the rest of my life, I’m going to be indebted to her. Not on
paper, maybe, but in every other way.”
“Just like she’s had to live with her shame and heartbreak
for the past eleven years.”
“Where is this coming from?”
“Coming from?” Haley could hear the doubt in her voice,
the fear at what her dad was already figuring out. Damn her
and her inability to hide any of her feelings. She hadn’t done
any of this the smart way. Not that there was a right way to
talk about something like this, but she should have used more
common sense.
The silence between them was frosted over. Haley let her
dad search her face. She wouldn’t shrink away or hide from
him because then he’d certainly know everything she wanted
to keep hidden. She wanted to protect Claire.
She failed. Horribly.
“No.” The word was sheer horror. “No. She promised me.”
“Dad!” Haley raced around to the other side of the island.
She tried to take her dad’s hand, but he stepped back from her
like she had some disease that he could catch from close
contact. That stung more than anything, but Haley refused to
be hurt by it. “No. It wasn’t like that. She didn’t do anything.
She didn’t do anything to me that I didn’t want her to do. She
didn’t seduce me or use me. She let me go because she cares
about me, and she didn’t want to hurt me. I care about her
too.”
That storm threatening in her dad’s eyes broke wide open.
“Are you listening to yourself?” he thundered. “Are you?” His
hand slashed through the air like a punctation. This was the
fearsome chef that people cowered from. Haley knew all about