Worth It (Forbidden Men, #6)(18)

“Hmm. Maybe.” I watched his face as he played so intently with my hair. I was just as drawn under as he was while he twisted two strands together, only to let them go and watch them spiral apart, before he did it all over again.

A content, peaceful quiet grew between us. I don’t think he even realized neither of us had talked for over a minute.

Finally, I sighed as I studied him, soaking in his striking, Parker features.

“You know, I am aware my father is a shrewd, calculating businessman with no mercy or softness whatsoever, but he works hard to take care of our family. And my mother...sure, she’s the biggest snob of the century, but so many of her charitable events have made this town beautiful and helped—”

“Are you trying to get me to like your family?” Knox cocked me a strange look.

“What? No.” I sputtered for a moment, trying to remember what point I’d been getting at. Then it all came back. “I just...everyone treats me nice because of who my family is. And I...I’ve always kind of been proud to be a Bainbridge, you know. I would’ve defended any of my relatives, whether I knew if they were right or wrong.”

I looked up into his curious eyes and bit my lip. “And I know it looked like I was going against my brother when I didn’t help him catch you for what you did to his bed, but that wasn’t any disrespect to him. It was just—”

“Kindness?” Knox said quietly, watching me intently. “To me.”

I blushed and gently pulled my hair from his hand because it was distracting me too much. “I don’t know. Maybe. But the fact of the matter is, until the other day, I respected my family. But when my mother refused to even accept the possibility that the baby could be her own granddaughter, especially after seeing her, I...I felt...shame. I was so ashamed to be a snooty, ignorant Bainbridge.”

With a sniff, Knox reached for my hair again. “That’s not such a deep, dark confession. I’m ashamed of being a Parker damn near every day.”

Meeting his gaze, I shook my head solemnly. “Yet you’ve snuck over here three times to get vengeance for your sister’s honor.”

He shrugged and focused his attention on slowly sliding his finger down one glistening red lock. “I get what you’re saying. They’re our families. Flaws and all, they’re ours, and they’re the only one we’re ever going to get. So, we naturally want to feel loyal toward them. But you also have to admit it’s okay to be disappointed when they let us down. And you don’t always have to agree or follow what they say or do.”

When his brown gaze lifted to meet mine, I expelled a breath I hadn’t even known I’d been holding. “Good point,” I whispered. Then I realized something. With a flash of clarity, I blurted, “Bentley’s my family.”

He dropped my hair from his hands and frowned, almost suspiciously. “Okay, yeah. I guess. Your point?”

I straightened my back. “The rest of my...relatives might not claim her, but I’m going to.” Except, I wasn’t sure how. I’d probably never see that little redheaded baby again, unless... I tilted my head to the side. “Hey... Do you think...?”

I flushed, knowing it was an impossible request.

“What?” he asked, shifting closer.

“Nothing. I just...I want to see her again. I mean, can I... I don’t know.” Feeling like the idiot I was, I set my hand against my forehead and began to turn away, but Knox’s voice stopped me.

“You want me to set you up with an introduction with Miss Bentley? Without anyone else knowing about it?”

I whirled back to him, hopeful. “Do you think that’s possible?”

He shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I could say I was taking her outside for a walk or something. Mercy would be grateful for a break. Then you could just meet us in the woods.”

I tucked the piece of hair he’d been playing with behind my ear. “Really?”

He nodded. “Sure.”

My heart began to gallop. I was setting up a rendezvous meeting with Knox Parker. Yeah, there’d be a baby present, but still...it was too exciting to handle.

I bobbed my head. “Okay, that sounds...that sounds great. Thank you.”

He nodded as well. “No problem. Does this afternoon work for you?” When I nodded again, he grinned. “Cool. We could meet, I don’t know, by the tree where we first ran into each other.”

He remembered the tree where we’d met? Aww. Okay, fine, it’d only been a few weeks ago. Of course he’d remember the place where he’d pinned a girl to keep her from screaming to her brothers and alerting them of his presence so they didn’t kill him.

But still...he remembered!

“Sounds like a plan,” I answered, sounding way too casual for how much I was really flipping out inside. “I’ll see you there.”





So, I went home with Pick Ryan.

In high school, I’d always felt sorry for the guy. Everyone knew the story of how he’d been abandoned at the hospital by his birth mother when he was born. He’d never known anything but foster care, and he’d always seemed to get the worst possible luck in caregivers.

My family had been poor, my father a no-account drunk, and my mother was hardly ever around because she worked too hard to bring in the money. We kids had run wild and rarely went anywhere with clean, neatly kept clothes. But we’d had each other, and that counted for something. Pick Ryan hadn’t even had that.