Billionaire's Touch(24)

“I don’t know if I can,” Evan shared quietly. “They’re all happy now.”

So they no longer needed or wanted their eldest brother?

Hope’s heart clenched because Evan didn’t feel like he had a purpose anymore, now that they were all grown. He’d tried to be a surrogate father to them all for so long that he didn’t know how to be just a brother. “We still need you, Evan. We love you. You don’t need to be perfect anymore.”

“I’m as close to perfect as any man can be,” Evan grumbled disgruntledly. “It’s impossible to be completely faultless.”

Hope burst out laughing. Tears were still rolling down her face as she realized that some things about her eldest brother would never change, and she really didn’t want him to be someone he wasn’t. He was a product of his upbringing and his own experiences in his life. Evan was a good man, but he needed a woman who would help him laugh at himself occasionally.

Randi would be perfect for him, but the situation was definitely precarious at the moment. After everything she’d learned about Evan today, the last thing she wanted was to see him brokenhearted. Oh, not that he’d admitted that he was anything more than strangely attracted to Randi right now, and that he’d come to like her through their correspondence when he’d thought he was talking to someone else. But Hope could see all of the signs. She had a husband she’d been in love with most of her life. It wasn’t difficult for her to recognize Evan’s attraction as a little more than what he’d described.

“Just shut up and hug me, Evan,” she insisted, smiling through her tears.

He turned away from the steering wheel and held his arms open for her. “Of course, if that’s what you need,” he agreed readily.

I’m not the only one who needs it.

Hope threw herself into his sheltering embrace, knowing he needed a hug just as badly as she did. He held her close and she rested her head on his shoulder, hopeful that someone special like Randi could help heal Evan’s hidden pain. He’d been the rock of their family, the sibling who had always been there for every one of them. As Hope squeezed him tightly, she knew it was beyond his turn to begin healing the wounds of his childhood. She planned on doing everything in her power to make that happen.

“So do you have any suggestions?” Evan asked hesitantly.

Hope knew he was talking about his situation with Randi. As she pulled back from his hug and swiped at her damp face, she told him firmly, “Plenty of them. We need to make another stop on the way back to the Peninsula. We have to get you to loosen up a little. You can drop me off afterward and then run out to Randi’s place with the groceries. I’ll call her so she doesn’t try to make the trip into town. Take my vehicle, and have the plow run in front of you on the way out there. It’s a small, two-lane highway going out to her place. It can get pretty bad.”

Evan gave her a suspicious look, but he didn’t say another word. He shifted the large SUV into gear and asked her where she wanted to go. She gave him directions, and he followed them silently. For once, Hope didn’t feel awkward because of the distance he was trying to create, or his silence, because she understood that Evan was far from indifferent. So much of the Evan they saw on the surface was nothing more than a façade. There was no question he was arrogant, but he was so much more.

“Turn right at the light,” she instructed, wondering how difficult he was going to make her effort to get him some casual clothing.

“When did you get so bossy?” Evan asked gruffly, but he slowed the vehicle to make the turn.

Hope smiled at his comment and answered, “I’ve always been that way. You just never noticed because you were so much bossier.”

He didn’t answer, but she could see the corners of his lips start to turn up.

She leaned back in the heated leather seat contentedly with a grin on her face. Evan was nearly smiling. It might not seem like much to most people, but for her, it meant a hell of a lot.





CHAPTER 6



Randi lost her power around two o’clock in the afternoon, just as she was getting ready to leave for town.

Hope called her cell phone just a few minutes after to let her know she’d picked up supplies for her and they were on their way.

“My power is out,” she told Hope unhappily as she stuffed some clothing into her backpack. “I’m going to need to come into town anyway and wait out the storm. My generator isn’t working.”

Randi had made that unfortunate discovery soon after the power had gone off. Being rural, she lost power more often than they did in town, and it was slower to come back on. She should have checked the generator before winter, but Joan had been so sick that it had slipped her mind. “I’ll get a room at one of the inns for a day or two. The hotels and inns should have openings. It’s off-season right now.”