“Anything.”
“Can you start joining me for coffee in the morning? It’ll brighten my day.”
“I’d love to.”
“I’m sorry I hurt you in the shower,” he said with a tender hum in his voice.
She smiled. “I’m over it. Couldn’t you tell?”
He touched a finger to her cheek. “You have brought so much happiness back into my life and my home. Last night and today were the most magical and incredibly beautiful moments of my life. You were unbelievably amazing. It was never like that for me. Ever.”#p#分页标题#e#
Michelle’s heart leaped with happiness. She had something on the late Mrs. LaCrosse, and he’d been honest enough to tell her. “Well, I can’t take all the credit. I had an excellent teacher. I didn’t know my body could do half the things it did in the last eighteen hours.”
He chuckled. “There’s a lot more I plan to teach you, Mrs. LaCrosse. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Michelle smiled in euphoria. She was sure she hadn’t.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Back and forth, Michelle paced the length of the porch as her mind raced in anxiety. She was a desperate woman who had lied to her husband, and if her brother didn’t go along with her, she could lose everything.
Robert had to corroborate her story. He just had to.
It was exactly a week since her secret marriage and one-night honeymoon in Boston. There hadn’t been time to dwell on the memories since Erik had been preoccupied with Danielle’s death. Last Sunday, they’d driven up to Granite Falls for the funeral that took place on Tuesday. It was during the ride back on Thursday that Erik told her he wanted to meet her brother and Yasmine, the two people who were closest to her. He wanted to invite them to dinner before he left for a medical conference in D.C. tomorrow.
When she’d asked him why he wanted to meet them so suddenly, he’d simply stated that they were married, albeit secretly, so it was time he met his in-laws.
Michelle couldn’t argue with his logic without causing suspicion, and so had reluctantly made the phone calls, hoping that since it was short notice both Robert and Yasmine would have prior engagements. They didn’t.
With Robert and Yasmine coming to dinner, the subject of her father was bound to wind its way into the conversation. So while Precious and Erik were getting dressed, she’d decided to keep vigil on the porch for Robert. He’d always been there for her. He had to come through for her again tonight. Her entire future depended on him lying for her, just this once.
Michelle stopped her pacing when she spotted her brother’s car coming up the long winding path to the house. She was down the stairs waiting anxiously in the driveway by the time he pulled to a stop in front of the three-car garage. She broke out into a wide grin as Robert pulled his tall, lean frame from his silver Lexus.
“Come here, little sister,” he said.
Michelle threw herself into his arms. She hadn’t seen him in weeks, and even though they spoke on the phone regularly, she still missed him.
Myriad memories assailed her. Noble ones of Robert as a young boy, working at the local supermarket after school, bagging groceries, sweeping floors, cleaning up, just so he could earn some money to buy them food. Robert shoveling snow, mowing lawns, delivering papers in sub-zero temperatures on an old bicycle he found at the dump and fixed up. Robert reading to her at nights, calming her, soothing her fears.
Then there were the unpleasant ones of Robert standing in front of her to shield her from their drunken father’s rage. Robert taking a beating for her while she crouched in a corner, listening to the blows their father delivered to his young body. Tears sprang to her eyes at those memories.
Robert held her at arm’s length so he could look into her eyes. “You still crying, Mich?”
She chuckled at the endearing nickname. He and Yasmine were the only people who called her Mich. She sniffled and poked him in the chest. “I’m just happy to see you, you big hunk.”
Robert grinned and looked up at the house. “Some place. Big change from where we came from.”
“Well, you live in a brownstone on Beacon Hill.”#p#分页标题#e#
“True,” he said with a whimsical smile.
“Did you ever imagine I’d end up in a place like this?”
“Well, I did teach you to dream high. But you just work here, Mich,” he astutely added.
Michelle gave him an obscure look.
“Oh, it’s more than that. See, I’ve been racking my brain, wondering why I got an impromptu invitation to meet your employer of barely two months. What’s going on, Michelle?”