Page 24 of Justified Fear (TFH Team Bravo #2)

She glanced over at him. “My father had this built for my grandmother after he signed his first contract. She loved to grow things.”

Sadness came and went. Her grandmother didn’t garden anymore, although she knew her mother and father took her out in their garden every chance they got. She also loved the Japanese Botanical Gardens in San Antonio.

“Wow,” Ryan said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

She glanced over at him, and he was looking at the small round table.

She had made sure to set it before he arrived.

She hoped it wasn’t too much. He put his food and glass down, then took hers.

After placing them on the table, he pulled out her chair.

“I’m the one who should say wow. I didn’t think guys did this anymore.”

He waited for her to sit down, then helped her push it in. He leaned down, and when he spoke, his breath whispered over her ear. “You’ve been dating the wrong guys.”

She shivered. “I have to agree with you.”

He took his seat. “Does this room make you sad?”

She blinked and looked over at him. “Why would you say that?”

“You had a look in your eyes.”

Wow. The guy was observant. “It’s just that Tutu used to garden. She loved to bake, too, but she always seemed happiest in here. She always had a ton of plants. Actually, all of these are hers. Well, other than those over there.” She pointed to a table with a variety of herbs.

“That’s hard. My grandmother has terrible arthritis. Makes it hard to do her sculptures.”

“Your grandmother is an artist?”

“Yes. Kind of a badass about it too. She lived in a commune years ago, and she said that the only thing that she got out of it was her love of sculpting and my grandfather.”

She smiled. “I love that. What side of the family?”

“My mother’s side.”

“Is your mother an artist too?”

He chuckled. “God, no. My mother is too analytical. She has the talent, but she always thinks it sucks. She and my father run a practice together.”

“Practice?”

“They’re both therapists. Dad specializes in helping people with PTSD, and Mom works with teenagers. She excels at it.”

“Is that why you seem so balanced?”

“No. It’s despite that,” he said, another chuckle slipping through.

He picked up half of his sandwich. After taking a healthy bite, he moaned. Keely wanted to fan her face because all of a sudden, she was overheating. Why? Because some guy enjoyed her cooking? She’d cooked for lots of guys, and their enjoyment never turned her on like this.

“Good?” She almost didn’t recognize her voice.

“No. It’s amazing. Jesus. Your place must have been packed.”

She took a bite and enjoyed it. Still, it wasn’t the same. “I like the tacos better. I guess it’s because I’ll always have Texas in my soul. Plus, when we made them, we flavored the tortillas to match the lobster.”

“I would probably expire from happiness then, because this is amazing.”

“Thank you.”

She heard the clickity clack of Maya making her way down the hall to them.

“So, you have three older brothers and none of them played?”

“Football?” she asked. He nodded. “Naw. None of my brothers were that interested in the game. They were big enough, but two of them played baseball, and my oldest brother would rather ride horses all day. Dad didn’t want them playing.

All the injuries took a toll on his body.

One of his best friends was Eddie McDougal. ”

Uncle Eddie had been a wide receiver like her dad, but he’d had too many concussions. He ended his own life four years after he retired. It had made news because he had spent the last two months of his life making a documentary about his concussions and what they had done to him.

“Oh, wow. Yeah, now I remember your dad put out a statement when Eddie died.”

“So, yeah, Dad always considered himself lucky. He had his concussions, but never like Eddie did.”

After that, the conversation turned more to living in Hawai’i. They talked about waking up before dawn for months after the move and about island fever.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but sometimes, I just need a change of scenery. So, I usually just hop over to one of the other islands,” she said.

“Which other island do you like?”

“Hawai’i. I love that it gets cold enough to wear long pants, and yes, I have been up to the observatory. I mainly love the black sand beaches and the turtles, but I enjoy the Volcano Park too.”

He nodded. “I haven’t made it to Kauai yet.”

“Oh, you have to go. They have so many feral chickens. I know they freak a lot of people out, but I love them.”

“That makes sense.”

“What? That I love feral chickens?”

“That you would take enjoyment in something like that. Those chickens, they’re independent.”

And just like that, something clicked for her.

How did this guy get her so easily? She had been with Chad for three years, and he never understood her.

In fact, he’d been disgusted with her worldview.

But this man, who barely knew her, seemed to understand her on some level that other men never did. And why did that scare her?

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

She blinked. “Sorry.”

“No problem. Just wondering if I grew another head.”

She smiled. “No. Sorry. It’s been a lot with everything that happened. Every now and then, I zone out.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why? You didn’t do anything. In fact, I’m here because of you.”

He shook his head. “No, Keely. You’re here because of you. You were smart enough to run into the forest and get up in the tree. As my grandmother would say, you have a spine of steel.”

He left her speechless, which was no easy feat.

No one thought she was strong. Her parents had always touted her cooking abilities, and they were proud of her.

But they always treated her like she couldn’t handle her life.

Even her brothers and Chad had tried to talk her down.

Her brothers because they worried about her, and Chad because he was an asshole.

“How do you know that?”

“What?”

She took a deep breath and blinked rapidly. She would not cry.

“That I’m strong.”

“Most people—men or women—would freak out when they heard gunfire.”

“Well, I am from Texas.”

He shook his head. “Stop trying to make a joke out of this. You were smart, and you kept yourself from falling apart. That had nothing to do with you being from Texas and everything to do with who you are.”

“That’s one of the nicest things anyone has said to me.”

He gave her a crooked smile, and she felt her chest grow tight, and her stomach was filled with butterflies. Jeez, that was probably the sexiest thing she had seen in a long time—and she had seen Jason Momoa at the airport once.

“Stick with me, and I’ll come up with all kinds of cool things to say about you.”

With a smile, she lifted her glass for a sip. That definitely sounded like a plan to her.

Ray stared at the ceiling. He needed to get out of the hospital. He knew that TFH was trying to pin this whole damned thing on him. Those bastards were just trying to close the case and move on. They didn’t care what was actually going on.

He knew the only way he would get out of here was if there was some kind of distraction.

As if on cue, the lights in his room flickered, then went out.

That wasn’t a good sign. In fact, it was a terrible sign.

He knew that this might be his only time to get away.

Thankfully, he wasn’t hooked up to the machines anymore.

The only thing that he had was an IV. That was easy enough.

He pulled out the needle, ignoring the sharp pain from having yanked it away.

He had requested something other than a hospital gown, so TFH had brought him a shirt and some shorts earlier.

He opened the door to take a peek out into the hall.

It wasn’t as insane as he hoped, but the cop who had been posted to his door seemed to be missing.

Knowing his time was dwindling, Ray slipped out the door and slowly walked down the hall.

He was barefoot, but he couldn’t help that.

And it was Hawai’i. It wasn’t that odd to see some random person walking down the street with no shoes on.

Keeping his back to the wall, he slinked down the hallway, not paying attention to all the activity. He reached the stairwell door. As he stepped out of the hallway, he saw someone on the floor, his head bloodied from a hard blow. The cop.

“Don’t worry, Ray. He’s fine.”

He turned to find Chad Brothers staring at him. It had been years since he had seen the bastard in person. The other man reached out and took his arm in a tight grip.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here before anyone notices that you’re gone.”

A sinking feeling pierced his stomach, and he realized that getting out of the hospital might have been a big mistake.