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Emily’s shoulders sagged. What was she going to do? She deleted her video and threw her phone into her purse. She stared wordlessly through the windshield. The green beauty of a summer Tennessee morning ripped past the window as the forested backwoods melted into the highway.
Eva was the first to break the silence. “I’m sorry, Emily.” Her face was unnaturally pale. “I guess I hadn’t really considered what sort of danger Nash was in.”
Emily traced the checkered pattern on her stretch pants, deep in thought. “What if he doesn’t turn on them, but I do?” Why hadn’t she thought of this before? “Ican call Millie.”
Eva’s eyes widened in shock. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t you just telling me how much danger Nash was in? What makes you think that no one can hurt you?”
Yeah, but… “I don’t care about me.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Eva shouted at her. “You want to kill Nash? Because if anything happened to you, that would kill him. Did you even listen to anything that he told you back there, or did you go deaf? He wants to protect you. That’sallhe wants to do. If you heard the way that he talks about you… but it’s the stuff that he keeps back from me that really lets me know how precious you are to him, like you’re too special to talk about… like you’re sacred or something. And yeah, it makes me jealous sometimes because I want something like that. So you know what? You wish he talked to you, and told you everything that was happening to him, but now you’re the one who wants to go behind his back? I don’t get you.”
“He helped me, Eva.” Why couldn’t Emily get her to understand? “He worked like a dog to get my confidence back. I’m just giving back to him.”
“Good.” Eva didn’t skip a beat. “Then why don’t you help him by believing in him? You told him your piece back there. Now let’s see what he’ll do. The ball’s in his court. How about you trust him?”
Emily’s breath caught. Her inability to trust was her greatest failing. It was like she had to be in control all the time. Where had this come from? Was it because she felt that she had to carry her brother? Or did it start with losing her parents, wishing that she’d done more to let them know that she cared about them. She’d always played the “what if” game. Now she was trying to make them proud by being the country star that she wasn’t entirely sure that she wanted to be.
She sank back into her seat, wrapping her arms around herself for comfort—that was supposed to be Nash’s job. She just wanted to find him again and throw herself into his embrace, pleading for him to come back to her.
Had she learned nothing from what her brother had gone through? No matter how much she cared about someone, she couldn’t force them to help themselves. Besides a little tough love and setting boundaries, she had to let go of this illusion of control that she had.
God was in charge. She had to remember that. He watched out for her loved ones when they’d pushed her out of their lives.
Please God, bring him back to me. I just want him back with me.
She wanted to spend her life with him, but would he choose his chains over her? What if his brother tricked him into it? The irony that West had done the same thing to her brother wasn’t lost on her.
She turned from Eva again, trying to get rid of those pesky tears that kept coming back to haunt her. She didn’t want to be so weak.
Too late. She was a mess.
Emily brought her legs up and buried her face into her knees with a moan. “What if he makes the wrong choice?”
“You a betting girl?” Emily heard Eva ask.
She shook her head.
“I am,” Eva said. That really wasn’t a surprise there. “We’ll be sisters-in-law. You’ll see. I’ll bet my life on it.” She checked her hair in the rearview mirror like Emily had done earlier, then messed with her phone that she’d attached to her dashboard, flipping on her TalkieTalk app. She smiled at the screen. “Sorry, Emily and I got cut off back there, but she’s trying to say what a great weekend we all had together! Right, Emily?”
Eva detached the phone from its holder and turned it on Emily, who lifted her head from her knees. She peered at the live TalkieTalk stream through her hair, seeing the numbers of viewers shoot up to thirty thousand in literally seconds. Emily had no doubt that she looked like theRingghost right now. “Yeah.” She rubbed at her eyes, raw from crying. “I mean I’m a little tired. We had a fun time, but…”
Eva quickly turned the camera back to herself. “That girl’s in love… and I think I know a man who might be crushing on her back. Ah! I hate my life sometimes. Someone find me a man, stat!”
She clicked off her phone, her smile flattening into a line. “You’re welcome.” Her voice returned to a more natural pitch. “Just clearing up any rumors you might’ve started with your TalkieTalk.” Eva was a little insane, but she had a good heart. Sorta.
Emily sniffed. “You’re too good for West, you know that?”
“Bad boys need love, too,” Eva said with a shrug.
Notthatone. Emily wanted to strangle West for what he was doing to Nash.
