“I was trying to let you deal with him and not overstep, but when he laid his hands on you, I couldn’t stop myself. Your skin is cold. Come.”
Tristan led her over to her mattress, swirled the blanket around her, and pulled her onto his lap to cradle her in his arms.
And that’s when the shakes started.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, a tenacious scrap of hope had held on foryears,believing that someday her family would come around. Someday, she might have been able to go back to them, and they might have been proud of her for getting her degree and being the first person in her family to graduate from college. She might have been able to do stuff for them, to send money home or to put nieces and nephews on the track to go to college, and maybe more people in her family would have had a little more.
Maybe it would have been okay.
And now, it wasn’t ever going to be okay.
Even though there had been problems the last few years, and even though every visit to them had left her feeling worse than when she’d arrived, she’d always known they were out there somewhere. If she’d needed a kidney or a bone marrow transplant or gotten stranded somewhere, it had at least feltpossiblethat she would be able to call them.
The air conditioning felt too cold, like she’d lost whatever insulated her from the world.
Instead of being part of a tree, Colleen was a fallen leaf.
She burrowed more deeply into Tristan’s arms, but there was a difference between a friend with benefits and family.
Tristan said, “Again, I’m sorry if I overstepped.”
“No, I appreciate you pulling him off me.” She stared at the beige patch on the wall. Her eyes burned, and then the beige spot blurred. “That’s how he gets before he starts hitting people.”
Tristan's jaw set harder than before.“He’s hit you?”
Hot streaks jumped down her face. She rubbed the blanket on her cheeks to smear them away. “Not very often. Only when we made him really mad. A couple of times a month, max. But it’s one of the reasons I left home to go to college in the first place, to get away from him.”
Tristan started to lift and move her off his crossed legs. “I’m going after him. I’ll teach that asshole not to hit women.”
“Please, don’t,” Colleen said.
Tristan stilled, and his voice dropped to a sinister rumble. “Give me one good reason.”
She shrank herself down and laid her head on Tristan’s shoulder. “Because I don’t plan to ever see him again. You told him to stay away, and I’m certainly not going to call them. I just want to live my life away from them. I want people in my life who I can textred flagto, and they’ll come help get me out of whatever pickle I’ve gotten myself into. I want to be with people who don’t think I’m an idiot.”
“No one shouldeversay that to you, princess,” Tristan said, his voice a low growl again.
Colleen nodded. “No one will ever again. I know it’s going to take a while to wrap my brain around it, but I won’t stay around people who say that about me.”
“Good girl.”
Warmth suffused through Colleen, and she closed her eyes, resting in his arms. “And look, while we’re on the subject of things that were said? That was agreatcomeback with my dad when you said, ‘I’m the man who loves her.’ But I know that’s what it was, a great comeback. And it was impressive. I mean,wow,that wasamazing.I’ve never seen my dad sputter like that. He just could not believe that a guy likeyoucould ever fall in love with a girl like me, and it was like a slap in the face.That was great.”
Tristan’s shoulder shifted under her cheek, and his voice was quiet when he said, “It seemed to be the right thing to say. It felt right when I said it.”
“Well, it wasamazing.But I don’t want you to worry about it. I’m not about to get all stupid and fumbling and try to hold you to it. We’ve been through a hell of a lot these last six days, but it’s only beensix days.No one can fall in love in six days.”
Tristan was frowning and nodding slowly.“I guess today is only Friday. Seems like longer.”
The blanket and Tristen’s chest were warming her up. The air conditioning had chilled her skin when she’d jumped right out of bed to answer the door. That must be it. “Right? The Devilhouse seems like a lifetime ago, but it was just last Saturday night.”
“But we knew each other online before that,” Tristan said slowly, as if he was searching for the right words. “We’ve been sparring on the Sherwood Forest stock market boards for over a year now.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t count.”
“Why wouldn’t it? When we were interacting on the forum, it was a true meeting of the minds. One could argue that it was the most intimate thing we’ve ever done.”
She snorted a little as she chuckled. “I hardly think flame wars about meme stocks are the mostintimatething we’ve ever done, Tristan.”
