Page 43 of Caution to the Wind

He tugged me then, a fast jerk that had me falling off-balance in my heels to land hard against his chest. His chuckle rumbled through him and into me as he wrapped his other arm around my hips and started seamlessly to lead me into a dance.

“Can’t sing for shit,” he confessed. “So, you’ll just have to imagine music playin’.”

I didn’t have to try very hard.

The thump of my heart was a deep bass, the rush of blood in my ears a symphony of strings, and the sharpness of my breath the twang of an acoustic guitar. The low rumble of cars on the street beyond the parking lot and the faint spill of noise from beneath the gym doors were quiet enough to make us seem completely isolated. Only Henning and me alone in the world.

It was a dangerous sensation, one that made me feel braver and more hopeful than I should have dared.

“Do you think you could ever fall in love again?” I found myself asking him.

He paused mid-step, then smoothly continued, his gaze fixed over my head. “That’s a complicated question.”

Bile surged to the back of my tongue, an unpalatable mix of guilt and hope.

“You’re a complicated man, so I didn’t expect anything less.”

A twitch of his full, pale mouth. “You might be the only woman to think so. I’ve been called a simple man my whole life.”

“By who?”

He shrugged a little, but there was remembered pain in his expression, an echo of hurt from the past. “You’re not the only one with a disappointed father.”

That surprised me. I’d never thought Henning could disappoint anyone.

He’d been to war for our country, studied medicine to help the ill, and he was one of the smartest, kindest men I’d ever met. Anger curdled my stomach because I understood all too well what it was like to have parents who were never satisfied with your accomplishments even though you always did so well.

“Obviously, he was a dumbass,” I concluded.

To my delight, he chuckled and spun me under his arm before pulling me close again. “That he was. Thank God for Lin.”

I looked up at him, seeking answers with my gaze.

He sighed heavily. “Curiosity killed the cat, Rocky.”

“Good thing I’m not a cat, then.”

Another flicker of a smile. “My father, Soren, wasn’t a good man. He fled some scandal in Denmark and immigrated here. Knocked up a girl within the first month, and a month after I was born, she took off. He always used to say I should’ve felt lucky he kept me at all, but I think it would’ve been easier if he hadn’t.”

“Did he hurt you?” I whispered because the idea was too abhorrent to speak with conviction.

Another stiff shrug. He pulled me closer, chest to chest, but I knew it was because he didn’t want me to see his face. The scent of his leather cut and pine-rich cologne settled the queasiness in my stomach.

“Sometimes. He liked his belt more than his fists. It stopped for a bit after he met Lin, and she moved in. She didn’t like his violence, and you know Lin, she wasn’t shy about tellin’ him to cut it out. He was a drinker, though, and before long, he was hurtin’ her, too. Mostly, though, he stayed away for days then weeks, drinkin’ and carousin’. Wouldn’t be surprised if there were other Axelsen bastards out there. By the time I enlisted, he was only poppin’ up every couple of months. I think he got sent down for somethin’ at one point, probably assault. Lin took care of me until I graduated and enlisted. We were happier without that motherfucker. The only good thing he ever did was take out a life insurance policy. The payout went to Lin and me when he died. I was nineteen. The army paid for most of college, and I used the insurance money to pay for incidentals and livin’. After that, it left enough to pay for the house and Kate’s real estate licensin’.”

“There’s something karmic about that,” I decided. “Flowers blooming from the shit he’d heaped on you for years.”

A huff of laughter. “You’re the only woman I know who can be poetic and curse at the same time.”

I grinned up at him. “I’m multitalented like that.”

“You are,” he agreed, finally tilting his gaze down to mine. It was startlingly sombre. “Rén zhong zhi long.”

A dragon among men.

I blinked dumbly up at him. “Hen…I’m not so good as that. Trust me.”

“I do,” he said easily. “I trust you with Cleo, and she’s my whole heart.”