Page 151 of Cold As Ice

“No reason.” He shrugged, sipping his beer.

“Did Jer say something to you the morning they returned unannounced?” His tight expression told me all I needed to know, and I let out a small sigh. “What did he say?”

“Honestly, nothing I didn’t already know. But I think it was just another reminder that we were getting in too deep.”

“But you don’t think that anymore?”

“Oh, I do.” He ran a hand down his face. “But I don’t care. Me cooling things that morning wasn’t about you, Madison. It was about me.”

“Because you have trouble letting people in?”

“Something like that. I told you that I didn’t have the best childhood and I’m sure my meddlesome sister filled in some of the blanks.”

“She did, but I want to hear your side of the story, Austin.”

“We don’t have nearly enough time for that today,” he said. “But let’s just say, I spent years thinking I wasn’t good enough. That if I couldn’t trust my own parents to love and stick by me then I definitely couldn’t trust some girl I met in high school or college.

“It was easier to cut off my emotions. To build a wall and keep people out. Then Rory turned up at LU and pulled the rug out from under me. And then I met you…”

He gazed at me with so much hope and hunger, it made me feel weightless and heavy all the same time.

“My life is complicated, Austin,” I whispered. “There are still things you don’t know. Things that might change your opinion…”

He reached for my hand and threaded our fingers together. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Imogen’s father.” I inhaled a shaky breath, my skin vibrating with nervous energy.

I didn’t talk about this. I didn’t let myself relive the memories.

The simple fact was, I couldn’t.

Every day, all I needed to know was that I got out. I broke free from Warren’s toxic hold on our relationship.

But how could I ever move forward with someone else if I couldn’t tell them the truth?

The answer was, I couldn’t.

Austin squeezed my hand gently and my eyes lifted slowly to his. What I saw staring back at me stole my breath.

He was here. He wasn’t running again.

I just had to trust him.

I had to take that leap of faith.

CHAPTER27

AUSTIN

“I met Warren in high school.”

Warren.

So the guy who had put the shadows in her eyes had a name.

I already despised the guy.

Hated that he’d had her first. That they had a daughter together. A life. But this wasn’t about me, it was about Madison, about her trusting me with her past.

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