There was something disturbing about walking into a hospital when your reasons for being there were completely in the wrong. Still, I did it. Climbed out of my car after rushing across town, all because of a phone call. I’d seen this sort of nonsense on dramatic television shows—the whole one moment changes your life bullshit. But I guess it wasn’t bullshit, not really. Should have been. Would have been, but then I’d spent an evening with someone I shouldn’t have been alone with, and as cliché as it sounded, my world changed. My focus changed. In all the wrong ways.

So when the phone rang and the news that Lara McKay—mother of my daughter’s best friend—was in a horrible accident, that new focus sent me scurrying to find out what I could do to help. But again, for the wrong reasons.

Yes, Lara was hurt. Yes, she needed someone to check on her since she had no family here except her daughter. Yes, my being her daughter’s best friend’s father gave me access to more of her life than a casual acquaintance, so I felt comfortable coming when I found out about the accident. That was all fine. What wasn’t fine was the reason I chose to come to the hospital—because it wasn’t Lara.

It was her daughter.

Genesis.

One of the sexiest human beings I’d ever had the unfortunate luck to come across. Fiery, wild, bold—Gen wasn’t a woman you could ignore. Especially not when she turned those huge blue eyes on you. It was impossible. Until you remembered she was eighteen years old. Then…not so impossible. Hard for sure, just as she made me every time she looked my way, but not impossible.

Yet there I was, storming into the hospital because I knew she’d be alone. I knew she’d need someone. And I wanted that someone to be me.

“Lara McKay,” I said as soon as I approached the information desk. The man behind it, who wore an obnoxiously decorated sticker with the name Paul in the middle of it, frowned and typed, frowned and typed. Slowly. If he’d been an employee of mine, I’d have fired him already. And that was before he started humming to himself.

“Car accident,” I said, doing my best not to grit my teeth. “Came in through the emergency room.”

He nodded and pressed a few more buttons at the pace of a sloth. “Got it. Looks like she’s in the surgical ward. Are you family?”

“Yes, I am.” The lie came easily—too easily—but the fact that my own cousin was a surgeon here had taught me a few things. Like that only family was allowed in the surgical waiting room, and that the volunteers behind the desk would never ask for proof of relationship.

Paul did not disappoint. “Perfect. Okay, here’s a guest badge. Please wear it throughout the hospital. Surgery is up on—”

“Four,” I said, cutting him off as I snatched the plastic badge from his fingers. “Yeah, I got it. Thanks.”

I rushed to the elevators and jabbed the up button more times than necessary. The damn thing seemed to take forever to arrive and even longer for the doors to slide closed behind me. What was it with this place and obstacles?

As I stared at the lights telling me what floor we were on, my impatience burned hot under my skin, my need to get upstairs harsh and painful. I would’ve liked to have said it was for Lara. She was a nice lady, pretty and sexy. Between her looks, her charm, and the fact that we were the youngest parents on the PTA—fully a decade younger than the rest—it would have made sense for us to date. Hell, we’d even flirted a bit when the girls first met and we started seeing each other at playdates and birthday parties. Two single people in their early twenties trying to navigate the waters of being a parent and an adult tended to gravitate together. But no, she wasn’t for me. No one had been, really.

I’d kept any romantic connections private—very private. Temperance Falls was a small island with big eyes and even bigger ears. The last thing I needed was to start dating someone and risk my reputation. I had a little girl to raise, one I protected with everything I had. Lara had been barely more than a blip on my attraction screen.

Her daughter was a whole different story, and I was going to end up in hell for the thoughts I’d had about her. Those thoughts—fantasies, if I was being honest—had started recently. Really recently. Just since the night barely over a week ago, when she’d sat on my couch talking with me as if we were old friends. Leg up and tucked beneath her, far too much skin on display, red hair tumbling over her shoulders—she’d been a dream come true. A siren calling to the basest parts of me. And smart. The girl was charming, personable, witty…and sex on legs. I’d barely been able to resist her; the only thing keeping me from pinning her under me was the knowledge that my own daughter, Gen’s best friend, had been sleeping upstairs at the time. That and the fact that she was far too young for me. Probably.

Think of the devil, and he shall appear…

“Brandon.” Genesis caught me as I stepped off the elevator, those killer eyes meeting mine. They were so bloodshot, so pained, so worried. I couldn’t help myself. I grabbed the girl and pulled her into a hug, shielding her as much as I could with my body.

“Are you okay?” I asked, nearly shaking with my need to press myself against her. To feel more of those curves. To hold her tight and never let her go so I didn’t have to think about what would have happened if she’d been in the same car as her mom when it went over the bridge. Fuck, she wasn’t mine in any way, but that would have killed me.

Gen clutched my shoulders, her delicate fingers pressing deep, and nodded against my chest. “I’m fine. My mom’s bad, though. There’s swelling around her brain, plus her leg’s pretty mangled. I don’t… I’m not sure what we’re going to do.”

The fear in her voice gutted me. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

A silent moment, the feel of her body melting into mine, and then she cried. Hard. Fuck, that wasn’t like Gen. The girl was loud, brash, and audacious. Sexy in a way that stopped men in their tracks. I’d done a good job of ignoring those facts as she grew into them, but then last week, after Evie’s graduation party… I couldn’t ignore them anymore. And I hated myself for thinking about that while she sobbed in my arms. Asshole of the Year award, well deserved.

