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“I’m fine. Really.”
“No. I’ll drive you,” Nolan says again in a voice that shows he’s not planning to listen to arguments.
I pause with my purse in my hands, then decide it will be easier if I don’t try to fight him on this. “Alright,” I say.
He gets up and comes to walk me to the door like I’m in danger of falling over.
I look up at him, smile crooked. “It’s just a period. I’m not going to fall.”
“No, you’re not,” he agrees, but he doesn’t make any move to give me space or stop hovering over me as we walk out of the cabin.
I smile to myself when he’s not looking. I guess the old, protective Nolan is still in there, too. I never minded that side of him.
13
NOLAN
Mia has her knees pulled up to her chest in the passenger seat of my rental as we’re driving back to the cabin. I glance over at her.
“Seatbelt,” I say, pointing.
She grunts, sounding annoyed, but pulls the strap and clicks it in place anyway.
I look her way once more but can’t think of what to say as we share a silent drive.
“Sorry,” Mia says after a little while.
“What could you possibly be sorry for?” I ask.
“Making a scene, I guess?”
“Don’t apologize. The guys all get it. Jake has a sister. Jesse has a sister. Liam has three sisters. Carter… well, he paid attention in anatomy class, as we had the misfortune of learning back there. And Maddox? I doubt Maddox even remembers what happened.”
She chuckles. “Then thank you for trying to make me feel better, even if it’s suspicious as hell.”
“What is?”
“Nothing. Just that I’m getting whiplash over here. One minute you’re my tormentor. The next you’re being all sweet and concerned about my period cramps?”
I tap my finger on the wheel, searching for the right way to explain. “I took care of my mom a lot growing up. She’d get these cysts on her ovaries and they acted up during her periods. It went on for years. Every few cycles, she was basically bedridden and couldn’t function. Dad just kind of disappeared when it happened, so I was all she had. It’s not that I minded helping. I was glad I could. But I just remember how often I swore I’d never be like him–disappearing when someone needed help. Ignoring my responsibilities.”
She’s quiet for a little while. “I bet your mom really appreciated that.”
I nod. A tight, uncomfortable ball is forming in my throat. “We eventually found out my dad was cheating with a girl from work,” I say, even though I’m not sure why I’m feeling the need to share. There’s still a bitterness in me from when I told her about my mom cutting me off to go back to be with my dad two years ago. She never even responded to the text.
But she did just open up back at Jesse’s. And I did just admit I was trying not to be such a dick to her all the time. “My mom left him, and he pretty much never tried to stay in touch with either of us after that.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been.”
I laugh, giving her a look. “You lost your parents. I’m pretty sure having a shitty dad doesn’t compare.”
“Grief isn’t a competition,” she says, squeezing my leg to take a little of the sting out of repeating my own words from earlier back to me.
I blow out a breath, smiling a little. “It’s easier to say the right thing when it’s not your own shit, huh?”
“It is,” she agrees.
“We never really talked about this kind of stuff…” She trails off without saying the word “before,” as if it has some kind of dangerous power over us–like admitting we did date and we did enjoy each other's company is some sort of door neither of us wants to be the first to open. “My parents, your parents…”
