Found in Us (Lost 2)

"I don't want to risk—”

"How would you have felt if someone tried to keep you on a leash when you were her age?"

Parker lets out a bark of humorless laughter that sends chills down my spine. "I would have liked to see anyone try. But no one cared enough to try." He takes a sharp breath, straightening his shoulders as he strolls away to the window with his back turned to me.

Warmth fills me at his words, and I'd like nothing more than to hug him tightly, but somehow I get the feeling he doesn't want that right now, even though he might need it. Opening a door to the past is an act of strength. Admitting the need for affection takes a different kind of strength altogether.

I feel a rush of affection for his concern for Dani.

"Just because you let her make her own mistakes doesn't mean you don't care about her," I say softly.

"I don't want her to do something she won't be able to fix later on," he growls.

"Have a little faith, will you? Besides, Dani is a good kid. She’s doing summer courses, for God’s sake. They’re optional. College starts in the fall, and instead of partying the summer away, she’s enrolled in classes. She’s still a nerd at heart, and so are the other kids she’s befriended. They’re all taking the same courses."

He turns to me, and to my relief, the corner of his lips lift upward to form a smile. "Fine, Jessica. We'll do it your way." Striding right toward me, he curls an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. "But you'd better take my mind off the whole thing." I shudder slightly as he tugs at the hem of my shirt, his fingers touching my skin. "Let's go upstairs," he whispers.

"Just let me check on the coq au vin first," I say, unable to help myself. Parker lets me go, chuckling.

"Are you serious?"

"It's so easy to get it wrong," I say defensively.

"There's nothing worse for you than a botched meal, is there?"

"Well there are worse things, but this is right up there with a broken nail or shoe heel," I joke. "Or sex without an orgasm."

"You can scratch that last one off your list," Parker says, his voice dropping an octave. "I assure you it won't happen while you're mine."

"Checking that we won't starve for dinner?" Helen asks, entering the kitchen. "That's probably a good thing. Tara's cooking is a trial and error process that results in errors most of the time." After a pause she adds, "Don't tell her I said that."

"Well, I'll let the two of you save the day," Parker says with a smile.

Helen lets out a deep breath after he leaves the kitchen. "Thank God you managed to calm him down. I was fully expecting Parker to drag all of us back to London."

"He wasn't far from it," I say as I open the oven to inspect the chicken.

Helen shakes her head. "Things are either black or white for him. No gray areas. Either he doesn't give a damn about people, or is fiercely overprotective about those few he does care about."

“Well, I think we can work with that.”

Chapter Thirteen

Jessica

The weekend goes by too quickly, and before I know it, it’s Sunday and Parker is driving me back to the apartment. The first thing I do when we enter the apartment is check on Dani.

She’s sleeping, even though it’s early afternoon, which I assume means that she was out late with her friends yesterday. I can't help wondering why Dani is trying so hard to become a party girl. Everything from her shy nature to her obvious feeling of inadequacy when wearing tight or short clothing makes it clear that she's not that kind of girl.

“She’s sleeping,” I inform Parker, who is waiting in the living room. “But... my nose is an expert at detecting the smell of a person who is hungover, and Dani’s room smells just fine.”

“I’ll take your word. Do you have plans this afternoon?”

“As a matter of fact, there was something I wanted to do this weekend before a certain Brit hijacked my plans.”

“Hijacked, did I? So you didn’t have any fun?”

“I did not say that. I had a lot of fun. Before, the only thing I knew about Worcestershire was that the sauce was made there. Now I know a few things more. I loved it.”