I kept my eyes trained on the floor as Nash guided me through the police station toward the front door. I didn’t want to see the curious stares. It would only be so long before they all knew the truth—that I’d let history repeat itself. Only this time, it was so much worse. Because I’d been old enough to leave, and I’d chosen to stay.
Nash opened the front door and held it for me. I scanned the street before stepping out, keeping my eyes peeled for any sign of Adam. There wasn’t one.
Nash slipped his hand in mine and started for the parking lot. I tugged him to a stop. “I need to get my car.” I’d already texted Aspen, and she’d told me in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t to come to work today.
“I’ll have one of my brothers bring it to the cabin.”
“I don’t want to make them—”
He squeezed my hand. “Let me take care of you.”
My heart cracked. I wanted that. Too much. “Okay.”
Nash didn’t let go of my hand as he led me to his SUV. Not until he’d opened the passenger door and I was securely inside. Rounding the vehicle, he climbed into the driver’s seat.
Nerves swept through me all of a sudden. My fingers twisted and untwisted. Then they tapped against my thighs.
Nash reached over and took my hand again. “You’re not in this alone.”
My throat tightened. How much had I longed to hear that while in Atlanta, feeling isolated and cut off from everyone I loved? “Thank you. I’m sorry I brought this mess back here.”
Nash’s green gaze jerked in my direction. “This is exactly where you need to be. And you didn’t bring Adam here. He did. And he won’t be here for long.”
My stomach twisted at Nash’s last words. They sounded like a vow. “Don’t do anything reckless. Adam will make your life hell if you try to interfere.”
I didn’t want to even think about what Adam might do. He already despised Nash. The fact that I’d come straight home, and Nash was staying with me? Adam would be livid.
Nash turned off the main road and onto the one that would bring us to my cabin. “Mads, I’ll always stand up for you. I won’t be stupid about it, but this asshole will understand that his days of messing with you are over. He doesn’t get to stay here. He doesn’t get to breathe your air.”
My heart stuttered in my chest. “Nash…”
His hand squeezed mine. “It’s just the way things are. I know you didn’t have that growing up, someone who looked out for you—”
“You’re wrong,” I said, cutting him off.
Nash glanced at me in question.
I met his gaze and didn’t look away. “I did have someone who looked out for me. I had you.”
The hold of deep sleep faded as voices gnawed at my subconscious. My eyes fluttered open, taking in my surroundings. Sunlight poured in through the window, illuminating my bare bedroom. It took a few seconds for sleep’s hold on me to fade. It was the hazy feeling that only came from a deep, midday nap.
I glanced at the clock on the bedside table and blanched. It was almost three o’clock. I’d been asleep for five hours. I rolled to my back, and my ribs didn’t twinge as badly as they had been. Apparently, I’d needed the sleep.
More voices drifted down the hallway. “Turn it a little to the left,” Grae said. “No, that’s too far.”
“Excuse my sister,” Nash said. “She’s bossy as hell.”
“I just have the best design eye,” Grae huffed.
“She’s right about that,” Wren agreed.
I pushed myself to a sitting position. A wave of dizziness swept over me, and I gave myself a second to let the world right itself. Once it did, I stood and slid my feet into my slippers. I was wearing my coziest sweats again. They were so big they made me look like an Oompa Loompa, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.
Crossing to the door, I opened it and listened for a moment.
“There,” Grae said. “It’s perfect!”
“You’re a home décor genius,” Wren agreed, a smile in her voice.
“Don’t say that. It’ll just go to her head,” Nash groused.
There was a scuffle, and Nash cried out. “Did you seriously just try to pinch me? I’m injured.”
“Baby,” Grae shot back.
I made my way down the hallway and into the living room, stopping dead. My living room was no longer some massive, empty space. It was filled with furniture.
My eyes first settled on a huge sectional that looked like you could sink into it and get lost for days. But it didn’t only appear comfortable; it was gorgeous, too—a beautiful gray fabric with the brass studs I’d always loved on furniture. There was an antique-looking coffee table and two overstuffed chairs in a bluish gray that reminded me of the colors of the sky on a stormy day. And someone had picked out throw pillows that brought pops of brighter colors into the space.
But that wasn’t all. Gone was the picnic table in the dining area. It had been replaced by a rustic dark wood table with space to seat eight, decorated with a smattering of candles.
My jaw went slack. “What…?”
“Don’t be mad,” Grae hurried to say. “We wanted to do something for you.”
“I didn’t tell them anything,” Nash added quickly.
Grae sent a sidelong look at him. “No, my brother has been annoyingly tight-lipped about whatever is going on. But all we needed to know was that you were upset, and we wanted to do something to make you feel better.”
