The Billionaire Next Door(28)
And just as lovely.
Abruptly, he thought about all the hours she pulled between being at the clinic and moonlighting downtown. He frowned. Although he respected people who worked as hard and as long as he did, for some reason, Lizzie’s going around the clock bothered him.
Probably because she seemed so delicate right now, the fine bones of her face showing too prominently under her pale skin.
She covered her mouth with the back of her hand and yawned. “I’d better sit up soon.”
“The hell you should. Don’t you know how to play hooky?”
She laughed and opened a pair of very sleepy green eyes. “I’m afraid I always followed the rules in school. So I’m not all that familiar with the hooky routine.”
“Well, learn from the master. Hooky means you do whatever you want. And I’m no mind reader, but you look like you’re really jonesing for a nap.”
“I am.” She yawned again and smiled up at him. “Were you a rebel in high school?”
“Yup.” A rebel who had pulled As, but trouble nonetheless.
“And you still are, aren’t you?”
He grinned at her. “My tattoo is an old one, I’ll have you know.”
“Except it’s not the ink in your skin, it’s your nature. I could tell by the way you looked at me that first night. You weren’t all that interested in social pleasantries. But you weren’t mean, though. Your father was the same way.”
Sean’s eyes shifted out to the Charles River. His father not mean? Yeah, right.
He felt his hand get gripped. “What happened with your dad, Sean? I know you don’t like to talk about it, but…”
As her words drifted, he absently rubbed her palm with his thumb and watched a crew boat stroke under one of the bridges that stretched over the water. Eventually, he said, “Nothing happened that matters now. It’s all over and done.”
“Do your brothers feel the same way?”
“Yeah.” Although actually, he didn’t know that for sure. None of them had ever talked about it. Especially Mac, who’d taken the lion’s share of the abuse.
“Do you see your brothers often?”
Sean smiled a little. “Billy and I are tight. He comes down to the city a lot on the off season and we have a great time.”
“Off season?”
“He’s a football player. Linebacker for the Patriots.”
“Boy, what a life that must be.”
“Yeah, he gets around. And I’m not just talking about all the traveling he does. My brother’s a real ladies’ man, but he’s also a spectacular athlete. Think the world of the guy, I really do.”
“And your other brother?”
Sean shrugged. “I love him just as much, but no one knows Mac well, not even us.”
“What does he do?”
“He’s in the army. Special forces.” At least that was the story. Mac had been very quiet about his job so both his brothers suspected he was involved in some very high-level covert ops.
Yeah…there was some possibility Mac was an assassin. Although that was based on one dropped comment made years ago.
“Where does Mac live?”
“He has a place just outside of D.C., but he’s not there all that often.” Not there at all, frankly.
“What was your mother like?”
“She died when I was very young.”
Lizzie lifted her head. “I’m so sorry. Do you remember anything about her?”
Sean broke the contact of their hands. The idea that secrets were escaping him, that revelations were being made that he couldn’t retract, that she was getting into his head, made him twitchy. In the home he’d grown up in, and in the profession he excelled at, vulnerabilities were used against you.
Silence was safety.
He brushed his finger down her straight, slightly freckled nose. “So how about that nap for you?”
She smiled and closed her eyes. “I’ll stop prying.”
In the silence that followed, Sean frowned, thinking there had been no censure in her tone. Just acceptance. The fact that she didn’t get on him made him feel grateful…and even closer to her.
“You don’t mind?” he said softly. “That I’m not a big talker?”
“Not at all, Sean. Just being out in the sun with you is enough for me.”
He stared down at her for the longest time, thinking how perverse it was that now that he knew she didn’t care whether he said another thing, he found himself wanting to talk.#p#分页标题#e#