made it worse. Seems the plan was for Ginny to marry me, get her hands on my money, drain me dry, then leave with the other guy.”

“That’s horrible.” How could any woman do that to Brady? Hadn’t this Ginny grasped what she had in him?

He closed his eyes for a moment before meeting
hers. “I saw her that night. Hadn’t seen her in probably a couple of years. I let it mess with my head. Hell, thought it was some sort of sign that I was messing up again.”

Audrey swallowed against the dryness in her throat. “What changed your mind?”

“Partly what I already knew deep down. Partly Craig telling me I was an idiot and he was going after you if I didn’t.”

Despite the seriousness of the conversation, a laugh escaped Audrey before she could cover her mouth. “Sorry,” she said against her palm when Brady looked at her.

It took a moment, but he smiled. “No way was I letting him make that move. I’d hate to have to punch my best friend.”

Audrey lowered her hand. “Defending my honor?” she asked playfully. “How chivalrous of you.”

Brady rolled toward her, sending her onto her back. “Had nothing to do with chivalry.” He stared into her eyes, making her heart flutter with the intensity. “I really am sorry.”

She lifted her hand to his cheek. “I think Ginny was the idiot, not you.”

He lowered his lips to hers, and gradually the kiss grew more heated. It felt so good, so right. Oh, how she loved this man.

Someone knocked on the door, and Audrey stiffened.

“Ignore it. They’ll go away.”

But the person knocked again. And it wasn’t hotel
staff, because Audrey had placed the Do Not Disturb sign on the door handle even before Brady had arrived.

“Just let me peek out the peephole.”

Brady rolled over and off the bed. He followed Audrey as she headed for the door as quietly as she could. When she looked out this time, she saw the top of a blond head. She motioned to Brady it was okay and unlocked the door.

“Holly, what are you doing here?” she asked with her heart beating hard. Had something happened to her mom?

“I’m your chauffeur,” the little nurse said.

“Huh?”

“I heard about what happened, and I offered to drive you over to the back entrance of the hospital. There’s only a couple of reporters left, and they’re in the front of the building.” Audrey sensed movement behind her, and then Holly’s eyes widened. “Whoa! Your mom was right. He is a hottie.”

Audrey’s face flushed, and she imagined Brady shifting uncomfortably behind her.

“That’s nice of you to offer,” Audrey said, trying to direct the conversation back to the rear-door drop-off. “But why?”

Holly made a flippy motion with her hand. “Oh, you know, because saving lives on a daily basis isn’t enough excitement for me.”

Audrey smiled. “Well, I wouldn’t want to deprive you of a little excitement. Come on in. I’ll be ready in a moment.”

“You know, I think I’ll wait in the garage. Space
C12.” She made a casual gesture toward her hair and winked before turning around and leaving.

What the…? Audrey reached up and realized her hair was messed up from lying on the bed. Brady snickered behind her. She turned and swatted him on the arm. “You let me go to the door like that?”

He smiled wider and reached around her to shut the door. As it clicked closed, he grabbed her in his arms and laid a kiss on her that had her wondering if she could postpone the trip back to the hospital.

Though it pained her to do so, she pulled away. “I’ve got to go.”

“Want me to go with you?”

Audrey stopped her progress toward the bathroom. “Do you want to?”

“It’s totally up to you. I could come in handy.” He flexed his biceps.

She laughed. “While the thought of you tossing reporters left and right like a superhero is, admittedly, a nice one, I think we need to fly under the radar.”

He closed the distance between them and took her hands in his. “I don’t want you to have to face everything alone.”

The crazy question—did he mean for only today or forever?—ran through her head.

“Plus,” he continued, “I’ve got to meet the woman who thinks I’m a hottie.”

Audrey pushed against his chest then walked into the bathroom and closed the door in his face. But she smiled at his laughter on the other side of the door.

B
RADY FOCUSED
on the warmth of Audrey’s hand in his as they followed Holly through a succession of hospital corridors to the fifth floor. When they reached the hallway where Thomasina York’s room was located, Holly turned and gave them a bright smile.

“Mission accomplished,” she said.

“Thank you,” Audrey said as she gave Holly a hug.

“No problem. I think I missed my calling as a secret agent.”

Audrey shook her head. “No. I think you’re right where you should be.”

Holly squeezed Audrey’s hands. “So are you.” She met his glance, too, as if the words were for him, as well. He felt she was right, but how could she know that when she’d just met him?

Unless Audrey had been talking about him. Well, she evidently had if her mother knew what he looked like. His curiosity flared. He’d have to ask her later—when they were alone.

After Holly left, they walked farther down the hall. The guard stationed outside made it obvious which room was Thomasina York’s. A guard for a woman with cancer seemed excessive.

“He’s there as much to keep people out as to keep her in,” Audrey said.

“Reading my mind?”