Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Suncoast Society #29)(71)

“Didn’t stop Eva,” Jesse muttered.

Leo slowly shook his head. “No, I guess not. I should have suspected that, but I didn’t want to think she’d do it. There was one time I went to get stuff out and I thought things were moved around, but I figured it was you.” He went quiet for a moment. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“We were going to tell you once you were stronger. Why didn’t you tell me about the power of attorney you had Ed draw up for me?”

“I…was going to.”

“Besides, Eva said she told you when you dropped Laurel off the night of the accident that she was going to ask her attorney to quit stalling the divorce. So it’s not like it wasn’t going to happen anyway.”

Leo scowled. He had no memories following them picking up Laurel from Eva’s on Friday night, until he really started waking up in the ICU. The doctors had warned that was normal, and was as much an effect of the accident as it was the anesthesia. That he might not ever get those memories back.

“It’s the truth,” Jesse said. “She told me. She has no reason to lie about that.”

“Do you believe her?”

“I do. Ever since our come-to-Jesus moment in the shower, she’s turned it around. I can see a good change in her.”

They both turned as Eva walked in. “Hey! Look at you.” She stopped and stared at them. “What? And where’s Laurel?”

Leo arched an eyebrow and crooked his finger at her. “Come here.”

“What?”

“Apparently,” Jesse said, “Laurel read the papers. She spilled the beans.”

“Papers?”

“Divorce papers,” Leo said. “You’re both busted. Come here.”

Almost looking like a guilty child herself, Eva’s shoulders slumped as she slowly closed the distance and stopped on Jesse’s side of the bed, next to him. Jesse hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her down into his lap.

“Don’t be hard on her, Sir,” Jesse said. “Please. We were all doing the best we could at the time.”

Leo focused on Eva for a long, quiet moment. “Jesse,” he softly asked. “Please go find June and Laurel and hang with them for a few minutes.”

Jesse gave Eva a peck on the cheek before she got up, allowing him to move and her to take his chair.

He crossed his arms over his chest in his best imitation of Laurel. “Fine, Daddy. If you wanted to talk to her alone, just say so.”

Jesse thought the best sound he’d ever heard in his life was Leo’s pained laughter following him as he flounced out of the room.

Okay. Sooo worth the beating I’ll get later.





Leo stared at Eva for a moment. She clutched her purse on her lap, her gaze down.

He knew that look too damn well.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

That finally got her to look at him. “You’re the one in the hospital bed asking me that?”

“Yeah. So tell me the truth.”

“I’m…dealing,” she finally said.

“Tell me the whole truth. About Monday. In the bathroom.” The truth he suspected she hadn’t even revealed to Jesse, or Jesse would have told him.

He waited her out. “I wanted to die,” she whispered. “I thought man, my parents are right about me. Leo’s moving on. I couldn’t even think straight. Thought she’d be better off with you and Jesse than with me.”

“Is that why you were really going to drop the challenges to the divorce?”

She stared at her purse. “I knew Jesse would keep her safe, even if you…”

She didn’t finish.

She’d never told anyone but Leo about the time in college when she’d taken some pills and a quart of vodka and surprised herself most of all when she woke up the next morning, hungover and feeling sick as shit and lying in a puddle of her own vomit, but alive.

And he’d never told Jesse about that. It wasn’t his place. He might not be able to stay married to Eva, but some promises to her he absolutely would and could keep.

Holding her secrets was one of those promises.

Just like he would never reveal the other things she’d told him that had happened to her in her life. The dark things that made her childhood a hell.

Jesse might never know exactly how grateful Leo was to and for him, that he didn’t hand Laurel over to Eva’s parents that first night in the hospital.

Especially not to Eva’s father.

Eva hadn’t revealed those dark truths to Leo until after she was pregnant with Laurel. Another reason why Leo wouldn’t have more than one child with her. Hell, he might not have had Laurel with her had he known about Eva’s father before that.

He couldn’t ever plan what Eva might do in the future, but his own child, by god, he would protect her from that man.

One promise he’d forced Eva to make to him after she’d admitted what her father had done to her was that they would never, ever, allow any child of theirs to be alone with her father. No overnights, not even shopping trips.

Never.

And that if Eva ever allowed it and he found out about it, he would immediately leave her and take their child with him and file for full custody. This was an oath he’d made to her before they’d even known if Laurel would be a boy or a girl.