“Go to your brother. He needs you.”
He was pretty sure what he needed was her.
“I—” he started, but she put out her hand and touched his chest.
A plea filled her expression. “Cash, I’m terrified that I think there’s something here that there’s not, and I’m not sure I can handle you telling me I’m wrong. That I misinterpreted it.”
“You’re not wrong, Daisy. You’re not. You’re everything that’s right.”
Confusion pinched her brow. “But you said?—”
“Maybe I was just afraid, too. Of losing this. Of losing you.” He swallowed hard. “Told you I would do absolutely anything for you, and I thought it was my job to bring you out of your shell. Helping you to heal so you’d remember how to live. But it’s you who gave me all those things. I?—”
A crash sounded from downstairs. Glass shattered just as Matthew roared in pain.
“Fuck,” Cash mumbled below his breath, frustration bleeding out.
“Go to him. He needs you right now. I’m right here.” Emphasis twisted across her pretty face. “I’ve always been, Cash, and I’m always going to be.”
A soft smile hooked at the edge of his mouth. “Always?”
“I felt it the first time I met you. I just never thought you’d see me the same way.”
He set his hand on her cheek, brushed his thumb over the soft skin. “I see you, my Little Wallflower.”
“I see you, too.”
Then she turned and slipped back out his window, leaving him there with his heart in his throat. He watched her disappear down their tree before he forced himself to turn around and go downstairs to his brother.
TWENTY-SEVEN
CASH
I tookthe winding road up the mountain faster than I normally would. The urge to get back to my cabin was overwhelming. A constant prod at my spirit that made me sure that something wasn’t quite right.
I texted Silas’s guy who gave me an all clear, but I couldn’t rest in it.
The engine roared as I took the sharp curves. My hands gripping the handlebars and the heavy metal vibrating beneath me.
Wind lashed across my face, and each turn tossed me deeper into disorder.
Could barely breathe by the time I made it up the mountain to the turn onto my property. I hit the brakes hard, and I peeled out as I whipped from the pavement and onto the dirt lane.
Night rained down, and the glow of the moon seeped through the branches and scattered milky light on the ground. I bounced and shook over the rugged terrain as I blew up the beaten path toward my cabin.
Silas’s guy was there, I kept telling myself. Not to mention the fact my house was beyond secure.
There was no chance anyone could get to them.
Still, I couldn’t shake the bedlam that convulsed inside me.
I weaved my way through the dense woods, dipping down hills and back up, before the road finally opened to my cabin.
A light glowed from the porch, though the rest of the windows inside were darkened.
A smidgeon of relief hit me when I saw Trevan leaned against the side of the porch. The red cherry from his cigarette burned bright as he brought it to his mouth.
I pulled up beside his motorcycle, kicked the stand, and killed my engine. I swung off at the same time as my attention swept the property.