A polite cough had me turning, though I didn’t let go of Gen. I kept her wrapped up and safe. Close to me.

“Hey, Brandon.” My cousin stood before me looking tired and slightly curious. Of course, he did—I had a sexy-as-fuck eighteen-year-old in my arms. Shit.

“Josh. Good to see you.” I reached out a hand, moving Gen into my side so our embrace looked a little more appropriate. Which was fine so long as no one noticed the massive fucking hard-on I was now sporting. “How’s Lara doing?”

“She’s hanging in. Her lower left leg is broken in three places, and her MCL is completely torn. We have the best orthopedic surgery team on their way in to take care of that, but it’s not our priority.” He glanced at Gen, who was still tucked against me with her hand on my chest. “Your mom took a pretty solid hit to the head, and that’s the issue we need to address immediately. There’s a lot of swelling, and that can cause brain damage, but this isn’t a touch-and-go situation. We’ll relieve the pressure by opening up a flap in her skull and keep her unconscious for a few days to give her brain time to heal.”

Gen felt rigid in my arms, so I jumped in with the first question I needed answered. “So, you’re operating today. When will they operate on her leg?”

“The team should be here tomorrow.”

The single parent in me couldn’t help but ask, “And what’s her recovery timeline?”

Josh held my gaze, his concern obvious. “Minimum two weeks in the hospital, then another two to six in rehab. It depends on the amount of damage—if any—to her brain.”

Four weeks minimum. Gen could end up alone, without someone to look over her, for a month. In the back of my mind, I knew she didn’t need another person around, but that didn’t appease the instinctual part of me that didn’t want her unprotected.

“Okay.” Gen pulled away from me before I could decide what to do about the four-week thing, squaring her shoulders, a little of that fire back in her eyes. “When can I see her?”

Josh frowned, shooting a look my way before refocusing on the woman before him. “You can see her now, but only for a few minutes. I want her in an operating room within the hour.”

“Fine. Let’s go.” Gen snatched her bag off a chair, then reached as if to grab my hand. Looking somewhat lost. Somewhat vulnerable. Looking as if she needed me. “Come with me?”

Fuck, the dirty places my brain went when she said that, when she looked at me like that. How could I possibly tell her no?

“Of course.”

We followed Josh to a room off the main hallway. The place was dim, almost dark, but not enough that we couldn’t see the woman huddled under the sheet. Couldn’t see the bruises and cuts, the pillow-like device holding her leg in place. Gen stiffened when she walked in, completely froze for a moment as she took in the sight of her mother so damaged. I squeezed her hand and hoped my presence offered at least a modicum of comfort.

“Five minutes,” Josh whispered as he caught my eye. “I’ll talk to you later?”

I nodded, knowing that talk would be about why I was touching a young girl who wasn’t my daughter. Shit, a woman. I needed to remember that. Gen was eighteen.

Just like my daughter.

Who was fucking my best friend.

When had my life become a soap opera?

“Mom,” Gen whispered, leaning over the bed. I stayed back, kept out of the way. Gave the two ladies their space. Lara’s eyes fluttered a few times before finally opening, focusing in on her daughter immediately.

“Gen.” Her voice was rough, pained. Too quiet. “You okay?”

Gen huffed a laugh. “You were the one in a car accident, but you’re asking if I’m okay?”

“It’s the mom in me. I can’t help myself.”

“I’m fine. How are you?”

“I feel like I got hit by a semitruck and fell off a bridge. Oh wait, I did.”

“Mom, be serious.”

“Fine. I feel like ass. Everything hurts, even focusing my eyes.”

“The doctor’s going to fix you.”

“I know.” She licked her lips, glancing my way. “Brandon, can you take her?”

My eyes darted to Gen before returning to the patient. “Lara?”

“I don’t want her home alone for days on end. Can you take her? Let her come stay with you and Evie?”

Temptation had a way of making you do things you shouldn’t. Wrong things. I should have told Lara that Evie no longer lived with me. That maybe Gen staying with me—the man who had jacked off to thoughts of her every day for the past week—wouldn’t be a good idea. The right thing would have been not to lust after a teenager.

I did not do the right thing.

“Of course. Gen can stay with me as long as she’d like.”

Gen stiffened, her shoulders going tight as she glanced back at me, then addressed her mother. “Mom, no. I can stay at home by myself. I’m almost nineteen. I don’t need a handler.”

“I know you don’t, but I’d feel better if I knew you were taken care of.” She flicked her eyes in my direction, and my guilt multiplied. “Otherwise, I’m just going to be in here, worrying about you.”

The fight in Gen went out as soon as her mom spoke the words. “Fine. But promise the only thing you’ll think about while you’re in here is getting better.”

“I promise. I know Brandon will take good care of you.”

Yeah, I would. Hopefully without letting her know how much her curvy little body turned me on. How hard it was for me not to reach out and touch every inch of her pale skin. How fucking hard she made me every single day.

There was no denying it. I was going to hell. One I created for myself.

* * *