Page 11 of Embrace Me

“I just wanted to say, I liked Annabeth, and I think she’s a really good therapist. I’m sorry I didn’t believe her when she said it was a victory.”

“You don’t have to be sorry.”

“It’s just that it’s still not easy, and I want it to be.”

“I know.”

“I know you do and that’s why I wanted to talk to you. Because you’re so strong. And I know that if you are, then I can be too.”

I try very hard to swallow the tears that have gathered in my throat. Because I never thought of myself as strong before Damien, and I don’t think I can express to this girl how wonderful it makes me feel to know that I now stand for her the way he does for me.

“I’m glad, Mellie,” I manage to say. “I can’t tell you how glad that makes me.”

Chapter Five

“Gotta hand it to you, Damien. You did good.”

Damien turned to see Evelyn standing beside him. She was smiling, and there was a kind of pride in her eyes he’d never seen before. A different pride than what he saw in Nikki, his wife and love, or his brother Jackson, or even from his friends and coworkers. Evelyn was smiling at him like a parent, filling that role she’d silently adopted so many years ago.

He reached for her hand and returned the smile. “Well, you know how much this place means to me. I’m glad it shows.” He cast his gaze around the large room where Nikki and Jamie were about to announce the reason for this celebratory cocktail party that the foundation was hosting for its supporters.

She chuckled, then lifted a hand, signaling to someone. Across the room, he saw Frank Dunlop lift his chin in acknowledgment, then start making his way toward them.

“Of course I know,” Evelyn continued, and he heard the truth in her voice. She’d been with him during the worst horrors of his childhood. She hadn’t known all of the details, but she had known some, and she’d definitely seen the big picture.

She’d been one of the few who had kept his biggest secret over the years, a dark secret, that had haunted him, that he’d never thought he would have the power to overcome, at least not until Nikki had come into his life.

Now, with her, he knew that anything was possible.

He was smiling, thinking of her, as Frank moved in closer and slipped an arm easily around Evelyn’s waist.

Damien forced himself not to react or comment. Not to smile, not to hope. But he did hope. For Nikki’s sake he hoped that these two people who loved them—and whom he and Nikki loved—were truly together. That Evelyn and Frank’s relationship was another brick in the fortress that was the family that they were building, stone by stone, relationship by relationship, friend by friend.

“I know,” Evelyn repeated, “but it’s not the foundation that I was talking about.”

Damien cocked his head, eyeing her with surprise. “No?”

She shook her head. “I’m talking about Nikki,” she said gently, nodding to where his wife stood by the stage, ready to climb the steps to the podium. “I’m talking about how good she is for you. How good you are for each other.”

Damien swallowed, moved by her words.

“I don’t know if I somehow knew what you two would be to each other that day I met her on my patio,” Evelyn continued. “But I’m going to say that I did. Might as well take credit where credit isn’t due.” She flashed him a wicked grin. “Isn’t that the Hollywood way?”

Damien laughed, catching Frank’s eye as the older man grinned. From what he’d seen, Frank cared about Hollywood as much as his daughter did—as in, not at all— but he cared completely about Evelyn, and as far as Damien was concerned that was the true measure of the man.

Damien reached out for Evelyn’s hand, then squeezed it. “I’m not going to argue with a word you’ve said.”

”Good. Plus, you know how proud I am of Nikki for what she’s done here, too.”

“I know,” he said sincerely. “Me, too.” He’d been hesitant when Nikki first told him that she wanted to become a youth advocate at the foundation. They’d still been so close to coming out the other side of the horror of Anne’s kidnapping—so close to when she’d once again taken a blade to her skin.

His heart had broken for her, but he understood. Hell, at the time she’d cut, everything felt as though it was falling apart, and God knew he’d been hanging on by a thread himself. When you got right down to it, the only difference was he’d beaten himself up with fists and fury, whereas his wife had turned to the steel of a blade.

He’d understood, sure. But he’d also feared that she was too raw to take on the pain of these kids as well, and when she’d told him she wanted to publicly discuss her cutting and work with the kids as a Youth Advocate, he couldn’t help but worry.

Now, of course, he knew that Nikki had made the right choice. He’d seen her with the kids, and he knew damn well that this was something she was born to do. He glanced around the room and saw Mellie, the teen who had come to them broken and scared, and who now had so much confidence and laughter in her eyes.

Mellie saw him looking at her, then rolled her eyes as she cocked her head, then pressed a finger over her lips before pointing to the podium, as if to tell him to be quiet, idiot, his wife was about to speak. He grinned in acknowledgment, then turned to look at his wife.