Coming Home (The Santa Monica Trilogy Book 2) by Jill Blake Read Free Book Online Page A

do?”
    “What could I do? He refused treatment. I asked his parents for help, but they basically said that he was fine. Boys will be boys. That’s a direct quote, by the way.”
    “Idiots.”
    “No, not idiots. Just parents who didn’t want to face the fact that their son was out of control. When I tried to get Harry hospitalized, his parents actually paid a psychiatrist to evaluate him privately and testify that he was safe for outpatient treatment. No immediate threat of harm to self or others, according to the report. By then, of course, it was too late. The police got involved. Things got ugly.”
    Logan’s jaw tensed. “Did he hurt you?”
    Grace shook her head, then shrugged.
    What the hell kind of answer was that?  Either the man did, or he didn’t, and considering she’d eventually filed a restraining order, odds were that he did . “What happened, Grace?”
    The longer she delayed in responding, the greater Logan’s anger grew. It bubbled up inside him, an intense rage unlike anything he’d ever felt before. He wasn’t a violent man. He’d just as soon shrug off an insult as follow it up in kind. Despite years of opportunity, he’d never so much as raised a finger to the sonofabitch his sister had married. But at the moment, he wanted nothing more than to hop the next flight to JFK and beat the living crap out of a man he’d never met. All on the basis of a silence that went on far too long.
    Grace took a deep breath. “I didn’t abandon him. I tried to get him help. But at some point, you have to draw the line. It’s a matter of self-preservation. Like the oxygen masks on an airplane, you know? They always say you should put on your own mask first. Reversing the order just doesn’t work. I tried it.”
    Her fingers trembled beneath Logan’s when he reached across the table. He held himself still, resisted the urge to sweep her up and carry her out of here, away from bad memories and prying eyes, to someplace private where he could wrap her in his arms and keep her safe forever.
    Their waiter chose that moment to stop by. “How are you folks doing? Anything else I can get you?”
    Logan sighed, prepared to withdraw to his side of the table. To his surprise and delight, Grace turned her palm up and squeezed his fingers briefly before letting go.
    He glanced at her, but she was already chatting with the waiter, her expression composed, as if they had just been discussing the relative merits of gnocchi made from Avezzano brown potatoes rather than Colfiorito reds.
    Something in his chest loosened, unfurled, and spread like a low-level current through his body, making his nerve endings tingle.
    She might look like the same Grace who had loved and left him half a lifetime ago. But she was far more complex than that younger version, teeming with secrets and hidden depths. He wanted to thank her for trusting him enough to offer a glimpse into the darkness that still seemed to haunt her. At the same time, he wanted to reassure her that she had nothing to fear. At least, not from him.
    Because he had changed, too. He wasn’t the same inflexible know-it-all youth she’d left behind. He was learning to appreciate subtlety and coming to recognize that things weren’t always what they seemed. And he was beginning to understand the value of hanging on to something good, even if that meant compromising along the way.
    Now, if only he could get Grace to lower her defenses long enough to let him in completely. Much as he enjoyed watching her from across the table, what Logan really wanted was to get her naked, in his bed. The sooner, the better.

CHAPTER SIX
     
    It was dark out when they left the restaurant.
    “Where to?” Logan asked, as they approached the SUV he’d parked earlier on a quiet side street.
    Grace hesitated before climbing in. She realized she didn’t even know where he lived. In college, they’d gone from living in freshman dorms to leasing a crumbling Spanish bungalow just off Sunset