Chapter 7
Nellie watched Rowan head out of the living room and down the hall to his bedroom as he talked on the phone about surgery times.
Nell looked down at the dress. It was nicer than anything her salary could afford, and she felt beautiful in it.
Rowan telling her she looked beautiful made everything better.
She did a little twirl and headed to the kitchen.
If she were staying here, she wanted to find a way to thank Rowan, and she could do that by cooking for him.
She opened the fridge and noticed the meal prep plastic containers.
Several of them had dates on them from well over a week ago.
Someone wasn’t eating as he should. Nellie threw them out then took stock of what he had before moving to the pantry.
She had a nice list going with several ideas for meals and treats.
The knock at the door startled her as she was setting the list on the island. Nellie stood there, not knowing if she should answer the knock that was clearly from a male. It was loud and strong compared to women’s more gentle knocking.
She was still debating what to do when she saw the door handle turn.
Her breath caught in her throat. Did Ingram find her?
She looked around for a weapon, but before she could even move, a very scary man was inside.
He wore black leather pants and a tight black T-shirt that matched his black hair.
He had tattoos and a serious gaze as he scanned the room, looking for her.
Nellie grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on—an orange from a fruit bowl on the island and threw it at him.
His hand instantly moved to catch it before it slammed into his face.
“Don’t come any closer!” Nellie grabbed another orange and threw it as hard as she could.
He easily caught it, his glare turned to amusement.
“If you’re here to kill me, just do it. Because I’ll never tell you where my sister is. ”
Nellie grabbed for another orange when he shook his head at her, her bravery wavered.
She was dead. There was no way she could run from a man like him.
“While I appreciate your loyalty to your sister,” he said, his voice deep and so calm he had to have killed many people before, “I’m not here to kill you.
I’m here to meet you. I may just be your future brother-in-law. ”
Nellie paused, her hand hovering above the last orange, her brow creased in confusion. “What?”
“I’m Damon Townsend. I hear you’re dating my brother, Rowan.”
Nellie blinked. They didn’t look like brothers. Damon was dark-haired with dark, thunderous gray eyes, and Rowan was dark blond with blue eyes. There was a general similarity, but not enough for her to fully believe him.
“You don’t look like his brother. And what do you mean, brother-in-law?” Nellie asked.
Damon smiled, and holy smokes. She would have fainted dead away if she hadn’t been holding on to the countertop. No man on earth should look that sexy when he smiles. But they did have the same smile, so maybe he was Rowan’s brother.
“Did you find the pen and paper?” Rowan called out before he came into view. A split second later, he saw Damon and smiled. “Damon, I’m glad you’re here. Can you stay with Nellie tomorrow? I’m in surgery from seven to seven. Then I’m off for a couple of days.”
Damon’s eyebrow rose as he looked away from Nellie to his brother. “You took time off?”
“Yeah, I just said that.”
Damon turned back to Nellie and smiled. “Yes, brother-in-law,” he said low enough she doubted Rowan heard him.
Then he turned to face Rowan who was entering the kitchen to look at the list she had written down.
“Sure, I can watch Nellie. Don’t forget, tomorrow is Bex’s birthday. Wilder is hosting the party at WET.”
“Who are Bex and Wilder and how did they reserve a spot at WET? I had tried to go with friends, but the line was always too long so we never got to go when we did a girls’ nights in Charleston,” Nellie told them.
“Wilder is our brother and Bex is his wife. She is the FBI agent we mentioned earlier. And you won’t have that trouble again. You will be able to get into the VIP section of WET now,” Rowan told her.
Nellie didn’t understand what he meant about WET. They were the hottest nightclubs in the world. They’d opened a small, very elite club in Charleston about a year ago. There was one thing she understood though. “How many siblings do you have?”
“A lot,” both Rowan and Damon said together.
“And we will all look out for you and your sister,” Damon told her.
“That’s . . . comforting. Thank you. How will I get into WET now?” she asked, already knowing what Damon said about the Townsends was true. Olivia was helping her, Rowan was, Granger was, and now Damon.
“Wilder, our brother, owns WET,” Rowan answered as if it were no big deal.
“Like the one in Charleston?”
Rowan shook his head. “Like all of them.”
Nellie blinked and then blinked again. “Your brother is a famous nightclub owner, your sister is a high-powered attorney, and you’re a pediatric surgeon. You’re a bunch of overachievers, aren’t you all?” Rowan laughed and even Damon smirked. “What do you do?” she asked Damon.
“I’m a mechanic.”
Well, that was different from his siblings, but it fit him. He did look to be very good with his hands, even if she preferred Rowan’s hands, she could appreciate Damon’s nonetheless.
Rowan shook his head at his brother before turning back to her. “Is it okay if you spend the day with Damon tomorrow? I promise, you’ll be safe.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind me hanging out at the garage?
I won’t get in the way. Maybe I can borrow a book from someone and you won’t even know I’m there,” Nellie promised.
She didn’t want to get on Damon’s bad side.
He might have been Rowan’s brother, and devastatingly handsome, but he still looked dangerous.
