Alpha Hero - Hope Ford Page 0,63

the kitchen and for me to follow her.

I walk behind her and try not to get distracted by the sway of her thick hips in the tight black pants.

I no sooner walk into the kitchen than she’s already turning around, her ponytail flipping over her shoulder in the progress. “How dare you leave that little girl like that?”

Stunned, I come to a halt and can’t believe the venom in her voice. “Whoa, I have to work, lady. And where’s her babysitter? I left her here with an adult.”

She laughs. “Yeah, you should probably rephrase that. That woman – that woman – and her boyfriend were in here smoking and Anna’s asthma started acting up.”

“What!” I turn to the leave the kitchen and she grabs on to me, stopping me. We both look at where her hand is on my arm and then at each other.

She drops her hand like touching me burns her. “She’s fine now but exhausted. The babysitter – and I say that loosely – came to get me to have me call 911 – and I found her inhaler. Look, mister, I don’t know where her parents are or…”

“They’re dead. I’m her brother and now her guardian. I’m a cop… I had the babysitter checked out before I hired her. I didn’t just hire someone off the street,” I deadpan and then wonder why I’m trying to explain myself to her. I don’t owe her anything.

I run my hand through my hair. I want to go in and wake up Anna to make sure she’s really all right, but I know I should let her rest. I look down into the blue eyes of the woman that possibly saved my little sister and realize that yeah, I do owe her. She’s standing up to me and I’m at least eighty pounds heavier than her and a good foot taller… all for my little sister.

“Okay, so where’s the babysitter now?” I ask her.

She actually looks sheepish when she answers me. “I kicked her and her boyfriend out and told them I’d have you arrest them. It was either that or I was going to go to jail for assault.” She crosses her arms across her ample chest. “I took the lesser of two evils.”

Carly

I don’t back down, I keep staring at him, daring him to give me crap for running his babysitter off. Surely he wouldn’t want her to still babysit, I mean, c’mon.

But he doesn’t argue with me. Instead he runs his hands through his hair, making it go every which way. But even with that, he’s still handsome. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this. Anna’s brother is so handsome he almost takes my breath away.

“So… uh, I’m sorry, what’s your name?” he asks me.

“Carly,” I tell him and start to walk to the door.

“Carly.” The sound of my name on his lips has me almost running to the door. I have to get out of here before I do something stupid. “I’m Luke.”

I turn to tell him bye and he’s standing right next to me with his hand held out. Reluctantly, I put mine in his. He grabs it and holds on to it tightly. “Carly, I’m sorry for jumping on you. It sounds to me like you saved my little sister and I’m sorry for giving you shit about it.”

I shrug my shoulders at him. “Yeah, uh, no problem.”

I turn to leave, but then his words stop me. “So, uh, you don’t happen to know any nannies or kid sitters, do you?”

I rub my hand across my face because I know I’m about to get myself into something. “No, why? Don’t you have a backup?”

He starts to shrug his shoulders and then we hear Anna’s voice and her feet as she runs across the hardwood floor toward us. “Carly, can you watch me?”

“Hey, bug. I thought you were sleeping,” Luke says as he puts his hands on her shoulders to stop her from running to me.

“I was, but then I woke up. Did you hear that Carly ran off Rachel and her boyfriend? They were smoking, Bub.”

Luke only gets to nod his head before Anna finishes her story. “Yeah, and it’s the worst attack I’ve had. I don’t know what I would have done if Carly hadn’t come over.”

Luke then looks between Anna and me. Anna reaches out and grabs my hand and I squat to my knees in front of her. “Anna, I would love to be able to hang