“The worst part is that you saw it coming. Every bit of it. You told me exactly what was going to happen and I still did the thing you said I was going to do.”
My voice wobbles slightly.
“I walked straight into something I had no business messing with because I thought I could handle it.”
My chest tightens.
“I was completely out of my depth.”
The room feels too small suddenly.
I drag in a breath that sticks halfway in my lungs.
“And I was scared,” I blurt out, the words slipping free before I can stop them.
Cole’s posture shifts immediately.
My hands tremble as I scrub them down my face again.
“I know I didn’t look like it,” I say quietly, staring at the floor now. “I know I was running my mouth and acting like I had it all under control.”
My throat tightens.
“But I was scared.”
The admission hangs in the air between us.
“Those guys… they weren’t joking, Cole.” My voice drops lower. “When they started talking about accidents and broken windows and things happening to the bar…”
I shake my head slowly.
“For a second there I realized just how bad it could get.”
A cold shiver crawls down my spine at the memory.
“It could have gone so much worse than it did,” I whisper. “If you hadn’t been there… if they’d decided to make an example out of me or Wayne…”
I swallow hard.
“I don’t even want to think about it.”
My hands start shaking again and my breathing goes uneven.
Great.
Now I’m falling apart.
Cole moves before I can say anything else. One second he’s sitting on the couch. The next he’s standing in front of me. “Hey,” he says quietly.
Then his arms wrap around me. “Come here, trouble.” The nickname lands somewhere deep in my chest and I don’t argue.
My arms slide around him automatically, gripping the back of his shirt while I press my cheek against his chest. His heartbeat thuds steady under my ear, strong and grounding.
One of his hands spreads across my back while the other comes up to cradle the back of my head. He rubs slow circles between my shoulder blades.
“Breathe,” he murmurs.
I try. Slowly the shaking starts to ease.
