To Professor, With Love (Forbidden Men 2)

“I don’t know,” she croaked.

Squeezing my eyes closed, I ground my teeth together. “Fuck, Caroline. If you’d wanted to keep the baby, I would’ve helped you. You realize that, right? I know I lost it when I found out, but I was mad, and disappointed, and scared shitless.”

“Well, what do you think I was?” She pushed back to glare up at me. “I was scared too, Noel. And you weren’t here. What was I supposed to do?” Burying her face into her hands, she wept openly, her shoulders trembling from the force of her sobs.

Fisting my hand against my mouth, I watched her fall apart. This was my fault. I’d failed my family. I’d failed Aspen.

I’d failed, period.

“I’m sorry,” Crawling the few feet she’d scooted away from me, I pulled her back into my arms. But she remained stiff, and it broke me. I buried my face in her hair. “I’m so sorry.”

It took her a while to finally ease back against me, but when she did, I could finally suck in a relieved breath. I stroked her back as if that could somehow repay her for all the times I hadn’t been here for her. With a gulp, I glanced over her shoulder, trying to pull myself back together, when I spotted more blood. Fuck, that was a lot of blood.

“Do we need to get you to a hospital?”

She shook her head. “No, I think...I think it’s over now. They said I’d bleed. I just didn’t expect so much.” When her voice broke, I kissed her temple again.

“Does it still hurt?”

Her nod was all I needed to see. “Okay.” I shifted with her until she was sitting on my knees. Then I rose to my feet. “Let’s get you somewhere comfortable, and we’ll see about finding something for the pain.”

I didn’t even bother taking her to one of the two bedrooms. If the boys had been sleeping in the living rooms, I already knew I didn’t want to go back there.

Ten met us at the end of the hall. “Hey, I’m—”

His words broke off abruptly when he saw Caroline.

She looked up at the new voice, and her eyes bugged. “Oh, my God!” Yelping, she clutched me hard and buried her face back into my chest. “Who is he?”

Snuggling my cheek against her hair in reassurance, I said, “That’s just my roommate. Oren Tenning.”

“Hey,” Ten greeted, his voice hoarse. “How you doing?” When I saw the direction of his gaze, fixated on my little sister’s bare legs, I scowled at him. Her oversized T-shirt didn’t fall much past her thighs, giving him an eyeful.

Clearing my throat, I finally got him to tear his attention away from her. When he caught my death-glare, he spun away, putting his back to us. “Uh...the uh...I’m starving, so I was going to take the boys to the closest McDonalds for breakfast. Did you two want anything?”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “Get us some biscuits and gravy, and breakfast burritos, and sandwiches, and shit like that. Let me put her on the couch, and I’ll dig some money out of my wallet to pay.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Ten turned to watch us as I passed him.

“I’m not hungry,” Caroline protested.

“Well, you need to eat something and build your strength back up.” I settled her down and sat next to her as I fussed with the blanket Colton had been sleeping under to cover her legs. “At least try, okay?”

After a reluctant nod, she glanced past me toward my roommate. Standing awkwardly by the door with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, Ten peered back. But as soon as their gazes collided, they jerked their glances away. Blushing madly, Caroline rested her head on the pillow and rolled to bury her face in it.

I stood up, took a deep breath, and turned to my roommate. When I gave him a single nod, he rounded up my brothers, who were more than willing to go get something to eat, and left the trailer house.

***

As Brandt and Colton sat

on the couch, on either side of a pale Caroline, chowing down on all the food Ten had bought them, I stepped outside for a minute to catch some fresh air. My roommate followed me not long after.

He blew out a breath and rested his back against the metal walls of the trailer house as he set his hands on his hips. “What’s that saying? Karma-sutra: fate fucking you in in all kinds of creative ways?”

I barked out a harsh laugh. “Yeah. Sounds about right.”

Ten joined in with a short chuckle, but it didn’t last long. Cursing under his breath, his ran his hand through his hair. “So, what happened in there was...shit, man. Is she going to be okay?”