style="font-size:15px;"> Tanna didn’t blame Isla for being angry; the useless society girl survived when sweet Addy hadn’t. And Tanna’d not only survived, but in the hospital she’d fallen in love with the guy who’d been driving behind them, who’d held her hand while they waited for medical assistance to arrive. The same guy who also happened to be the son of a famous billionaire.
And then Levi had slid a diamond onto her finger.
She’d been told she was exceptionally lucky to be alive, even luckier her family had resources for her recovery.
Because, as Isla had pointed out, she was the lucky one, the girl who’d cheated death, who’d come out of a terrible situation with a couple of scars and a gorgeous man on her arm.
Hell, Isla was right...
And that was why she’d run away from her privileged lifestyle and her wonderful fiancé ten years ago, because the only way she could deal with the guilt of surviving when Addy hadn’t was to be anything but that party-loving, credit card flashing trust fund baby. She owed it to Addy to be better, to be more, to contribute...
To suffer.
Tanna sighed, digging both sets of fingers into her hair. Her conversation with Isla had been brief and unpleasant but it was over. Now she needed to talk to Levi...
He looked good, Tanna admitted. If she ignored his pale face and his dinged body, he looked...wonderful. At twenty-four he’d been tall and built and, sure, conventionally handsome with his deep brown hair shot with auburn and his ink-blue eyes. But somehow, and unfairly, Levi Brogan looked even better a decade later. He seemed a lot more muscular and more masculine, with heavy scruff on his face and messy hair.
Unfortunately, her ex-fiancé, even battered and bruised and a little broken, was wildfire hot.
So unfair.
Tanna rubbed her hands over her face and tipped her head back to look at the wooden beams running across the ceiling. Running out on Levi, hurting him, still shamed her, it was her biggest regret.
She’d left his engagement ring on the hall table of the house in Beacon Hill, along with a letter addressed to him in a sealed envelope. She could’ve explained she was debilitated with guilt, having second thoughts about getting married so young, that she wasn’t ready to be anyone’s wife.
That she had a debt to pay, that she needed to do more, be more. For Addy.
She could’ve said she was wondering if she was confusing gratitude with love...
She could’ve written any or all of that, but she didn’t. Through tears, and with her heart breaking, she’d just said she was sorry and she couldn’t marry him.
Tanna didn’t regret not getting married, didn’t regret, not for one moment, the last ten years, but she did regret hurting Levi, for running when she should’ve had the guts to face him.
But she’d been scared...
Scared she’d never be anything more than her brothers’ adored, overly protected sister, Levi’s wife, a socialite with ample funds who loved art and designer clothes.
She’d wanted to be more...
More grounded, more real. She’d wanted to be a person who gave rather than took.
And, in time, she’d hoped to feel less guilty. But that had yet to happen.
Tanna doubted it ever would. So, she would work at what she could control and that included facing the past, dealing with her PTSD and getting back to work...
“Hell, Murphy, are you baking the damned bread? What’s taking so long?” Levi bellowed.
...and making Levi a damned sandwich.
Standing in his light-filled office, Carrick Murphy, the oldest of the four Murphy siblings, looked across his desk to his two brothers. Finn, as per usual, was on his smartphone, occasionally sipping from his Nerd? I prefer intellectual badass coffee mug, a gag gift from their sister, Tanna, many Christmases ago. Carrick transferred his gaze to Ronan, who was staring out the window, his thoughts a million miles away.
Carrick ran a hand through his dark hair and rubbed his hand over his jaw. He knew many Bostonians looked at them, three bachelor brothers—rich and reasonably good-looking—and their beautiful little sister, and thought they lived charmed lives. From the outside looking in it was easy to forget they’d lost their parents when they were young, that the brothers had jointly raised their younger sister and they’d all lived through Tanna’s near-fatal accident. Carrick’s marriage had imploded, Ronan’s wife died, Finn and Beah divorced, and Tanna left Boston...
People seldom looked behind the wealth and success...
Carrick, annoyed by his introspection when he had work to do, rapped his knuckles on the desk. Two sets of Murphy green eyes focused on him. “Before we get to work, let’s discuss Tanna.”
“Something is up with her,” Ronan said, turning around.
Carrick nodded. “I think so too.”
“I have to wonder why she’s really back in town because Tanna doesn’t do vacations.” Ronan walked over to the coffee machine. He placed a cup under the nozzle and pushed the start button. Carrick drained his cup and passed it to Ronan for a refill. “And why does she have to live in London? She can save lives here as easily as she could there.”
“We can’t pressure her to move back to Boston. That’ll just make her run in the opposite direction,” Finn said, placing his forearms on top of a stack of paper folders. “She’s more stubborn than all of us put together.”
Stubborn and determined. Those two traits were the only reasons she was walking after the best specialists in the country had given her a ten percent chance of regaining her mobility. A decade later, nobody would suspect their fit and active sister had spent five months in the hospital after the ball of her right femur shattered her pelvis and her left ankle splintered into what they called a fountain break. The only clues to the hell she’d endured were a few livid scars and a barely there limp.
“Does Levi know she’s back?” Finn asked.
Carrick raised his shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“Should we give him a heads-up?” Ronan asked, thinking of their close friend.
Levi and the Murphy brothers had stayed friends after his breakup with Tanna, but Levi never spoke about their vibrant and gorgeous sister, refused to look at the many pictures of her in the Murphys’ Beacon Hill house. By the way he now acted, nobody would suspect that, at one time, Levi had loved Tanna.
While they were all tight with Levi, he and Carrick had the closest relationship. And as Carrick was the eldest, being the bearer of news, both good and bad, was his responsibility. “I’ll tell him.” He picked up his phone and dialed his friend’s number. Putting the call on speaker, he waited for Levi’s terse greeting.
“Yo.”
Carrick
