Page 20 of The Love Ambush (The Sullivans #1)

Levi

W e find Daphne and her sister-in-law at the spa. They’re with two staff members, and they seem upset.

“Hey, baby.” Brodie walks right over to Daphne and puts an arm around her robed shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Gentry,” Daphne says. “She ran off after—”

“What happened to Gentry?” I ask, my face going numb and my heart rising to pound in my ears. If anyone hurts her, I’ll kill them.

Daphne motions for me to come closer and takes both of my hands in hers. “She’s okay. She’s just really upset.”

I don’t like how she seems to be trying to break this to me gently. “What happened?”

Daphne’s smile slips. “I’m not sure. She got really upset during her massage and ran off. We don’t know if she got hurt or if she’s just embarrassed, but we can’t find her anywhere.”

“How do you not know if she’s hurt?” If some male masseur with big hands touched her inappropriately, I will destroy his life.

After I find Gentry and make sure she’s okay, of course.

Daphne glances at Brodie and winces. “I’m not sure she’d want me to say. Let’s just say it was her first time getting a massage, and the experience affected her emotionally.”

I am no less confused, and I’m getting more worried by the second. “Did a masseuse here touch her in a way she didn’t want to be touched?”

The staff member behind Daphne gasps. “Sir, I can assure you, all our masseuses are professional, and they would never—”

I glare at the man and turn my attention to Daphne. “I’m asking you.”

“No.” She squeezes my hands in reassurance, and I do feel oddly reassured. There’s something very calming about her. “It was nothing like that. Just find her and make sure she’s okay. She can tell you what happened.”

“Any ideas where I should look first?” I ask.

“She’d want to be alone,” Liza says. “Maybe the indoor botanical garden?”

“I’ll go with you,” Brodie says, looking concerned.

“You stay here,” I say. “She probably doesn’t want a crowd if she’s upset.

” The truth is, I want to make sure Gentry’s okay, and I don’t want to be pushed to the side by her brother or anyone else who thinks they have more of a claim to her.

Maybe it’s selfish, but I’m not feeling very generous right now.

Brodie hesitates, studying me like he’s trying to figure me out, like he still doesn’t get just how serious I am about his sister. “Text me,” he finally says, before turning all his focus on Daphne. “What happened to working on wedding favors?”

I hurry out of the spa before I hear Daphne’s answer.

It probably would have been smarter to ask Daphne where the indoor botanical garden is, but how hard can it be to find? If Gentry was upset when she ran out of here, she could be anywhere.

I scan the hall outside the spa and, thankfully, there’s only one way to go and no hidden doors.

She was running, so I run, looking for the first branching hallway or door that might lead somewhere private, somewhere she’d notice even in a hurry.

The first side hall is lit and open. I hurry down it and come to a glass door leading into a garden.

I hear her before I see her. She sounds like she’s in pain, she’s crying so hard. Great, racking sobs. It makes my chest ache to hear her and also makes me see red. I want to hurt whoever hurt her.

She’s curled up in a corner of the garden farthest from the door, on a wooden bench. She’s pulled her knees up to her chest and is resting her head on them, wrapped in a soft, white robe.

“Gentry,” I say as gently as possible. “It’s Levi.”

She looks up, her eyes red and puffy. “No,” she says. “Go away.” She drops her head back onto her knees and keeps crying.

I sit on the bench and rub her back as she cries. I’m not sure she even notices, and it doesn’t seem like enough. I need to do more for her, to take her pain away.

Scooting closer, I wrap an arm tight around her shaking shoulders and hold on. When that’s not enough, I wrap my other arm around her in an awkward seated side hug.

“Go away,” she says again, but there’s no real force behind the words.

“I’m not going anywhere until I know you’re okay. If you want me to stop hugging you, I will, but I’m not leaving.”

She doesn’t say a word.

“Gentry. Do you want me to stop hugging you?”

With a sob that sounds frustrated, she crawls into my lap and curls back around herself as she cries.

I hold on tight and let her cry. What I want to do is ask her what happened so I can fix it, but that’s clearly not what she needs right now.

I rub her back, and she rests her head on my chest, her tears soaking my shirt.

It takes all my willpower not to notice she’s wearing very little under her robe.

A woman I care about in pain doesn’t turn me on, but this is Gentry. It’s hard to turn off that part of my brain completely even now.

Eventually, her tears stop, and she sits up, swiping at her eyes. She tries to climb off my lap, but I hold on. “Are you okay, baby?”