Wren moved closer to me, worry lining her face. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I feel a lot better.” Then I shook my head, still staring at my house. “How?”
Nash chuckled. “You should know by now that when G is determined, nothing will stand in her way.”
Grae huffed. “I’m taking that as a compliment.” She turned to me. “I know Jordan left this place with like two pieces of furniture. Nash said you were planning on grabbing a couch from the secondhand shop, but I heard that store in Brookdale was going out of business, so I grabbed Wren, and we made a quick trip.”
Laughter bubbled out Wren. “You should’ve seen her. I’ve never witnessed someone pull together a look that fast. Then she talked the owner into having one of his delivery trucks follow us back here.”
The burn in my throat made my eyes water. “You guys…”
Grae’s hands went to her hips. “Don’t even think about fighting me on this, Maddie.”
“It’s too much…”
Wren wrapped an arm around me. “It’s best not to argue with these Hartleys. They’ve got more money than they know what to do with, and they love the people in their lives like crazy.”
Grae lifted her chin. “She’s right. Don’t try to argue. Since everything was on sale, it’s all final anyway.”
“G…”
“Love you, Maddie.”
These women had dropped everything they were doing to make my house a home, and I hadn’t even told them the truth about what had brought me back to Cedar Ridge. I glanced at Nash. “Can you give us a few minutes?”
His smile was gentle. He crossed to me and brushed a kiss across my temple. “I’ll be in the bedroom. I need to make a few phone calls. There are wraps from the deli in the fridge if you’re hungry.”
“Thanks.” I tried to put all my emotion into that one word. Because I knew that Nash had told the girls what my favorite colors were. He had shared my weird love of brass-nailed furniture and told them that I desperately needed a couch.
“I got you, Mads. Always,” he whispered.
My heart gave a panicked flutter against my ribs—panicked because I loved this man so damn much and knew he’d never be mine.
Nash disappeared down the hallway. When the sound of the door closing reached my ears, I turned back to Wren and Grae to find them both staring at me.
Grae threw up her arms. “If you think my idiot brother isn’t head over heels in love with you, then you’re dumber than he is,” she whisper-hissed.
Wren pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. “I don’t like to call anyone stupid, but I’m going to have to agree on this one.”
I shook my head and crossed to the couch. “I know he loves me. He’s just not in love with me.” And there was a massive difference between the two. The kind of difference that could shatter a person’s heart into irreparable pieces.
I sank onto the couch, and my eyes went wide. “This is like sitting on a cloud.”
Grae jumped and landed next to me. “I know the importance of style and comfort. We just need some photos around here.”
Wren sat on my opposite side. “There’s plenty of time for that. And we can help you pick out frames.”
I looked at both of them. I didn’t deserve either of them, but I was so danged glad I had them anyway. So, I did what I should’ve done from the beginning and spilled my truth.
“Adam was abusive.” I squeezed my hands tight, watching the blood disappear from around my knuckles. “It didn’t start out that way. I don’t even know when it started.” I released my grip, and the blood came rushing back. “Little things. Putting me down, questioning who I was talking to, making me believe he was the only person I truly had in my corner.”
The room had gone deathly silent, and I forced my gaze toward my friends. I saw grief streaked across Wren’s expression, but Grae’s eyes were full of fury. “Did he hit you?”
A tear escaped. I quickly wiped it away but nodded. “Right before I left, he threw me into a wall and broke three of my ribs.”
“That mother trucker, I am going to castrate him with a butter knife,” Grae growled.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. And once I started, I couldn’t stop. I laughed so hard tears trailed down my face. “You terrify me, you know that? You and your obsession with knives.”
“It’s him I want to terrify.” She breathed deeply, bracing. “Tell us the rest.”
So, I told them everything while we huddled close on the couch.
I let out a shuddering breath. “I was so ashamed.”
Wren’s eyes flashed. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. Asshole Adam is the only one who deserves to feel shame. You know what? He doesn’t even deserve a name. I’m just calling him Asshole from now on.”
“I’ll go with Douche Canoe since I’m trying to keep it mostly clean for the little monsters,” Grae said.
I worried the corner of my lip. “I let it happen to me again.”
Wren took my hand in hers. “It’s easy to let your mind get warped by someone who paints pretty lies.”
Shadows passed over Grae’s eyes. “And it’s easy to believe a relationship is something it isn’t just because you want it so badly.”
Grae’s words were heavy with experience that I wanted to ask her about, but the shadows were gone a second later, and she was leaning closer to me. “It’s going to take time to heal and see the truth as it really is. But we’ll be there for you every step of the way.”
“We will,” Wren echoed.
And I believed them. I leaned into Grae. “Have I told you lately that I love you guys?”
She wrapped me in a hug. “Maybe. But it’s always nice to hear it again.”
