Page 69 of Ashes of You


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The door squeaked as it opened, but I didn’t turn around. I didn’t have the energy for whoever it was. There was nothing for a few beats, and then a blanket wrapped around me.

Hallie lowered herself to the chair next to me, cocooned in a massive parka, but she still didn’t speak.

I stared down at the fuzzy blanket. It was one from the couch. It seemed fluffier than it had been, smelled better, too. She’d switched something in the laundry. And just like everything else she touched, it was magically…better.

My fingers ran over the soft fabric. How long had it been since someone had taken care of me? I didn’t even know. Probably because I didn’t let them. My family tried. Did what I allowed them to do. But Hallie? She’d snuck under my defenses. And it was reckless as hell that I wasn’t shoving her out. Because when it came to women, I hadn’t made the best choices. It was better to steer clear altogether.

“Want to talk about it?” she asked finally.

I took another pull from my beer and stared out at the forest. “Luke’s pissed at me.”

“The slamming doors kind of gave that away.”

My lips twitched. “He knows there’s more to you moving in here than I told them.”

Hallie pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “You want to protect him.”

“Of course, I do. He’s my son.”

“A son that’s growing up. A sensitive and empathetic one, who reads people extremely well.”

My gaze flicked to Hallie in the moonlight. So damn beautiful. “So, he knows when I’m not telling him everything.”

“Probably. He also noticed when a panic attack was edging in for me.”

I straightened in my seat. “When did you have a panic attack? Why? Was someone bothering you?”

I fired off the questions like a barrage of bullets.

“Just someone I think recognized me from past media coverage. They got a little too close, and I got a bit wobbly.”

“No one should be invading your personal space,” I growled.

“Your son agreed with that point because he gave the guy a nice little shove and told him to move along.”

I wanted to get Luke a new video game for that one.

Hallie hugged her knees harder. “Then he made sure I was okay. Wanted to know what had happened.”

“What’d you tell him?”

“I told him that someone had taken me. Didn’t give him any details, but he figured out they’d hurt me. He’s seen the scars on my arms. But I told him I got away and someone amazing found me.”

A burn lit deep—agony and pleasure all wrapped into one. It didn’t matter how dangerous it was. I wanted to be the person who always showed up for Hallie. “How’d he handle it?”

“Didn’t ask a single other question, but he watches. When Officer Hall was talking to me at school today, Luke hurried right over like he knew I wasn’t totally comfortable.”

The muscle beneath my eye began to flutter. “What did that douchebag want?”

Hallie barked out a laugh. “That’s what Luke called him, too. You guys are far more alike than you are different.”

I was proud of Luke for being that kind of person, one who would step in for someone who might need it. But Hallie shouldn’t have needed it at all.

“Has Reed been bothering you?” I gritted out.

She lifted a shoulder and then dropped it. “I wouldn’t saybothering.”

That meant he was.