Page 40 of Beyond Repair: Part One

Trevor's face falls, then turns to stone. "Come here, Nina."

"So demanding," Kai mumbles, making Henry laugh under his breath.

Henry's response is so fucking accurate. "But she's so beautiful when she obeys him."

That's putting it mildly. With a blush on her cheeks and her fingers digging into her blanket, she pads down the stairs and stops about a foot away from us.

Kai beats Trev by stepping into Nina's space and tucking a stand of hair behind her ear. "We care about you because we love you, Nina."

Her brown eyebrows furrow again, making me want to slam my head into the wall. It feels like we're messing this up and completely failing at communicating. Clearly, our casual fucking answers only add to her confusion.

"We'll talk about it in the morning," I interrupt before she gives herself a headache overthinking Kai's statement. I grab her bicep and immediately feel like an ass when she flinches. "Shit, I'm sorry."

"It-it's okay," she appeases and takes a steadying breath. "Just maybe go slow when you grab me?" The urge to encourage her to trulystateher needs is strong, but that's a goal for later.

I nod and apologize once again, but I don't linger on the moment. Turning her back toward the stairs, I place my hand on her lower back and nudge her to get moving. "You need to sleep. Come on."

She doesn't fight me as she climbs the stairs after saying thank you to the others. In a daze, she crawls back into her bed and snuggles down into her pillows looking absolutely exhausted. I wonder if this happens every night where she stays awake scared until her body finally gives out and forces her to sleep.

It's not the time to ask questions, though. Instead I check her closet, ensuite bathroom, and under her bed. "All clear, Neen," I report and settle onto the window bench seat to keep an eye on her.

All she does is nod and curl into the fetal position. I hold her gaze until her eyelids take over and force her under. "Goodnight," I whisper and swallow down the emotion that threatens my composure. "I missed you," I can't resist from adding just as I can't stop a tear from slipping free.

I missed her so much.

Chapter 33

Nina

"Where do you work?" Ridge jumps and I suppress a laugh. I've been awake for a bit just watching him as he types away on his phone. Feeling bad for startling him, I say, "Sorry."

"Christ. Why are you awake? You only slept for an hour and a half, Nina."

I won't tell him it was much less than that, so I only shrug.

Frowning at me with the light from the hallway lighting his way to my bedside, he strides to me and sits by my knees. "You should try to sleep more," he murmurs, slowly placing his hand on my thigh.

The weight feels nice on my leg, but I'm too wrapped up in everything that I don't know about the man who kissed me earlier. "Tell me about you, Ridgie. Please."

I'm the worst person ever. I've strategically avoided asking any questions about the four of them out of fear that I would find myself unworthy of their attention. Connecting with people is hard in general, plus I know what happens when I makemeaningful connections only for them to die in a shallow grave of decaying hope.

Ridge watches me for a moment before gently reclining over my legs with his elbow propping him up behind my knees. "What do you want to know?"

My eyes burn with so much sadness for all the time we lost. "Everything. Please."

"Well, Trev and I own Neen Resorts." My eyes widen at the name and the sheer accomplishments they've made. "It was a lot of fucking work, I tell ya. But our recruitment team has been a lifesaver. We have some amazing managers and people capable of running everything when we're busy. Trev likes to go to meetings I say they're boring as fuck, but I like to go to the design ones."

"Ridge, that's amazing. The name..."

He gives me a gentle nod and smile. "You, Nina. We named it after you. When we were at BYU getting our business degrees, our main goal was to form a business with your name as the headline. You were never far from our thoughts."

"I—" My tears are unstoppable as it finally hits me just how much I've missed out on. "Gosh, I'm sorry." I groan and wipe my face as I wiggle out from under him.

"Please don't apologize, Nina girl. I want all of you, so don't hold back those feelings on my account, please."

Groaning, I rub the heels of my palms into my burning eyes. "You guys keep saying stuff like that and I don't get it."

The bed moves, and heat suddenly engulfs my wrists before my hands are tugged away from my face. "You really won't go back to sleep, huh?" Ridge asks seriously. I shake my head.Not a chance."Then let’s go see if the other three are awake and willing to make us omelets."

---