All I Ever Need Is You (The Sullivans #14)(25)

But that was where the similarities ended. Because his siblings had never been as cruel to him as her sister had been to her. If they had, he wouldn’t have stood there and taken it. Of course he would have helped them get back home and into bed—but he also would have told them where they could shove their crappy attitude.

His chest hurt every time he thought about the way Kerry had withstood Colleen’s harsh words, and his jaw clenched every time he thought about the fact that she hadn’t seemed at all surprised by them. He’d wanted to find out what else her sister had said to her so that he could tell her none of those bad things were true, and that she should never believe what someone so messed up had to say about her.

Only good things. All good things. That was what he wanted for Kerry—all the good and beautiful things that she gave to everyone she planned weddings for.

Actually, more sizzling-hot sex was right at the top of the list, too. Especially when five days had turned out to be way too long to go between their hotel meet-ups. Hell, given how good they’d been together, they could have spent the last five days naked together in the penthouse suite without needing more than a little food and water every now and again.

His father cleared his throat, drawing Adam back to the sidewalk they were standing on and the house in front of them.

“If you take this on, Adam, it’s going to be a hell of a lot of work.” His father turned away from the house to look at him. “You’re looking for a challenge, aren’t you?”

Again, Adam found himself thinking of Kerry. He hadn’t thought he was looking for a challenge with her, but from the first moment he’d set eyes on her and realized she wasn’t like any other woman he’d ever known, he’d immediately wanted to find out more. The more he found out, the more he wanted to know. Not just because the sex had been mind-blowing, either. But because she continued to fascinate him in every way.

“I’ve got more than enough on my plate right now,” he told his father. “Too much to even be considering taking on a house like this, where something tells me I’d have to give it one hundred percent focus.”

Adam always worked on multiple projects at once. When he started to get a little bored with one, he could jump to another. He’d never actually focused on only one building, figuring that split-focus was just who he was. But could he change for this house? Or, rather, could this house change him?

Despite its current wrecked state, there was something about it that told him once upon a time it had been someone’s special place, and he couldn’t quiet the voice inside that wanted to make it special again.

“No one would blame you if you decided to let this one go. She’s going to be damned prickly,” his father said. “Parts of her will probably fall down around you right when you’re trying to put her back together.”

It hadn’t escaped his notice that, though Adam’s working with the house was still in a very hypothetical—and unlikely—stage, his father wasn’t speaking in maybe and might. No, Max Sullivan had already moved on to will and are.

And Adam couldn’t miss that tug in his own gut that told him this place might be the ultimate diamond in the rough. Not for an investor or even a Realtor like his sister, but for Adam himself.

“Still,” his father added in his deep, steady voice, “it’s always hard to walk away from something beautiful, isn’t it? Especially when you can sense that giving her your full attention will make both of you happy.”

“We still talking about the house now, Dad?” Or had Rafe or Brooke said something to his parents about Kerry—and the sparks that had very clearly been jumping between them at dinner on Friday night at the hotel?

“I don’t know. Are we?” His father grinned. “Or is there something you brought me here to talk about other than this house?”

Adam had never been one to kiss and tell. And he’d never wanted, or needed, to pull his parents aside to talk about love and broken hearts, either. But, strangely, instead of outright brushing off his father’s question, he realized he actually did have another question for him.

“There’s someone I want to help with something personal, but she’s pretty tough. Pretty stubborn, too. She doesn’t think she needs anyone to help her, but—” Constant frustration and worry had ridden Adam since Saturday morning. Because if anything happened to Kerry while she was helping her sister...

“Tough and stubborn, huh?” His father looked more than a little taken aback at hearing that. “Doesn’t sound like the kind of woman you usually date.”

Adam wasn’t surprised that his father was fishing for details—it was just the way of things. Not because his father wanted to control his kids’ lives in any way. Max and Claudia Sullivan only wanted them to be happy. And his parents believed, with one hundred percent certainty, that true love was their children’s surefire path to happiness.

“We’re not dating,” Adam clarified. “I’m not even sure she wants me to be her friend, actually. But I need to be there for her anyway.” Because if Kerry kept letting her sister wound her the way she had at the bar… Adam had to deliberately unclench his jaw.

“Of all the kids,” his father said after a moment, “you were always the one who immediately reached for the hammer and nails. Or the glue and staples. You hated to watch things fall apart, not if you thought you could save them before that happened. Even if that meant trying to hold things together with your bare hands, like that bird’s nest that you wouldn’t let go of when you were eight because every time you put it down it fell apart. But sometimes, all you can do is trust that people are going to figure out how to rebuild things for themselves, and let them know that you’re always there as a true friend if they ever do want to reach out for you.”