Shield My Heart (Heaven Hill Book 9) by Laramie Briscoe Page B

been keeping their thoughts and opinions to themselves, not asking any questions, not wanting to be caught up in the gossip. Looked like Drew was done with that shit.
    Landing a punch of his own, Dalton felt a small victory when he saw blood over Drew’s eye. “It’s nobody’s business but mine and Mandy’s. When we’re ready to talk, we will.”
    Pushing against Dalton’s shoulders, Drew backed him into a corner, holding him there with a knee to the stomach. “But when it comes to her health, how far are you going to go? She’s called in to work at least five times, and Charity hears her puking in the bathroom. Something’s wrong with her, and you act like you don’t give a shit about it. What the fuck’s wrong with you?”
    Pushing back against Drew’s hold, Dalton exploded out of the corner, landing punches in rapid succession and then using his knee to get Drew in the stomach the same way he’d been kneed a few seconds before. Drew went down on the mat, trying to catch his breath.
    Watching, Tyler knew Dalton could continue. He was breathing heavily, but he was in control of himself. Drew wasn’t, he panted, grabbing his stomach, rolling on the mat.
    “I told you. Best friend, brother or not, when she’s ready and when I’m ready, we’ll tell people what’s going on. Not sooner. And leave her alone.”
    It was the spark Drew had been looking for. Anything to show him Dalton still cared about her. He knew them both well enough to know if Dalton still showed interest, neither one would fully give up the other. He felt his first ray of hope that they could work it out. He hated seeing both of them miserable. “You wanna defend her honor, why don’t you do it by her side, Dalton? What are you hiding?”
    In that moment, Dalton wanted to tell his friend everything, but a sense of pride stopped him. He’d asked for help for so much of his life, he couldn’t bring himself to do it again. “You wouldn’t understand.” He took a glove off and threw it down on the mat before taking the other one off.
    “I’ve always understood you, even when it was hard to.”
    The sound of his best friend’s voice was enough to make him stop as he turned his back on the two men who had been there for him through some really dark days. “I can’t ask you to understand this.”
    And he couldn’t, because he knew Drew would be excited if he were going to be a dad. So excited he’d be shouting it from the rooftops, and at the same time Dalton knew he couldn’t. Every time he thought about this child, his stomach clenched, and he worried like hell he’d be introducing someone to the world like his parents did. What if he turned out to be just like his dad? Better to never be around than to disappoint a kid the way he had been. It was best for everyone if he left and never came back, but he knew he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t make it through his life if he never saw Mandy again—and there lay his problem.
    He was scared to stick around, and at the same time knew he’d never survive without her. He had no clue what to do, but he hoped he could work it out—had to work it out, because he wasn’t sure how much longer the two of them could handle this.
    “You can’t understand this,” he threw out over his shoulder before he left. As the door shut behind him, he heard Drew’s frustrated voice.
    “Because you won’t let me.”
    And that was the crux of the problem, wasn’t it? He wasn’t willing to let anyone help him because he didn’t want to feel responsible if anyone else got hurt. He’d never be able to live with himself.

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Chapter Seventeen

    T he sun was out, and the day was gorgeous. Instead of spending her lunch hour cooped up in the office, Mandy had locked up, since Charity was doing home visits with clients, and walked the block down to the coffee shop. Today she was hungry; her stomach actually growled with hunger instead of trembling with the possibility of sickness. Going inside, she