“I’m okay,” she says. “I just… She massaged out my knot and I couldn’t stop crying. I need my knots, Levi. They’re what hold me together. Knots and stress headaches remind me I’m alive.”

I assume she’s talking about knots in her muscles. “Maybe you needed that cry. Maybe you’ll be okay if you let go every once in a while.”

“Clearly, I’m not okay.” She gestures at her beautiful face, her make-up smeared in streaks down her cheeks. “This cannot happen again.”

“Why not?”

She stares at me like I’m an idiot. “Why not? This is horrible. I never want to feel like this again.”

“Okay. That’s fair. But maybe if you let out a little bit like once a week or something, it won’t get to this point.”

She scrunches up her nose. “Maybe? I mean, this amount of crying can’t be good, right?”

“Why don’t you give it some time? See how you feel in the morning?”

She sniffles. “Okay.” She looks around like she’s just realizing where she is. “We should probably get back to the others and let them know I’m okay.”

“They’re fine,” I say, not wanting to let her go. “We can stay here until you’re ready.”

She lowers her eyes. “Would it be okay if I stayed right here on your lap, for just a bit longer?” She looks up. “We’ll never talk about it, and I’ll never ask for a repeat. I—”

“You can stay on my lap as long as you want. I won’t ever hold it against you.”

She snuggles back against me and, now that she’s not crying, it’s much harder to remember I’m not supposed to be attracted to her right now.

She lets out a long sigh. “I guess I’ve been more stressed than I realized.”

“Raising kids is a ton of work. I’m not surprised you’re stressed.”

“It’s not just that.” She hesitates. “After we walk out of here, can we forget everything that happened, including what I say?”

“I can’t promise to forget, but I promise never to talk about it.”

“I can accept that.” She sits up, so close I can see the flecks of green in her hazel eyes. She scrunches them shut tight. “I can’t believe I’m about to admit this out loud.” She opens them, and determination takes over her puffy expression. “I don’t want to be a nurse.”

She frowns at whatever she sees on my face. “You aren’t surprised. Why aren’t you surprised?”

I try not to smile, but I can’t help it. “Remember when I visited that summer before senior year and took that bet with Brodie?”

She rolls her eyes. “When you built that idiotic skateboard ramp and nearly lost your leg?”

I smirk. “I scraped it up pretty badly, but I was never in danger of losing it.”

“There was a flap of—” she slaps a hand over her mouth and makes a gagging sound just at the memory.

“You threw up in the bushes and demanded your mother call 911 to get me to the hospital before I lost too much blood.”

She huffs. “She wouldn’t even drive you. She made Brodie drive you, and he only took you to urgent care.”

“Which was all I needed. I got like two stitches.”

“Two stitches is a lot, Levi.” She lowers her head and shakes it. “Oh, my God. It was so obvious, wasn’t it? What the hell am I doing?” She looks up, eyes wide. “Do you think everyone knows?”

I shrug. “Only people who’ve ever seen you react to an injury. I know you want to do right by your sisters, but you were an amazing artist. Do you still hope to get back to that some day?”

“I did. I still do. But we need a stable income. I figured nursing was the safest bet. There are always jobs for nurses.”

It makes my chest warm to hear her say what I’d already assumed. I really do know this woman. “That makes sense.” I choose my words carefully. “But now that you know how much you hate nursing, couldn’t you find something else to do?”

Her face crumples for just a moment before she regains control with a wistful smile.

“I was actually going to talk to Brodie about that and see what he thinks I should do, but now he wants to stop sending money altogether. He definitely won’t understand me giving up on nursing.

Which makes total sense. He deserves to start his life with Daphne without having to worry about us.

” She shakes her head. “It’s fine. It just means I need to toughen up and see the nursing program through.

I’ve only failed one semester. I can get back in. It’ll be great.”

“Wait, you failed out?” How much has she been holding back? No wonder she’s got knots that contain tears.

She nods. “It’s an incredibly tough program.

Lots of people fail out and have to try again.

” She chews on her lower lip. “Of course they’re all great at clinicals, and I’m terrible.

I mean, I’m fine as long as I don’t have to deal with blood or vomit or anyone in a lot of pain, but…

” She drops her head on my shoulder and groans.

“I can’t be a nurse. I’d be a terrible nurse. ”

“That’s okay. We’ll find something else you’re good at, something that allows you to do your art.”

She sits up, expression determined. “No. I can do this. I can be a nurse if I just get over my squeamishness and accept this is my life now.”

My heart aches for her. “You shouldn’t have to do that.”