An hour later, he and Alex sat in the hospital waiting room while Riley was taken in for tests.
“You’ll take her home from here?” Alex asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
Ian shifted in his seat. “Actually I was going to ask you to do it.”
The other man narrowed his gaze. “I don’t get it.”
Ian studied his hands, trying to figure out how to explain his most personal feelings to a guy he barely knew. “After the fundraiser, I thought Riley and I had come to an understanding.”
You either trust me or you don’t. You either instinctively come to me first or there is no us. On that, I can’t compromise, he’d told her.
“Yet at the first sign of trouble, she went off on her own,” Ian said.
Alex shrugged. “Told you from the get-go she was independent.”
“Yeah. But I thought we were working on how to compromise. Hell, I compromised on you,” Ian said, because he knew the other man could take it.
Alex burst out laughing. “I hear you. The thing is, you just saw firsthand why she doesn’t trust. She didn’t call me either.”
Ian nodded. He’d give her that. That might have sent him completely over the edge.
“I’m still not sure we can go forward from here.” And that was about all he wanted to say on the subject to his half brother. “I just need to know you’ll be there for her.” Because he knew she shouldn’t be alone.
It would kill him to leave her, but he had no choice. He’d made his needs clear—and he didn’t think he was being unreasonable. He’d done everything he could to give her the space she needed to be independent, backing off from his possessiveness at work, not pushing on the unsafe apartment issue…well, not much.
Yet when the ultimate shit came down, she’d gone it alone.
“I’ll be here,” Alex said. “I always am.”
Ian nodded. He knew better than to thank the other man.
So he’d wait for news she was okay. Then he’d leave, ripping out his heart…along with hers. Because after her choices, what kind of partnership did they have? He might not be an expert on relationships, but he knew for sure without trust, they had nothing.
* * *
Riley had a concussion and mild bruising. The doctor told her she could go home as long as someone was there to make sure to check her every hour. He also advised her to watch for more severe symptoms—headache getting worse, vomiting, and extreme dizziness. Since she knew Ian wouldn’t let her out of his sight, she promised the doctor she’d follow his instructions. He left her to inform Ian and Alex of her condition and to send them in to see her.
She lay with her eyes closed, her head pounding, moving only when she heard the rustling of the curtain in her small cubicle. She opened her eyes in time to see Alex enter, and she immediately looked beyond him for Ian.
He wasn’t there.
“Where’s Ian?”
Alex settled into a chair beside the makeshift bed. “I’m sorry…he left.”
“Work emergency? Or is he that mad at me?” she asked.
Alex groaned. “I’ve seen him angry, and I wouldn’t say that now. He’s…hurt. Really hurt. What the hell were you thinking?”
“My father wanted cash. I was thinking that I’d pawn the necklace and buy myself some time to figure out what to do. Otherwise, he threatened to show up at places like the fundraiser and embarrass Ian. I didn’t want to put him or his family through that.”
He shook his head. “That’s bullshit.”
She raised her gaze. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You ran scared. The man told you to come to him with anything, and the first chance you had to do that, you took off on your own. To pawn the necklace he gave you to pay that lowlife son of a bitch.”
“I didn’t go through with it!” she said, raising her voice.
“That’s not the point!” he shouted back. “That moron I call a half brother is the best thing that ever happened to you, and you lost him, and why? Because you’re afraid to trust, that’s why. Everything has to be on your terms. You won’t accept help from the people who love you, including me. I know how that makes me feel, so I can only imagine how Ian’s suffering.”
Tears filled her eyes. “You’re taking his side?”
He grasped her hand. “I’m taking your side, Ri. Always. And I know that you love him.”
She blinked. “I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.” He shook his head, his expression thoughtful. “Honest to God, if you had to fall for a guy, why did it have to be him?”
She managed a smile. “I don’t see how it matters. He’s gone.”
“Only because you won’t give him what he needs. Look, I’m the last guy to talk about relationships, but even I can see he’s changed for you. So why can’t you do the same thing for him?”
She glanced down. “I’m scared,” she whispered. “What if I rely on him and he’s not there?”
“Listen to me. Kids are born, and they’re supposed to know their parents will be there for them, to keep them safe, to love them. You never had that, so you learned early to count on you. Then later, you found it in yourself to trust me.”
She swallowed, and it physically hurt. “Because you were always by my side.”
“I don’t see Ian going anywhere if you open yourself up to him.”
“I told him I would…and I didn’t.”
“Can you? In the future?”
Riley searched her heart. She wanted to. She did…but she just didn’t know, if pushed again, if she’d turn inward like she always did.
“Ms. Taylor?” A woman dressed in a skirt and blouse, her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, walked into the room. “I’m Madison Evans, but you can call me Madison. I’m a social worker.”
Riley’s head whipped up. “I don’t need—”
“Good to meet you,” Alex said, rising from his chair, nearly stumbling over his feet in an effort to say hello. “I’m Alex Dare, a friend of Riley’s.”
The pretty woman appeared to be about Riley’s age. She smiled and shook his hand, no sense of recognition in her expression.
“Nice to meet you too,” she said, dismissing him by turning back to Riley.
Alex’s mouth opened in disbelief.
Riley did her best not to laugh. Poor Alex wasn’t used to not being fawned over by women.