Page 49 of Echoes of You

“Because that worked out so well before.” I turned to look at him. “You got suspended, and it still didn’t end.”

When we were twelve and I’d finally returned to school after my father’s attack, Nash took on the role of bodyguard and protector. Most kids just stared and whispered behind my back, but some were cruel, calling me trash and other horrible names. One boy taunted me, saying he’d heard my father had almost killed me, and that it was too bad he hadn’t finished the job.

Nash had punched him so hard his jaw cracked. As a result, the school had suspended them both for two weeks. I’d thought for sure Kerry and Nathan would hate me. But Nathan had just told Nash he’d done the right thing, though there was sometimes a price for doing that.

The taunting and teasing hadn’t stopped, but peoplehadstopped saying things in front of Nash.

He stared down at me, and I saw so much emotion in that green gaze. “I’m sorry. Part of it was selfish. I was losing it.” He ran a hand through his blond hair, leaving it in haphazard disarray. “I can’t let anything happen to you.”

There was such conviction in those words, each one making my heart thud in my chest a little harder. “You can’t stand between me and the world.”

Nash reached out, his hand cupping my cheek. His thumb swept back and forth, the calluses on it sending pleasant shivers across my skin. “I can damn well try.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “No one in this world is more important to me than you.”

That thudding in my chest picked up speed as my mind ran through a million possibilities for what that might mean.

Nash pulled back a fraction, his gaze dropping to my lips.

A bird let out a piercing cry, and Nash jerked back, his hand dropping from my face. He hurried to stand. “I’m gonna go pick us up some takeout for dinner. Be back in a little while.”

By the time I opened my mouth, he was already gone. As if the idea of kissing me was so traumatizing that he had no choice but to flee.

16

NASH

What the hellhad I been thinking? Talking to Maddie while she was in the bath? Touching that silky skin, knowing there was so much more just below those bubbles? I was a damn fool.

I slipped my key into the ignition and started my SUV. I was down that gravel drive so fast it was as if the hounds of hell were on my heels. I needed some distance before I could trust myself not to turn around and ruin decades of friendship because I couldn’t keep my hands to myself.

I hit a button on my steering wheel. “Call Caden.”

If anyone could be the voice of reason right now, it was him. We’d been friends for almost as long as Maddie and I had. We’d met in peewee soccer, both of our parents trying to give us an outlet for our energy. That hadn’t worked, but we had become lifelong friends, even if he had left my ass to go run a hotel for his father in New York.

He answered on the fourth ring, sounding out of breath. “Hey, man.”

“If you answered mid-sex, I’m gonna be really traumatized.”

Caden chuckled. “That would just show the depth of my devotion to our friendship.”

“I don’t need that kind of loyalty.”

“I’m actually just unloading a bunch of stuff from my car. Just got into town.”

I blinked a few times. “You’re in Cedar Ridge?”

“Yep. When the old man jerks the choke chain, you gotta come running.”

I grimaced. Caden’s father was a piece of work. But after losing his sister when she was ten, family was everything to him. He wouldn’t break those ties—even if he should.

“Got time for a visitor?” I asked.

He must’ve heard something in my voice because he asked, “Everything okay?”

I answered with one word that I knew he’d understand. “Maddie.”

“I guess some things never change. Come on up. Just know I’m currently living in chaos.”

Caden’s idea of chaos was my idea of perfectly organized.

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