Reaching Hearts - Faleena Hopkins Page 0,5
your fault. Do you hear me?” He nods but I can tell he’s not convinced. Too tired to try harder, I push off the bar and mumble, “I should empty the safe, too.”
Laura calls out quickly. “Annie, it’ll be fine.”
Taryn’s worried, too. “Yeah, just leave it. Come on.”
I turn and walk backwards. “I’m going to the hospital, okay? Nothing could keep me away. Believe me.” With my hand on the doorknob, I add, “And I know he’s got a girlfriend. I’m just going to see if he’s okay. That’s it.”
They nod, but they both doubt the fates. It's like they think something's going to happen to stop me from going if we don't go right now.
“Stop it, you guys. I’m going to the hospital. I promise. Grab a chair. I’ll be right out.”
Reluctantly, they head over as my phone rings in my purse. Taryn mumbles, “Oh no.”
Laura yells out, nice and loud, “We’re so not going.”
Ignoring them, I pull out the phone. Christiano’s name and photo are staring back at me again. Him, beautiful, shirtless, smiling with the spatula in his hand. I stare at it and realize he’s called twice. He never does that. Something must be wrong. I swipe to answer, scooting into the office as I call out, “I’ll just be a second, everyone. Hey. Everything okay?”
“Bella.” He’s been sleeping and his voice is sexy, low and hoarse. “I was dreaming about you.”
It’s way before dawn where he is. I’m still not used to the time difference. I walk to the safe, but my feet are moving slower. “Was it a good dream?”
Still half in it, he mumbles, “No. It was bad. Worried me. I miss you.”
I can hear the pillow crinkling under his shifting head, hear him stretching. I can picture it all as if he’s right in front of me. I want to lean over and kiss him. Tell him I’m scared. That I almost died. That I need a hug. That I made a huge mistake. How huge, I don’t know yet.
“I miss you, too.” Closing my eyes, I push my forehead into the door. “Christiano, something bad happened.” My voice catches because I know I can’t tell him everything and even saying this, feels wrong. But he’s been my best friend for years. How could I not tell him, and so I say on a reluctant whisper, “I was robbed last night.”
He wakes up fast. I can hear him sitting upright in our bed. “Cosa é successo? You hurt?”
Slinking down to the floor with my head in my hand, I go over some of the details, wrapping myself in a spider web of half-truths that I will never get out of.
“I can’t believe I wasn’t there,” he says when I’m done, his voice so worried it sounds angry.
“You couldn’t have done anything,” I say quietly.
“Did he break in?”
“No,” I pause, struggling for lies. “I guess I forgot to lock it. It was a mistake.” In so many ways.
“Bella, you need to be careful.”
I close my eyes and lightly pound the back of my head against the door, my toes turned in and my knees bent. “I know. I should go. My team is here helping me clean. They’re waiting for me.”
“Annie, this is all on me now and then you go?” The language barrier sometimes skews his words, but since I know him so well, I know what he means.
“I wish I was sleeping next to you. I wish none of this ever happened.” It feels good to say something honest. And really… what am I doing in this city?
“Come home, Bella.”
“I don’t know.”
“Please come back.”
I should go. I could close Le Barré and call it a learning experience. My employees will find other jobs. They’re not going to be making money while we’re closed anyway, and how long will it take to reopen? Why am I here? The universe obviously doesn’t want me here. I was about to go to the hospital and Christiano wakes up to call me at that exact moment? I finally see Brendan after all these years and we’re held up at gunpoint? He nearly dies? None of this is supposed to be happening.
It can’t be this hard.
I open my lips to tell him yes, feeling the weight of failure and defeat.
Christiano sighs. “Just let me help you.”
I freeze and close my mouth. Like a rubber band snapping, defensiveness rises. We’ve had this argument too many times for me to not feel the old familiar surge of pride.