Free To Forgive & Hold Safe (The Broken Men Chronicles Book 4) by Carey Decevito Page A

inward, revealing a proudly smiling Hannah.
    “What are you looking at?” She brought up a fist and chucked me under the chin playfully.  “Shut your mouth, you’ll catch flies.”
    And then her knees buckled.
    Catching her before she hit the floor, I said, “You should have let me know that you were done.”
    “I’m going to have to do this on my own some time.”
    “Had you wanted to, I would have let you, but what if something had happened?”
    “Nothing did.”
    I held on to her with my hands on her hips and her hands lay flat on my chest.  The air filled with silence as I peered into her eyes.  Something was shifting, and if I willed myself to admit it, it had been shifting over the course of days.
    “You can let go now.” Her voice had a raspy sexiness to it until she cleared her throat.  “Or are you itching for another hug?”
    “You’re the one who fell, not me.  I just didn’t want you to land on your face and hurt that cute nose of yours.”  I flicked it with my finger, making her scrunch up her face before she stuck her tongue out at me.
    Yeah, I really could get used to having Hannah around…

Chapter 2 1
    I walked into my parents’ home with a cheese-eating grin on my face, finding Dad in the kitchen helping Mom out, or more like helping himself.
    “Company present!” They both jumped.  “It smells great!  What’s cookin’, good lookin’?”  I moved to kiss my mother on her cheek, while Dad laughed and slapped me on the back.
    “Someone’s in a good mood,” he said.
    I nodded.  “It’s a good day.”
    “So you mean to say that you won’t be dodging us after you’ve inhaled your meal?” I knew Dad’s words were meant as a joke, but they still carried an undertone of hurt, which made my guilt surge up a notch.
    “Not tonight.  Unless I get a call that the business is burning down or-” I stopped myself right there.
    “Do I detect the subtlety of a woman?” Dad nudged me with his elbow when I came back from the fridge with a beer for him and me, and an opened bottle of wine to refill my mother’s goblet.  I shrugged my shoulders in answer.  Mom and Dad shared a look.
    “Spill.” Mom dropped the spoon onto the counter and turned to face me with her arms crossed at her chest.  Dad assumed his rightful position: behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.
    Dad started with, “Is it that girl from-”
    “Hannah.” I nodded.  “Sort of.”
    Dad grinned but Mom appeared confused.
    “You said she was in a coma,” she said.
    I smiled broadly.  “She woke up a few days ago.”
    As I set the table, I told them about everything that had transpired since I’d last stopped by.  Like it always was, my parents remained silent as they listened to everything I had to say.
    The more I spoke, the more I questioned myself on why the hell I had pushed them away to begin with.  I hadn’t seen one single look of pity from them as I explained what it was that I had read in Candace’s journals.  If anything, I saw anger, frustration and complete devastation – especially from my mother – at the reality that the only thing close enough to a daughter she had come to know had been nothing more than a farce.  The look of betrayal on my parents’ faces from the truth reinforced that I was right in feeling what I had been feeling.
    Throughout the week, I was grieving less for Candace and more for the losses Hannah was suffering through.
    Don’t get me wrong, I was still dealing with my losses, but I no longer felt as lost as I have for the last three years.  As it was, three years was a long time to wallow over the loss of someone you never truly had.  I basically found myself moving forward without even trying.
    “Seems like that girl’s helped you more than you thought possible,” Mom said when I finished rambling. “And it looks like you’ve been helping her through her own things too.”
    “Just be careful,” Dad