Home Run by Bernadette Marie Read Free Book Online Page B

I mean?”
    “Damn it! I don’t want you to hate me for the rest of my life.”
    “I don’t hate you.” She spun and her head kept going long after she was sure her body had stilled. “My whole problem has been that I don’t hate you quite enough.”
    Christian raised his hand to her cheek and she wanted to wince and pull away, but her body was no longer following the rules her brain was sending out.
    “Let’s just walk.” He held out his hand to her.
    Victoria contemplated his offer for a moment, but considering it was getting harder to stand still she accepted his hand.
    He interlaced his fingers with hers and they began to walk toward the stairs that would descend down to the atrium.
     
    While he had drank away his afternoon and danced with the woman by his side, day had given to night.
    “What do you say we walk outside?”
    He could see her trepidation. “I don’t know…”
    “Please.” He was going with the fact that fate must have stepped in and given him this night. After all, how perfect was it that someone took the kids and that man who’d pawed and kissed her all day was called away, too. Yeah, fate was giving him one shot to show her how much he’d missed her.
    They walked through the front door of the hotel and he kept her hand in his. As of yet, she hadn’t shaken hers loose.
    Desperately he hoped that the booze, now sloshing in his stomach and swimming through his head, didn’t make him do anything stupid. God forbid it made him sick to his stomach or make him say things that would make her run.
    “Clare said Sonia picked up the kids.”
    Tori nodded nervously. “They’ll stay with her tonight. She was giving me the evening to have some adult fun.”
    She’d said the words and he felt her tense. Her lips tightened, but she didn’t retract any part of her statement.
    Christian was extremely happy that Scott had left, now for more than one reason.
    “The kids looked cute today. I had no idea they would be in the wedding.”
    She’d smiled when he mentioned the kids. “Darcy didn’t call until late yesterday. They were thrilled to do it.”
    “You’re doing a good job with them.”
    The smile on her lips disappeared. “It’s gotten a little easier now that we have a routine, but I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t had Sonia. The kids needed a lot of adjustment after the accident and there I was always in a cast or something.” A tear rolled from her eye. “Sam doesn’t remember his parents much, or isn’t old enough to really ask, but Ali…” she sucked in a sob that must have stolen her breath, “she misses them.”
    The tear had become a full on cry and Christian stopped walking and turned to her. “I’m so sorry.”
    Tori wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I’ve taken her to counselors and they say it’s normal, but it’s so unfair. I don’t know how to make it better when I miss my sister so much I can’t sleep at night.”
    Christian had never been one who could offer comfort in a desperate situation. He clearly remembered when his mother had cancer, he had sulked around as if he were a victim while his father and older brother kept the family together. And, since he was admitting things to himself, probably because he was more than a little inebriated, the past two years with his injuries and then the accident, he’d been playing the victim again. And again, he was being taken care of all the time.
    “Let’s keep walking,” he offered trying to think of a different conversation that wouldn’t steer them back to the accident, though that seemed to be the common ground they now had.
    He didn’t take her hand, though he wanted to. She had crossed her arms over her chest and walked guarded next to him.
    “So, Ed has me overseeing the building of a baseball stadium.”
    “Really, that’s great.”
    “Not anything like major league, but a small community one.”
    “See, you can use your talents off the field.”
    He nodded. He