For the first time ever, I backed away from Nash’s touch with real intent. “I don’t need it.”
Nash raised his hands. “It’s not about need. It’s brotherhood. Cam would give you this money if you had millions in the bank.”
“Fuck off.”
“Fuck off, as in you don’t believe me? Or you want me to leave you alone?”
Neither. But that envelope, man. I couldn’t look at it. I didn’t fuckin’wantit, and it tore me up to know it probably contained the answers to every roadblock I’d counted myself into five minutes ago.
“Hey.” Nash braved a step forward. “You said you trusted me.”
“I do.”
“Then why do you think this is about anything other than exactly what I’m saying?”
Cos I’m a fuck-up who’s never been able to provide for my kids. And even now that I can, I still can’t do it right without help.“I don’t think that. It’s just...” A sigh eclipsed the explanation I couldn’t verbalise. “I had to borrow the cash for her prom dress from Folk, and I swore down that the next time my kids needed something I’d do it on my own.”
Nash lowered his hands, and I watched the cogs turn in his kind soul. He wasn’t as razor sharp as some of the others, but he had so much fuckin’ empathy in his big heart I knew he’d think himself into a mini stroke before he asked me how I’d come to be seven years older than him with nothing but a dusty hog and a pair of shit boots to my name.
“Okay,” he said eventually. “How about I hold this for you in case you change your mind? And in the meantime, we can hit some auctions. Find a bargain River can fix up for her.”
“River’s busy.”
“River’sbreathingbecause of you. He’d build a car out of fucking beans if you asked him to. Besides, it’s the only compromise anyone’s going to accept. We love you, man. You’re family, and we want Willow safe on the road as much as you do.”
I believed him, but the bitterness in my heart was hard to swallow, and I needed a fuckin’ minute. A respite from those baby blues flaying me open.
It came in the form of some fucker hollering Nash’s name.
He spun around.
On instinct, I stepped in front of him, gaze sharp, scanning the yard for a potential threat. But it was Rubi, of course. No one else shouted that loud.
Nash’s hand skimmed my flank. He eased past, coming to a stop right in front of me. “Think about it, brother. And get some sleep. River’s hanging out with Orls all day.”
It took me a minute to gather my wits. I ripped my glare from Rubi’s retreating back and zeroed in on the weariness hooding those magic eyes. The fatigue in his posture. “What about you?”
“Soon. Another man, another dog. You know how it is.”
“You’re the dog. No one else works this hard.”
“Not true. Everyone does.”
I pursed my lips, unable to entirely disagree with him, but all the while hating the fact that he probably wouldn’t sleep for hours yet. “I—”
“No.”
“You don’t know what I was going to say.”
Nash leaned in, his mouth so close I could’ve kissed him if we’d been different men with different lives. “You were going to say some stubborn crap about waiting up until I get my head down, but I don’t want that. I want to ride out and get this shit done knowing you’re having enough kip for both of us, okay? Fuck, man. I need that. Can you do it for me?”
Restraint made me shake. I balled my hands into fists and licked my lips, heart stuttering as Nash tracked my tongue with his hot gaze, inhaling a sharp breath through his nose.
God, I wanted him. Always had, since the very first second I’d laid eyes on him.
I wanted to lick his skin.
I wanted to bite his damn throat.
