Blinding Rain, Season 2, Episode 7 (Rising Storm) by Elisabeth Naughton Read Free Book Online Page B

sure.”
    “What about your brother? Do you love him?”
    “Not at the moment.”
    Mary Louise tipped her head and pinned him with a look. “Come on, Tate. Just because you’re mad at a family member doesn’t mean you stop loving them. I can admit that I harbor a lot of harsh feelings toward my dad for being absent from my life, and that I am not always the greatest when he tries to make an effort with me, but deep down I still love him. Even when he hurts me, I love him. Because screwed up or not, he’s still family.”
    He stared at her for several heartbeats, then finally rested his hands on the table and shook his head as he glanced toward the ceiling. “Fine. I love the jerk, okay? I just don’t particularly like him very much right now. What he did...” He looked down at his hand. “I never would have done that to him.”
    That was the crux of what was bothering him. Mary Louise reached across the table and laid her hand over his. Warmth seeped into her skin, but she ignored it and tried to be the friend he needed, not the woman he wasn’t interested in. “That’s because you’re the better man.”
    He frowned. “You really don’t think that. If you thought that, you wouldn’t have rushed over and intervened on the sidewalk.”
    “I intervened because I don’t want to see you throw away this election. I think you’ll make a wonderful mayor. I think you’re smart and funny, when you’re not upset with your brother, and that you’re just what this town needs in a leader. I also think you’re too good for Hannah Grossman.”
    He blinked at her. “You really think all that?”
    Her heart skipped a beat, and she smiled. Maybe she looked like a fool for putting her heart on her sleeve but she didn’t care. He needed to know he was more than just the jilted ex-lover. “I really do. I also think Hannah Grossman is a total fool for ever having let you go.”
    He looked down at her hand over his but he didn’t pull away. “A fool, huh?”
    “A total fool. Huge. Gigantic. ”
    One corner of his lips turned up. “I could go with that.”
    She smiled, because this was the Tate she remembered. The confident, easy-going one, not the angry man he’d been of late. “Do you think you could maybe go with, I don’t know, forgiving them? If not Hannah, then at least your brother.”
    His smile faded, and he looked up at her again. “That’s asking a lot.”
    “Maybe. But remember you are the better man. Just think about it, okay? I have a feeling if you can get past this thing with Tucker, you’ll feel a whole lot better. And then...watch out, Storm. The new Mayor Johnson will be in town.”
    His eyes skipped over her features, and as he looked at her, her stomach tightened. Because she had the oddest sense he was seeing her for the first time.
    “I’ll think about it.”
    Mary Louise supposed that was a beginning. She started to pull her hand away from his, but Tate flipped his palm up and captured hers before she could get away.
    “On one condition,” he said, lifting two fingers on his other hand and catching Sonya’s attention at the bar. Sonya nodded, and he looked back at Mary Louise. “You have to have another attitude adjustment with me.”
    Mary Louise smiled and relaxed her hand against his, loving the way his fingers wrapped around hers, trying not to read too much into the gesture, hoping—for the first time in forever—that maybe there was something there. “I could probably do that.”
    “Good.” Tate frowned but didn’t show any sign of wanting to let go of her. And she liked that. Boy, did she like that. “Because I have a feeling I may need two or three more of those awful drinks for liquid courage. You know, if I’m really going to consider forgiving that jackass.”
     

Chapter Four
    Tate wasn’t sure how he’d been talked into this.
    Now that the buzz from his two drinks had worn off, he suspected he could blame the alcohol. One glance across the front seat of his car