Dropping The Ball - A New Year’s Billionaire Romance - Weston Parker Page 0,81
back my surprise and charged forward.
“Billy? Oh my God! What are you doing here?”
My brother turned just in time to see me coming at him. His face split into a wide grin and he opened his arms for me to launch myself at him. “Ooomph. That’s a nice hello, sis. I wasn’t expecting quite this much enthusiasm.”
I buried my face in the crook of his neck, hugging him tight while trying to get my emotions under control. “You came. I can’t believe you’re here. Wait. Why are you here? When did you get in?”
He pulled back, setting me down gently before taking a step back to look me up and down. “You’re looking good. How are you feeling?”
I stuck a leg out and wiggled it around before doing the same with the other. “I’m fine. I haven’t had another attack since that one on Friday and all my tests came back looking really good.”
Some light crept back into the blue of his eyes and his chest expanded like he hadn’t been able to take a full breath since he’d found out. Motioning for me to take a seat on one of the stools, he fixed a cup of tea for me and coffee for himself. “Do they know what brought it on?”
I rubbed my palms on my jeans, about to answer when Bart popped his head in the door. “I’m going to give you two a few minutes to talk in private. I’ll be in the control room if you need me.”
Billy frowned at me over his shoulder, but there was some amusement in the slant of his lips. “The control room?”
I shook my head, chuckling as I lifted both shoulders. “Formerly known as my formal sitting room. The space was unused, so they set up some monitors and things in there as well as in Cart—”
My throat closed around his name. Pain lanced through my heart as the memories of the last time I’d seen him rushed through my head. Forcing air into my lungs, I took a few steadying breaths before trying again.
“There’s monitors in the guest room as well as the sitting room.”
My brother turned and pushed the cup of tea across the counter before wrapping his fingers around his mug. His expression was back to being serious, the lightness that had just been creeping in gone without leaving a trace behind.
“Can’t even say his name, huh?” he asked, sounding sympathetic rather than surprised. He dipped his head to look into my eyes, leaning down to slide his forearms onto the counter with the mug still gripped in his hands. “He’s the reason I’m here, Ry. He called me.”
“He did?” My heart started pounding wildly. I tried to keep it calm, but it refused to play along. “What did he tell you?”
“That you needed me.” His features pinched as though he was in pain before he raked his hands through his hair. “You should’ve called me. I’m grateful that Carter did, but why didn’t you?”
I watched the steam floating off the surface of my tea like it was the most fascinating thing in the world, unable to meet his eyes. My voice was quiet when I finally found it again. “I freaked out. I think I was kind of already freaking out even before it happened. The doctors say it might’ve even happened because I was so stressed and emotionally wound up.”
“Carter didn’t only tell me that you needed me.” The admission in Billy’s tone made me look up at him. I didn’t know what I’d expected to see in his eyes, but it wasn’t the soft expression I found in them. “He also told me that you two have been seeing each other and that you chased him out of the hospital.”
“He brought you here for me,” I repeated his earlier words. A humorless laugh came out of me and tears pricked my eyes. Hanging my head, I swiped the gathering moisture away but I couldn’t scrub away the emotion in my voice quite as easily. “I’m so fucking in love with that man, but he deserves so much better than me.”
I didn’t hear him move, but suddenly Billy’s arms were around my shoulders and he was hugging me. “That has to be the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard. What the hell made you think that?”
A shuddering breath left me. “I can’t saddle him with someone like me in the long run. I should never even have started this thing with him.”