When Seth made no move, Tia thanked him and showed him out.

“Lot of help he was,” Seth grumbled after he was gone.

“There’s nothing he can do,” she said. “He’s willing to let bygones be bygones with the camera incident. That’s what matters. We don’t want to give the police any reason to side with Kouretas.”

“That isn’t what I’m concerned about.”

She studied the hard set to Seth’s jaw. “Then, what are you concerned about?”

He seemed restless as well as angry. “I wasn’t there to protect Shiloh. I didn’t see the threat,” he said. “But I see this one.”

Twenty

Tia was finally feeling more like herself than she had since the accident. If she continued to improve, she thought she might be able to rebound completely and was certainly going to strive for that. She wasn’t the only person in the world to suffer. Like everyone who’d ever coped with a tragedy, she had to pick herself up, dust herself off and keep going, assuming there would be better days ahead even if she couldn’t imagine, right now, how there could be.

Of course, in order to do that, she had to let go of everything she’d wanted so desperately and quit mourning it. Maybe her future wouldn’t involve the fame and fortune she’d imagined when Expect the Worst vaulted her onto the international scene. Anyone would grieve the loss of such a promising career. But her life could still hold great value and meaning, couldn’t it?

She was beginning to believe it could. There was just one problem. She was afraid this new lease on life might be tied to Seth, even though he’d made his situation clear from the beginning. Not only was he a widower who refused to let go, he was still dealing with issues from his childhood and probably always would be, at least to a degree. Letting herself care too much about him, especially while she was in such a fragile state, would be unwise.

Yet...she couldn’t control what she felt. And she was beginning to feel a lot.

She should probably try to put more distance between them by moving back into the guesthouse, at least. Living in the main house made her hyperaware of Seth and everything about him. Even when he was upstairs working, as he was now, she couldn’t quit thinking about him. Last night had been all the more satisfying because there’d been an emotional connection, too. He certainly seemed to feel more than he had before. She guessed those emotions weren’t all positive—he’d nearly stopped for a reason—but he wouldn’t have reacted that way if he hadn’t been feeling more than he wanted to feel, too.