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"Bossy." She rolls her eyes, but she can't hide the little smile on her face. Her brother may drive her crazy, but I don't think she'd change anything about him. It's obvious she adores him. I think she's just tired of being smothered. She isn't the type of woman meant to be kept in a cage or loomed over. The allure of freedom and independence is too strong. "He said he'll call you tomorrow."
"What did he want?"
"To complain that I haven't answered my phone all day." She grimaces. "He worries more than he should."
I slide onto the couch beside her, not saying anything. After this morning, I think he has every reason to worry. But he doesn't know what happened yet. He's going to be mad as hell when he finds out I kept it from him. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. The important thing is that she's safe and she'll remain safe. I won't fail on that front.
"He worries because he loves you." I brush hair off her face. "That's not wrong, is it?"
"No," she sighs quietly. "But he's worried about me for long enough. He gave up half of his life to raise me. When does he stop worrying long enough to live the rest of it?" Her eyes meet mine, wide and earnest. "That's why I moved here. Because he was never going to stop being my parent and learn to be Nash so long as I was there."
I process this for a moment. She isn't angry at him. She feels guilty, as if raising her was a burden on him. One that he's continued to carry well past the time he should have. I don't think Nash sees it the same way. In fact, I know he doesn't.
"He didn't give anything up to raise you, Dimples."
"He did." She turns to face me. "You know he was supposed to enter the draft right after the accident? But I was in the hospital, so he skipped it. When he went to training camp the following year, he wasn't selected for a team. It took an entire year after that before he finally got a contract. That's how he landed on the Yellowjackets and then got called up to the Capitals. He would have been in the NHL a lot earlier if it hadn't been for me."
"He made the choice he could live with, Aspen," I say quietly. "I know your brother. Hockey is just a game. For most guys, playing for the NHL is just a dream. If we're lucky, we get to live that dream for a while. But it's still just a dream, a goal on a list. Family, though? That's forever. If he had to do it again, he'd do the exact same thing and have no regrets. He has none now."
"That doesn't mean he shouldn't get to live his own life. So long as I was there, he would have kept spending all of his time with me and none of it doing the things he should be doing."
"What are you hiding from him?" I watch her face, searching for an answer. "What are you trying so hard to keep him from finding out?"
"That I'm buying the coffee shop," she whispers. "I'll have enough money to buy half of it from Jack at the end of the month."
"You think Nash will try to stop you," I guess.
"I think…" She pauses, dragging the tip of her tongue over her bottom lip. "I know that once he realizes that I'm here permanently, he's going to lose his mind. He'll try to give up hockey to move here or something crazy. I'm trying to keep that from happening for as long as I can."
"You don't want him here?"
"I don't want him giving up something he loves because he thinks I need him to save me," she clarifies with a shake of her head. "I don't want him to sacrifice anything else for me. I want him to live his dreams. I owe him that." Tears well in her eyes. "I'm terrified he'll give it all up to follow me here just because he doesn't want to let me go. I almost died, and it changed him. I think it broke him."
Jesus. She's not fighting so hard for her independence. She's fighting so hard for his. In her eyes, he sacrificed everything to raise her, and he's been sacrificing every day since. She doesn't want to be the reason he lives with regret. She wants him to heal.
"Come here." I drag her across the couch onto my lap, holding her close. "You need to talk to him about how you feel, baby. He isn't unreasonable. Just worried."
"Maybe," she whispers, laying her head on my shoulder. The doubt in her voice makes her sound so much smaller than she is, so much more vulnerable than the fierce woman who has been giving me hell since I walked into the coffee shop yesterday morning.
I make an instant decision.
"Are you into this movie?"
"Not really. I just think the actor is kind of hot."
I growl, nipping her ear. "You want to try that again?"
"No? I'm pretty sure I said what I meant the first time."
I secure her against me and climb to my feet, making her laugh and cling to my shoulders.
"I was just kidding, Noah!" she cries.
"Too late." I palm her ass, marching toward the bedroom.
"Fine, I meant it anyway," she mutters, making me smile. She doesn't give an inch, and I fucking love it. Nothing makes me hotter than her mouth and the shit that comes out of it.
I deposit her on her feet at the foot of the bed, tipping my face down to take her mouth in a hard kiss. "Go get ready for bed before I decide not to let you sleep at all."