“I don’t mind at all,” Damon told her. “I’ll pick you up at six in the morning. And I’ll see you both at dinner tonight.”
Damon left and Nellie took a deep breath. “Why are there oranges on my side table?” Rowan asked and Nellie’s laugh sounded slightly hysterical, even to her. Rowan looked at her but let it go. “I wanted to check in and see how you’re feeling now that you’ve had a moment to take everything in.”
Nellie took a deep breath as Rowan moved to the living room and took a seat on the couch.
Nellie followed and sat down next to him, turning just a bit so she could see him.
“I’ll feel better once I see Sue Ellen tonight.
I’m not worried about myself. I’m worried about her and the kids.
James Avery has been through so much. Tally has too, but she’s younger and wasn’t subjected to the physical abuse like James Avery was.
I know he’s young, but he’s observant. He knows what’s going on right now. ”
“I know a great pediatric therapist who works at the hospital. She works primarily with siblings who have suffered loss, but also domestic violence. I can talk to her tomorrow and see if she’ll come to Shadows Landing to meet with the kids if Sue Ellen agrees.”
Nellie felt herself begin to tear up. Her throat tightened.
Rowan was so much more than she could ever dream.
She felt like their lives had been flying to pieces at a thousand miles an hour since she pulled up to her sister’s house just in time to see her van explode.
Rowan had become her calm she hadn’t known existed in the middle of the storm.
He was a warrior angel sent to them at their time of need.
“I’ll talk to Sue Ellen tonight. As you know, the sooner they get into therapy, the better. ”
“I bet you’re a great school psychologist. But I also bet it’s similar to my job. You end up seeing way more darkness than you ever thought possible.”
They both shared a sad, knowing smile. “I was so na?ve when I started. I thought I would be helping with test anxiety, teenage relationships, and things like that. And I do, but I also deal with homelessness, food scarcity, abuse, date rapes, drugs, alcohol addiction, and more. It didn’t take me long to realize what parents think their kids know about is so far from the actual truth.
They know so much more and experience so much more than most parents realize.
Some come to me willingly, but others are forced to see me.
I can help many of them, but it’s the ones I can’t help that keep me up at night,” Nellie said, even though she’d never admitted that to anyone else before.
“I understand that. I always remember the ones I lost more than the ones I saved. I handle it by throwing myself into my work even more. Damon’s been worried about me.
He wants me to step back, let my team handle some cases so I can take time off.
However, I feel as if I’m letting children and parents down if I’m not there to try to save them. ”
Nellie didn’t realize she’d put her hand on his thigh until he put his hand over hers. He looked tortured, and that’s when she realized that while Rowan was saving everyone else, he needed someone to save him.
“I understand what you mean but I agree with your brother. You have a team, and I’m guessing you picked them.
” Rowan nodded. “Then you know they’re good.
You need to give yourself permission to trust them to do their jobs.
They can’t become the next Rowan Townsend if you don’t give them the opportunity.
And you can’t save lives if you’re so burnt out you stop taking care of yourself. ”
Rowan looked conflicted, but he didn’t argue. “How do you know so much about it?”
“Two years ago, I lost a student to suicide. He was fourteen. He’d been catfished online.
He thought he was talking to a girl his age.
‘She’ convinced him to send nudes then blackmailed him.
They told him they’d send it to the entire school.
He paid them what he could, but he was fourteen.
He didn’t have money. He came to see me after school one day when he ran out of money.
I talked to him, and I thought I had convinced him to have an appointment with his parents and me in the morning.
We got it set up. He went home and killed himself that night.
“I held myself responsible. If I had said something else to him or called his parents right then and there, would he still be alive? I stopped eating. I stopped going outside. I didn’t even get out of bed for three days.
My sister dragged me out of the house and took me to my favorite professor, who is a therapist, and I started counseling.
It didn’t make the pain or the fear go away, but it did help me knowing I am just one person doing the best I can.
And what I can’t do is control the outcome of every situation that is presented to me.
What I can control is my reaction to it.
So, I picked myself back up, took classes on those types of situations so I understood them better, and gave a presentation at school about them two weeks after his funeral.
I had three students come forward after that to ask for help for similar situations. ”
“And how are those students?” Rowan asked.
“Alive and thriving. Plus, the state police catfished the catfishers back and caught a ring of adults doing this to kids all over South Carolina.”
“You’re impressive, Nellie. You’ve given me an idea.
I’m going to call my team in and have them do the surgeries tomorrow while I observe and teach.
Because, like those students you helped, I’m sure they went on and educated more people too, saving even more lives.
I thought only I could do what I do, but I can teach people how to do it, too. ”
Nellie smiled at him as she squeezed a very muscular thigh. “And save even more people in the process.”
“Let me send this message to my team then we can go to dinner.”
Rowan pulled out his phone and Nellie sat back watching him.
Rowan Townsend listened to her. She couldn’t believe it.
Ingram would always just laugh at her fluffy little job and bully Sue Ellen until she laughed at her too.
Rowan wasn’t like that. He was amazing. And she wanted more.
More touching. More talking. Just more Rowan.