Halfway through his story, Nick’s voice had almost failed him, because Aubrey had started to cry.
He’d faltered when the first tear had rolled down her cheek. But after so many years of regretting and wishing and despising what he’d done, he could no more hold back than he could stop from loving her. He wanted her to know. He needed her to understand.
So he’d gathered a raggedy breath and forced himself to finish. Then he’d listened as she’d told him about her father, how she’d fought with him that night, how the relationship had never recovered.
“I’m sorry,” Nick said, once they’d both gone quiet. “I always figured you two patched things up, eventually.”
“No.” Aubrey sounded so small in the shadows of the truck cab, so broken. “I loved him still, even if I didn’t want to. But I never forgave him.”
He didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t relish knowing he’d contributed to the rift between them.
“And whatever I imagined with Tansy,” she continued, “it wasn’t that. I assumed... Well. Something else. I don’t even know.”
She sniffled. The urge to kiss away her tears swelled, so powerful his back trembled with the effort of restraining himself.
Aubrey scrubbed both palms across her cheeks, then pointed her gaze at the ceiling and breathed deep. She scooted back, opening space between them. It took everything he had not to close it again.
“So it sounds like you don’t even know if you two had sex that night.” Her voice wobbled in the shadows. “Tansy could’ve been pregnant already.”
He gulped down the sourness creeping up his throat.
She chuckled, thick and humorless. “You know, she asked me about you once, in the pharmacy, the day you fought Brent Reinholdt. She was upset about something, and we got into a conversation about you, somehow. I said you were the kind of guy who does the right thing no matter what. Which interested her. Enough that it freaked me out. And then I just... completely forgot about it. Until now.”
His pulse surged, charring his veins. He didn’t want to examine that revelation too closely. Or at all.
“What will you do?” she finally whispered. “If Paige isn’t yours?”
Jesus Christ, he wished she would hold him again. Heneededher to. He didn’t know if he could survive this if she didn’t. But he pinned his hands to his sides and gritted his teeth. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t.”
Her fingers crept from the darkness and curled around his. He clung to them, to this lifeline thrown from an impossible height.
“I hope you realize,” she said, “that no matter what the truth is, you did right by Paige. She is who she is because you’re her father. And she’s so, so lucky that you stuck around. What you’ve done with her is some kind of miracle.”
“Thank you,” he breathed.
Aubrey exhaled. She unlaced her fingers. “Will you... be okay tonight? On your own? Once I get out?”
His throat worked. He felt like he would never be okay again.
For some reason, Jackson’s words chose that moment to come rushing in.Someday, you’re going to do something just for you.
“I don’t want you to go,” Nick blurted. He didn’t stop to consider what he was saying, because if he did, he wouldn’t dare continue. “I mean, I know I need to go home. Look Tansy in the eye and ask her this question. But the truth is, I’m scared. I’ve been scared shitless all week, and right now, I just want to be with you. Because sometimes that’s the only way I can actually breathe.”
She stilled. “What?”
He fidgeted. Stupid. Too much honesty. Why did he always do that?
“What was that last thing you said?”
He had no idea whether it would be better to repeat himself or pretend he’d said something else. But fuck it. Maybe Jackson had a point. “I said when I’m with you, I can breathe again.”
She stared for the longest time. Something deep and infinite moved in her eyes.
He braced. “What?”
“Nothing,” she murmured. “Nothing. Just... a weird coincidence.”
Silence layered between them. He mentally cursed himself for his desperation, for—
