“The second thing I thought was, ‘How do I keep her safe?’”
Her eyes widen slightly.
“I didn’t want what you are, because what you are is dangerous to someone like me. You disrupt everything.”
Jane flinches as if I’ve slapped her.
I shake my head immediately. “Not in a bad way.”
Her expression reflects her disbelief.
I exhale slowly. “Jane. I built my life like a fence line. Straight and solid and weatherproof. Because that’s how I survive. That’s how I keep the nightmares from creepin’ into daylight.”
She watches me, breathing shallow.
“You are a storm, and storms tear down fences.” I lean in just a fraction. “So, yeah, you’re everything I didn’t want.”
Jane’s eyes shine, and the hurt flashes again.
I hold her gaze. “And then I said the truth I didn’t know I had in me.”
Her voice is barely audible. “Everything you need. Everything you didn’t know you wanted.”
I nod.
Jane looks away, swallowing hard.
“You weren’t supposed to change,” I say roughly. “You weren’t supposed to make yourself smaller or try to be neat for me.”
I reach out slowly and touch the edge of her hair, the styled waves that must have taken an hour. “This is beautiful, but I’d take you with a bird’s nest on your head and dirt under your nails. You don’t have to earn your place here.”
Jane’s laugh is broken. “Then what was I supposed to do? Just be me? That’s never worked.”
“It works here.”
Her eyes snap back to mine. “How do you know?”
“Because I’ve been alone for years, and the first night you were in this cabin, it felt less empty. Even when you were being a pain in my ass. Even when you were throwin’ up in the snow.”
Her mouth twitches despite herself.
I hold the moment gently. “That’s not a woman I’ll ever regret.”
Chapter 14
Tex
Jane’s breath shakes.
I reach out slowly and carefully, taking her hands, which are tightly clenched in her lap. Her fingers are cold, and her skin is sticky with dried muck.
I don’t care.
I rub my thumbs over her knuckles to ground myself. “Do you want to know what I felt during that phone call?”
Jane doesn’t answer, but she doesn’t pull away.
“I felt terrified because you make me want things I told myself I was done wantin’,” I admit.
