Page 15 of Chasing Forever

He sucked in a deep inhale, the motion stretching the material of his shirt taut over his broad chest and revealing the outline of the muscles beneath a little better. “I’m not sure how to answer that.”

My face pulled into a bemused frown. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know how to explain what’s driving this need to help you, but it’s been there from the very first time I saw you.” My body went stiff as my mind reeled back to that day in Alpha Omega when everything had turned upside down. Tristan and Rhodes had been so focused on finding Blythe after she’d been taken by an asshole who’d been harboring a serious grudge; I hadn’t realized he remembered me. “At the risk of scaring you off, I noticed you before I realized you needed help. But when you said your husband had been abusing you, this instinct sprang to life, and, well... I wanted to protect you.”

There was so much to unpack with everything he’d just said, but all I could seem to focus on was he’d noticed me. Because I’d noticed him too, and it had scared the hell out of me.

“Look, I know we don’t know each other, but Blythe cares about you, and if there’s anyone’s judgement I trust most in the world, it’s hers. That’s how I know you’re a good person. And that’s how I know that social worker is going to see the same thing. As for your husband, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you’re safe, and he can’t get to you.”

I couldn’t hold back my cringe at that word.Husband. I hated that word now. That was another thing that needed to be taken care of. I’d looked into a divorce while I’d been in Baltimore, but being in a different state had complicated things. Now that I was back in Virginia, I felt this pressure pushing down on me to have that title stripped away from him. But that was a problem for a different day. Preferably when I wasn’t hanging by a thread.

“I know you don’t trust me,” Tristan continued, his words bringing me back to the here and now, “and I totally understand that. I don’t expect you to take what I say at face value. If anyone has the right to be guarded, it’s you, and I’m not going to push that, but I want to help, Merritt.” He sounded so earnest it made my chest constrict, my ribs squeezing painfully around my lungs. I looked into his eyes, searching that clear blue for deception, but there wasn’t any to be found. “That’s all. No ulterior motives. So... please. Just let me help.”

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down, pulling in a centering breath as I tried to get my heart to stop racing. Finally, I nodded. “Okay.”

The relief at my agreement was written into every line and plane of his body. Then he gave me another one of those smiles that was like a wrecking ball to the wall I’d built to protect myself.

Chapter Nine

Tristan

Itook in my surroundings as I lifted my pint and drank the icy cold lager, watching the Tap Room steadily fill with the after-work crowd. I wasn’t sure there was ever a time when business was slow for Hope Valley’s bar of choice. Even in the middle of the week.

As much as I liked the atmosphere of the place, I would have much rather been at home, answering the million and one questions Levi would have undoubtedly had and listening to him tell me about his day. To hear him tell it, he had an incredibly active and interesting life for a second grader. Probably had a more interesting life than most adults I knew.

But when Rhodes called earlier and asked if I wanted to meet for a beer, I’d forced myself to say yes, coming straight here from the station instead of heading home. It had only been a few days since Levi and Merritt moved in, and despite the step forward we’d taken together that first night, I could see that Merritt was still trying to find her footing in this new life she’d been thrust into.

I couldn’t blame her. It hadn’t even been a week. But if you asked me, she was taking it so much better than most people would have, which was a testament to how strong she was. So I decided to try and help ease the transition a little more by giving her some space. I didn’t want to constantly be underfoot. I understood she and Levi needed their time together without me hovering in the background.

“Earth to Tris. Christ, man. You still with us?”

I blinked back into the present and took in the faces of my friends sitting around our table. Rhodes, Hardin, and Raylan were all watching me with different levels of curiosity and humor. “You say something?” I asked Hardin, since he’d been the one to speak and pull me out of my head.

He chuckled into the rocks glass as he brought it to his lips and sipped his whiskey. “You zoned out there for about two minutes. The lights were on, but no one was home.”

I threw back the rest of my beer. I had a feeling I was going to need more than one this evening. “Sorry about that.”

Rhodes watched me from across the table, a shit-eating grin stretched across his face. “I’m willin’ to bet my next paycheck he was spaced out, thinkin’ about a certain woman.”

I lifted my hand, shooting him the bird. I’d already known my future brother-in-law could be a pain in the ass at times, but since he found his forever with Blythe, he’d become downright insufferable. A happy Rhodes and a meddling, nosey, gossiping dickhead.

“It’s nothing like that. I was just playing over my day in my head.”

He snorted with laughter. “Did you forget I was there the first time you ever laid eyes on the woman? We were in the middle of a crisis, and you still managed to look like you’d gotten shot in the ass with Cupid’s arrow.”

That earned a round of laughter from the rest of the guys at our table.

My glare carried the promise of a future ass-kicking if he didn’t stop giving me shit. “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” I lied as heat crept up the back of my neck.

His brother Raylan joined in on the ribbing. “I don’t know. Word on the street is you had her moved under your roof less than an hour after she hit town.” He took a pull from his beer bottle. “Sounds sprung to me.”

These assholes were right, at least partially. Not that I’d ever admit it to them. There was attraction there, had been since that very first moment. But whatever I was feeling went deeper than that. That protective instinct had settled right at the surface since Merritt got back into town, poised and ready to spring the instant anything threatened her. And as I got to know Levi better, that feeling also extended to him. It was like some basal, primal thing inside of me viewed them as mine to protect.

I let out a harsh exhale, ignoring the way my ribs were constricting around my lungs. “It’s not like that. She needed help. She’s been dealt a shit hand for way too long. I saw an opportunity to help her get on her feet, and I took it.” It was the simplest explanation I could think to give them without having to dig deeper into everything else she made me feel.

“Besides, after all she’s gone through, I’m sure the last thing on Merritt’s mind is a relationship of any kind.” I tried to tell myself those words didn’t come out sounding as grumpy as they did in my head, but based on my friends’ faces, I knew they had. “Jesus. I came here to have a couple beers and relax. Can we talk about somethin’ else already?” I grumbled like a grumpy old man.

Just then, Lennix Paulson popped up, balancing a large round tray weighted down with drinks on one hand like the seasoned pro she was. Like her mother, Rory, this bar was in her blood, so when Rory finally retired from it, she’d handed it down to her daughter, just as her parents had done with her. Lennix’s older brother, Zach, another one of my close friends, ran the family ranch, while Lennix kept the Tap Room afloat.

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