Erika stared at me expectantly.I had no doubt she arranged this.
“Sure.I can help,” I heard myself reply when I longed to drive away.I hung up.“Did you ask Marty to do that?”
Erika got out of the truck without answering and rounded the front of the vehicle.She opened my door.When I didn’t move, she took my left hand and laced her fingers between mine.She stared at our locked hands.“You need to do this.You can stay in the raffle tent, away from all the other stuff.Be a part of the festival for the first time.Go sell some tickets.One smile from you and every woman in town won’t be able to resist buying.”
“That’s not true.”
“Oh, my God, Josh.You’re hot.Women would do anything for you when you turn on the charm.”
My face prickled with heat.
She tugged me out of the truck.“Every unattached woman in this town wants you naked.They’ve all been sure to inform me of it.Use that to make a little money for whatever group they’re raising for this year.”
“Is this you sayingyouwant me naked?”
She blinked up at me with a smile that started as a question and ended as a dare.“Why did you come to the festival if it wasn’t for Milly?”
I wouldn’t answer that.
Fully intent on ignoring the question, I closed the door.One step away from the car, she put a hand on my chest and pushed me backward until my back smashed against the truck.Her entire body leaned into me.
Jesus, I wanted this woman.I forced myself to stare over her head.
She put a hand on my cheek to drag my head down and look at her.I swallowed hard and stared at her pink lips.
“Josh, why would you come to this festival, knowing full well you’d freak out?”
My gaze flew to hers.
What got me wasn’t her demand nor the flattery, but the way she saw through the wreckage I desperately wanted to hide from the world.She saw the rawness beneath the guilt and shame.She didn’t just see it, she understood it.And she still wanted me.
It was right there in her honey brown eyes.
She’d been there in the aftermath of those days after my brother died.Back when Timothy beat the hell out of me in middle school for stupid reasons, probably unable to process his own grief.Of course, I egged him on, thinking I deserved it for letting everyone down.
She’d seen me panic at the festival before.Not once did she criticize or make me feel bad about any of it.She just held my hand and told me none of it was my fault.
I missed this—this one person in the whole mess of the fucked up world who could look at me and get me.This one person who saw the ruined person with lost dreams that I was and still thought me worthy in some way.
“Whiskey,” she rasped out hoarsely.“Why are you here?”
“For you.”
ChapterTwenty-Five
ERIKA
He was here for me.Me.
I’d known, sure.Hearing him say it didn’t only soothe me, it righted something inside that had been off kilter since I found out he was dating Milly.
“No snarky comment to knock me down a few pegs?”he whispered.
I shook my head.
“That means you feel like you’ve humiliated me enough, then?”So much pain and shame reflected in his gaze.
Something inside me shattered.I couldn’t stand seeing Josh like this.Sure, I snapped at him sometimes, but only when he was solid and unshakable—never when he was gutted and hollow like this.I didn’t want him hurting in this way.
