Page 17 of Electric Kiss

“Never call me nerdy again or Nerdy Girl,” she said firmly to Nate, her voice tight with emotion. “I will not explain why, but it’s important, okay?”

Nate, taken aback by Daisy’s sudden outburst, nodded uncertainly. “All right,” he said warily. “I’ll call you Daisy.”

“Thank you,” she mumbled, dropping her head.

Daisy felt the weight of her anxiety lift from her shoulders, but a flood of memories quickly replaced it. She could hardly sift through them fast enough to make sense of them. The barrage of images was like a bright flickering light in her face. She winced and shied away for a few moments, trying to collect herself.

“Daisy,” she heard call to her in the far distance.

She was lost in a tumult of images, each like a jagged piece of her self-image. She couldn’t work out who was calling her name, just image after image of angry faces and her tears. As the chaos raged in her mind, she seemed to curl further in on herself.

Then, when soft lips touched hers, her whole mind seemed to slow to an almost stop. Her body responded to the kiss, pressing her lips to the warmth and sighing as arms wrapped around her. Soft kisses kept coming, but nothing more passionate, just reassuring caresses.

It took a few more moments for her to realise where she was and what she was doing. Finally, she opened her eyes to see a man with eyes as grey as storm clouds gazing down at her. The tenderness in his face pulled her out of her own inner turmoil, and she found herself oddly comforted by his presence.

Nate held her close, stroking her hair gently as he spoke. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do to comfort you. Youwere shaking but couldn’t hear me. It was like watching someone’s heart break, and I felt the need to show you some comfort.”

She nodded against his chest, grateful for the understanding she found there.

“It worked,” she whispered. “Your touch made it all quiet.”

“Where is the noise coming from?” he asked softly.

She shook her head and let out a sob.

“I don’t know,” she said helplessly. “I don’t know why these images keep coming and why I can’t get away from them.”

She felt him nod in understanding and hold her closer, taking some of her pain away with every stroke of his hand on her back.

“Shh,” he soothed, pressing kisses into her hairline. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

His voice was like a balm on her troubled soul, and slowly but surely, the images faded away until only their embrace remained in the darkness of its wake.

Nate wrapped his arms around her tighter, and she didn’t resist inhaling motor oil and something else. Working on the rigs, oil was a comforting smell, familiar. She hadn’t worked with her dad for long when he died, but she stayed on the rigs with her brothers long after. Oil mixed in with man was all she knew as familiar and comforting, and there it was in a six-foot-one man who hugged like a dream.

“It will come out bit by bit,” he said soothingly. “Let me walk you home, so I know you’re safe.”

“Okay,” Daisy said. “I came to get fish and chips.”

Nate gave a rumbly laugh, and she felt it against her cheek.

“We can collect some on the way. Did you walk or come in the buggy?”

“How do you know about the buggies?”

“Archer has been back for a while. But it’s Maggie that has us all laughing. She loves her buggy and has it all bling’d out. She comes zooming down this side of the quay like she’s a rally driver coming to see Erica in the warehouse.”

“That does not sound like Maggie, but I really want to see that,” she said, grinning. “I walked.”

“Okay, let’s get to the chippy before it closes and then up to Turner Hall.”

“I don’t live there.”

He frowned down at her. “Where do you live?”

“In a little cottage on the estate.”

With a firm nod he said, “Lead the way Daisy.”

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