Read Online Loving You Always by Kennedy Ryan - Free Book Online Page B

press of the machine giving breath to Kerris.
    “Do you hear that?” Mama Jess repeated. “That’s a machine breathing for her, and you’re having a pissin’ contest. I wonder if either of you cares for her at all if you can’t get past this long enough to put her first.”
    A stern-looking nurse chose that moment to come in, raising her eyebrows for a second before pulling them back into a frown.
    “I’m sorry. There can be only one person here at a time. And it’s only a few minutes at a time.”
    “I’ll go.” Walsh headed toward the door, but paused beside Meredith. “Keep me posted?”
    Walking through the door, he couldn’t resist bending down to kiss Mama Jess on the cheek, despite the frown she still wore. He could have sworn there was a softening in her granite-hard expression.
    “Thank you for loving her. And for coming back into her life,” he said. “She always loved you like a mother.”
    “How do you know that?” Mama Jess whispered back, her eyes filling with tears.
    “She told me.”
    *  *  *
    “Hello.” Walsh’s father responded on the second ring.
    “Dad, it’s me.” Walsh firmed up his tone and corrected his posture.
    “Walsh? This is a surprise.”
    “I, um, I’m in Rivermont.” Walsh braced himself for the explosion.
    “What about Sheikh Kassim?” His father was much more calm than Walsh had anticipated. “I thought you were in discussions with him all this week there in New York.”
    “I was. I have been, but something came up and I had to come here.”
    “Walsh, I don’t have to tell you how crucial these negotiations are.”
    “No, Dad, you don’t. There are some things I could get done from here, but some of it has to be face-to-face. I know that.”
    “What’s so important? Something with your mother’s estate?”
    “No.” Walsh clipped the word. He couldn’t think about his mother dying with Kerris still fighting that battle only yards away. “Look, I don’t know if you’ve met Cam’s wife.”
    “Kerris.”
    Her name so readily on his father’s lips robbed Walsh of speech for a moment. Not only had his father apparently met Kerris, but remembered her name. There were employees who had retired from Bennett after twenty years of service whose names eluded his father.
    “Uh, yeah, Kerris. You’ve met her?”
    “I met her when you were kidnapped.” Martin skimmed over the event as if he’d met Kerris at a Christmas party. “She recognized your hands. Or, rather, what were not your hands.”
    “Huh?”
    “Those shitheads from Haiti? They sent us a finger with some of your belongings, implying that it was yours.”
    “It was Paul’s.” Walsh’s heart sagged beneath the familiar guilt over the missionary his captors had murdered right in front of him. Needlessly.
    “Yeah, well, your mother and Jo and even Cameron were all set to start moaning about it.” A touch of humor entered Martin’s voice. “That little lady, not bigger than a minute, frowned and said, ‘That’s not his finger.’”
    Walsh swallowed, closing his eyes. What woman recognized a man’s fingers if she didn’t love him just a little bit?
    “And then she looked at my hand and said, ‘Those are his fingers.’”
    Martin gave into a full-bodied chuckle, sounding somewhat delighted.
    “Can you believe that? Intense little thing, isn’t she?”
    “She’s been in a car accident.” Walsh tried to ignore the stingers of pain in his chest, expelling the next words. “She was pregnant and has already lost the baby. It’s bad. I’m not leaving until she’s out of the woods.”
    “You there to support Cameron?” Walsh knew his father was more than merely curious.
    “I’m here for her.” Walsh slathered the remark with defiance. He was not in the mood to defend his feelings for Kerris.
    “That’s good. Don’t worry about Kassim. I’ll put Miller on it.”
    Walsh wired his jaw shut, squelching the protest that sprang to his lips. Andru Miller, a few years