The Bachelor Chronicles by Lissa Manley

Author:Lissa Manley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2003-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The automatic double doors opened with a whoosh. Jared walked through, dread turning his blood cold, and hesitated as the antiseptic hospital smell hit him full force. He nearly gagged. He’d never be able to step into a hospital without remembering the time he’d spent by his father’s bedside, watching him die, or the agonizing hours he’d spent in the emergency room, praying with everything in him that Carolyn would live despite her mortal injuries. The smell, the colors, the hushed voices. It all held nothing but bad, painful memories of a dying man, his confused, tortured son and the wounded woman both men had failed.

He ruthlessly shoved the memories back deep down inside. Allison needed him now, and nothing—not even the searing pain he felt thinking about his father and Carolyn—would keep him from her side.

Jared followed the signs to the emergency room, praying Allison was all right. Mrs. Sloane had told him on the phone that Allison had fallen and cut open her head. Supposedly she was going to be fine, but he had to see for himself and hold her in his arms before he could allow himself to relax. Allison was everything to him, and the one person he was certain would love him unconditionally. He couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her.

And damn if he shouldn’t have been home with his little angel instead of wasting his time on some dumb date and hanging out with Erin.

With practiced ease he let the deserved guilt flow over him. He hadn’t managed to save Carolyn when she’d needed him the most. He’d been too focused on escaping his own torment by building up his business to pay enough attention to his little sister, the wounded soul who’d escaped the pain of their dysfunctional family and their notoriety by running with a crowd of drug and alcohol abus-ers. She’d paid for her bad judgment and his inexcusable lack of interest when the motorcycle she’d been riding on had missed a curve and crashed into a tree, killing both her and her creepy, drunk boyfriend, who was Allison’s father.

I’m so sorry, Care-Bear.

Yeah, he’d failed Carolyn, big-time, but he wouldn’t fail her daughter by becoming involved with a reporter who could ruin Allison’s innocent life.

After a terse conversation with a harried-looking nurse at the front desk, he stepped through a door and moved to exam room five, where he’d been told Allison and Mrs. Sloane waited.

He stepped into the room and his blood froze. Allison sat sucking her thumb on Mrs. Sloane’s generous lap. A narrow bandage had been wrapped around Allison’s blond, curl-topped head and he could distinctly see the tracks of her tears on her chubby, pale cheeks.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to stay calm and cool-headed, even though the sight of his little girl with a damn bandage on her head drove all rational thought from his mind.

Mrs. Sloane, her round face as pale as snow, looked up. “Mr.

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