Page 18 of Second Chance Wedding
“You have a right to be angry with Benji. You have a right to be angry with me,” she said, her voice trembling despite her effort to keep calm, “but you donothave the right to suggest my child is a danger to me or anyone else.”
“He’s already proven he’s a risk by stealing and crashing the limo. How can you not see it, Ana? Whatever is going on in his head is eating him alive. He needs hard work and healthy outlets to wear himself out so he doesn’t implode and make you a casualty. Anyone with eyes can see that.”
Hearing the truth hurt. Knowing Cole was right hurt worse. Was she such a bad mother that she couldn’t see Benji’s actions for what they were?
He cried for help, but what was wrong? Why wouldn’t he talk to her?
She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t find the words. Couldn’t form them or the denial she wanted to make for the sake of her pride if nothing else. “I’ll talk to him. I’ll…check into counseling for him.”
“Do that. But you are not going to leave this room until I have your word that you will tell me if he ever lifts a hand to you.”
“That won’thappen.”
Cole’s expression darkened at her denial. His gaze shifted low, and he slid his palm from the door, deftly snatching her phone from the outside pocket of her purse.
“Give me that. What are you doing?”
Cole evaded her attempts to get her phone back.
“Adding my number so you can contact me when it does.”
He turned the phone toward her face long enough to get past security, and once he’d entered his information, she watched as he slid the phone back into the pocket of her bag.
“Where will you be around five?”
“I…the hotel. My boutique. Why?”
“I’ll drop Ben off when he’s finished here,” Cole said. “We’ll talk more then.”
“Wehave nothing left to say.”
“We’ll talk more then.”
ChapterFive
Ana managed to smile at her assistant manager as she made her way through the boutique toward her office. “Hi, Sasha. How are things?”
The twenty-one-year-old woman was a student at UNCW and had worked part-time for the last three years. Sasha had made the move from their tiny location near the boardwalk to the interior of the hotel, and Ana didn’t know what she’d do without her.
“Slow this morning, but it has steadily picked up through the day as people check out and in.”
“Great. I’ll be back out to help soon,” she said, moving to the back of the store. She had a tiny office that doubled as storage. Right now, that space represented an oasis and one she needed badly.
Except it wasn’t empty.
“About time you showed up,” Quinley said, lowering her heels to the floor with a clomp. “Where have you been? I couldn’t believe it when Sasha said you weren’t here.”
Ana wished Sasha had given her a heads-up that Quinley was in the office, but since it had never been a problem before, she couldn’t be mad at the girl. “I had…something I needed to take care of.”
“Did that ‘something’ have anything to do with why you didn’t respond to my texts last night after your disappearing act?”
Ana dropped her purse and phone atop the small desk. How would she ever explain the last twelve hours or so to Quinley? “It did.”
“Ana, I don’t like the sound of this. What’s going on? Last night, Sasha said you went searching for Benji, and when I looked for you, you’d disappeared. Did the little jerk guilt you into driving him home?”
Ana pressed her ice-cold fingers to her hot face and welcomed the shock of them. “I found Benji and…decided it was best to leave.”
“You’re being deliberately vague,” Quinley said, her gaze narrowing. “What did he do? And don’t BS me. You’re upset, and I know it has something to do with Benjamin.”
