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I idled beside her for a beat before joining her at the sink and reaching for a dish. “I’ll help.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to. Besides, I’m not sure how you plan on doing the dishes with one hand.” I took the plate balancing on the edge of the counter and toweled it off, setting it aside. “Listen, I’m hoping we can keep what happened at the party between us,” I murmured, schooling my voice to stay low as I glanced toward the dining room. “For Tara’s sake.”

“Sure. That’s fine.” She stole a glance at me, her slender throat working through a swallow. “Nothing happened.”

That was a lie and we both knew it.

But I was the adult here. There was no other choice but to be fine. And while we might have gotten swept up in a physical reaction that night, no fatal lines had been crossed.

Fine was doable. Fine was possible.

“All right. Good.” My eyes settled on her profile, then on her broken arm that I wanted to mend with just a look. “That bruise on your face on Christmas Eve…that was from your father?”

The thought alone was a lethal invader, and my body tensed up imagining her own father hurting her like that. I couldn’t fathom it. He was fucking bastard, and I was glad Whitney had given her a safe place to stay, despite the circumstances.

Halley faltered, blinking down into the soap bubbles as her lips thinned. She nodded once. “Yes. Sorry I lied again, but there was nothing you could do. There wasn’t any point in bringing it up.”

“I could have helped you.”

“How?”

“I…” I didn’t know. She was just a pretty girl I’d met at a party. A stranger, essentially. “I could’ve done something. Called the cops. Given you a place to stay for the night.”

She made a huffing sound. “You would’ve taken a teenage girl back to your place on Christmas Eve after we’d already…” Looking up at me, her eyes glazed over, muted caramel and a dash of emerald. “Never mind.”

“Yeah.” My lips flattened. “I would have.”

“I don’t need you to save me, Reed. I’m not actually lost.” Her eyes dipped back to the sink. “I’m stronger than you think.”

That had been the first thing I’d said to her as I searched Jay’s property, on the hunt for my rebellious daughter, before spotting her standing all alone in a shallow lake with her hair lit up like a halo under the moon.

Are you lost?

She’d looked it.

Lost, searching, a split-second away from disappearing underneath the water for good.

I wasn’t prone to one-night stands or random hookups, but as the evening had pressed on, something about her had me wanting to toss her in my truck to take her back to my apartment, just so I could memorize the look on her face when she screamed my name and came apart beneath me.

She had told me she was twenty-one, and I’d stupidly believed her. She looked older. And even though younger women had never appealed to me, a strange connection had bloomed in those first few minutes while we talked about music and dreams, facing each other, just a waterline apart.

Seventeen.

Everything unraveled when the truth had spilled out. Shock, horror, a sickening pang of disappointment. I’d been this-close to sleeping with a fucking teenager and the notion was deplorable.

My daughter’s best friend.

I’d managed to bury the lust-driven thoughts fairly quickly, but she had still crossed my mind. I’d wondered where she was, how she was doing, and if she’d captured any new blips or found another favorite song.

As if reading my mind, Halley changed the subject and reached into the sink for a serving bowl. “Have you listened to their new CD?”

I swiped the dish before she tried to wash it herself. “What CD?”

“Oasis.”

“Yeah.” I smiled softly. “It’s good.”

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