Page 205 of Toxic Temptation
Something in her tone makes me look at her more carefully. She’s staring into her tea cup, avoiding my eyes.
“What do you mean by that?”
She shakes her head, as if trying to dispel whatever thought just crossed her mind. “Nothing, nothing. All I want for my children is what I had with Thomas. I want them to find the love of their lives. I want them to experience that kind of partnership.”
“And you’re trying to figure out if I’m the right man for your daughter.”
“Oh, no, don’t be silly.” Her smile returns. “I knew you were the right man the moment you walked through that door.”
“How?”
“The way Vesper looks at you, mostly.” Annabelle sets down her tea cup. “I’ve never seen her look at anyone like that. Not once in her thirty-one years on this planet.” She pauses. “The only thing I need to know is whether you’re going to take care of her heart.”
I take my time answering. I could lie, give her the reassurance she wants to hear. It’d be easy to do. But something about Annabelle Fairfax demands honesty.
“I’m going to try my best.”
She nods, as if that answer satisfies her more than any grandiose false promises would have. “She needs someone strong, Kovan. Someone who won’t be intimidated by her intelligence or her ambition.”
“I have many flaws. ‘Easily intimidated’ is not one of them.”
“I figured as much.” Annabelle picks up her tea again, studying me over the rim. “I think Thomas would have approved of you.”
Through the window, I can see Vesper helping Luka into the bounce house while Pavel and Waylen engage in what appears to be a wrestling match. Her laughter carries on the evening air, bright and unguarded in a way I’ve rarely heard.
“Can I ask you something?” I turn back to Annabelle.
“Of course.”
“A minute ago, when you mentioned Vesper being a better doctor than her father—what did you mean?”
Annabelle’s cup freezes halfway to her lips. For a long moment, she doesn’t speak. “Thomas was brilliant,” she finally says. “But he made choices near the end that I still don’t fully understand.”
“What kind of choices?”
“The kind that good men make when they’re trying to protect the people they love.” She glances out of the window at the same scene I was just looking at. Domestic bliss in her backyard. The pure happiness of a child and all those who love him. “Protection can look like pushing people away. It can look like making decisions that seem selfish on the surface but come from a place of love.”
I think about my own choices—the walls I’ve built, the distance I’ve tried to maintain with both Vesper and Luka. The constant battle between wanting to protect them and wanting to keep them close.
“You think he was trying to protect Vesper when he refused her help?”
“I think Thomas knew things about himself that he didn’t want to burden his children with.” Annabelle meets my eyes. “Justlike I think you know things about your world that you don’t want to burden Vesper with.”
I give her the only answer I can, which is a stony silence.
“The difference,” she continues, “is that Vesper isn’t a child anymore. She’s a grown woman who can make her own choices about what risks she’s willing to take.”
Just then, the back door bursts open and Luka races inside, cheeks flushed and hair sticking up in every direction. “Uncle Kovan! You have to come see this! Waylen taught me how to do a backflip!”
“A backflip?” I raise an eyebrow at Waylen, who appears in the doorway looking slightly guilty.
“A very small backflip,” he clarifies. “More of a backward roll, really. Perfectly safe.”
Vesper pushes past her brother, shaking her head. “I turn my back for five minutes and you’re teaching my kid dangerous stunts.”
My kid.
She doesn’t catch the slip, the second time she’s said that, but I do. So does her mother, whose sly smile widens.
