“It sounds like you’re saying goodbye.”
I knew what he meant… and he was right. Yeah, I’d see him again when he returned, but things would need to be different when he came back. Even if he and Nash didn’t figure their shit out, I couldn’t risk my heart on this man. I’d been a fool to think I could explore a relationship with him… and Nash. I’d broken Nash’s trust, though I’d never really had it in the first place, and there was no doubt that Everett was looking at me with fresh eyes now.
“I need to go check on Charlie. I’ll text you an update tomorrow after I get done visiting Reese.”
With that, I pulled my hand away and forced myself to leave the room. I could only hope that I wouldn’t end up fucking Everett over a second time by messing things up with his son, like I’d messed them up with Nash.
Chapter 13
EVERETT
It was wellafter midnight by the time Nash returned – almost a full twelve hours since he’d driven off. I’d sent him more than half a dozen texts and had probably called twice as many times as that, but he hadn’t responded to any of them. I’d started to doubt Gage’s faith that Nash would return.
I was glad to be proven wrong.
I quickly climbed out of bed and hurried down the stairs. The house was almost completely dark except for the light I’d left on above the stove in the kitchen.
Which was the room I found Nash in.
His back was to me and I could see he’d taken his jacket off, revealing the snowy white dress shirt beneath, along with the shoulder holster that held the gun that he always had with him. At some point, he’d rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to reveal corded forearms. Despite the inappropriateness of it, I found it hard to take my eyes off the smattering of black hair on those arms.
“Not now, Everett,” I heard him say.
The fact that he was using my first name was a big red flag.
“When, then?” I asked as I leaned back against the doorframe.
I saw his arms moving and realized he was opening a bottle ofsomething. I couldn’t see it, but I could hear liquid sloshing in a glass a moment later. Then Nash was lifting a glass full of a healthy dose of amber-colored liquid. He tossed it back in one swift move, then filled the glass again.
I’d never seen Nash drink in the month that I’d known him.
Not once.
“Gage wanted me to tell you that he was sorry and that he wouldn’t push you anymore,” I offered.
“Great,” Nash muttered as he swallowed a third shot.
“Nash,” I said softly, but he didn’t respond. I thought about what Gage had said and while his words hadn’t made sense to me, I was so damn desperate that I would have tried anything in that moment to get Nash to react to me. “Would you please look at me?”
I heard, rather than saw, Nash drum his fingers on the countertop. Several long seconds passed before he filled the glass for a fourth time and then finally turned to look at me. I did my best to find whatever it was that Gage had been talking about, but all I saw were icy, brittle eyes and a mouth drawn tight with unleashed anger.
My eyes automatically fell to the hand he had wrapped around the glass. The sight of the black and blue marks on his knuckles had me swallowing hard. I hadn’t witnessed the actual fight between Gage and Nash, only the last part when Gage had had Nash pinned to the ground. Between Gage’s bruised face and declaration that he’d pushed Nash too far, I suspected he’d let Nash throw all the punches.
I lifted my eyes again and saw Nash’s mouth pull impossibly tighter. “You satisfied?” he asked.
I wasn’t, but I nodded anyway. All I saw was raw anger. Gage was mistaken if he thought there was anything more there. I wanted desperately to believe that the kindness Nash had shown me right after I’d learned about Reese was who Nash truly was, but I was beginning to believe that the cold, distant man who’d sworn an oath to protect me was the real Nash and whatever demons he was battling were too strong even for him sometimes.
The bruises he’d left on Gage were proof of that. No matter what Gage had done, he hadn’t deserved the beating he’d received.Especially not from someone who was trained to deal with even the most volatile of situations without losing his cool.
Gage’s words came back to haunt me.
The shit that happened to him when he was a kid… no one fucking deserves that.
Nash swallowed down the fourth drink. Since I couldn’t bear to watch him drink himself stupid, I turned away.
And that was when I finally saw it.
It was in that split second as I was turning away and Nash was watching me go. His eyes went from dark and angry to something else.
