“I grew up here. I’m not going to get lost.”
“Nuh-uh. I don’t care if you built this town, I’m not letting you go off on your own. Here, let’s find you a ride. I’d take you myself, but I’m suddenly having a ton of Braxton-Hicks and... well, you know how that goes. Time to go home and get in the bath.”
Aubrey blinked. She did not, in fact, know how that went. Or what that even meant.
Megan’s hand shot out and clamped around a passerby’s arm. “Hey, you. Are you leaving?”
The man turned.
Aubrey bit back a sigh. Of course.
“Oh.” Megan’s tone shot skyward. “Wow, it’s you. What’re the chances?”
Nick leveled a pointed look at the hand clutching his biceps. Megan’s fingers didn’t even make it halfway around. “What do you want, Megan?”
“For you to give Aubrey a ride home. You can do that, right? It’s only a mile, and—oh, look! There’s my husband. I’ve been looking for him all night. ’Scuse me.”
After tossing an apologetic look Aubrey’s way, Megan swanned off.
Nick just stood there, his hands jammed in his pockets.
“Wow,” Aubrey said. “I’d say that was Oscar-worthy, but... Honestly, she didn’t even try, did she?”
He shrugged. The iron set of his mouth didn’t budge. “You said it, not me.”
“Well.” She ground a toe into the asphalt, wondering when the temperature had dropped. She hadn’t noticed until right now. “I’m fine walking. I know you’re with Paige.”
“Nah. She went off with one of her friends.”
Aubrey tried to smooth over the sudden throb in her throat. “Oh. Okay. Well, I’m sure you’ve still got better things to do.” She started to make her escape.
“Aubs.”
The nickname pulled her up short. When she looked back, Nick’s shoulders hunched, his muscles piled like boulders. God, he looked miserable. So incredibly, beautifully, gorgeously wrecked.
“Nick?”
“Just get in the truck, will you?”
“Yep. Okay.” Because really, what else was there to do? If even a sliver of him desired comfort, she would give it. Whatever had chewed him up and spit him back out looking likethattranscended any hurt feelings that lay between them.
She followed him to his vehicle and situated herself in the passenger seat. Nick fiddled with the climate control. Within minutes, heated air blasted her face, turning her cheeks hot and prickly.
She raised an eyebrow. “You fixed it.”
“Had to, before it snowed.”
Silence asserted itself. Nick drove stiffly, every line of his body carved from stone.
Aubrey waited for an in, but he didn’t offer one. He didn’t say a word. After three minutes of silence, she gathered her breath, but hadn’t yet cleared the hurdle of opening her mouth when Nick stopped in front of her house. He shifted into Park, leaving the ignition running.
“Good night,” he said, clipped. “Stay warm.”
She hesitated, but he couldn’t expect her to leave him like this. If she did, sleep would refuse her.
So she reached for his arm and grabbed hold. Her fingers didn’t make it all the way around, either. “What’s wrong?”
He kept his gaze on the windshield. “Who said anything’s wrong?”
