Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,78

he maneuvers like a jungle cat. Bowen has always had that unteachable swagger to him.

I’m scared to look up into his face because that’s the part that hooks my heart like a fish waiting to meets its doom. Powerless, that’s what I am. The man’s avoided me for ten years, and yet, if he confessed his love for me tomorrow, I’d go running back.

Sucking in a breath, I finally meet those blue eyes. The ones that gazed at me as we danced at prom. Those cerulean, almost translucent blue eyes that watched as I gave myself to him and only him, for what I thought would be forever. Bowen’s eyes had looked at me through all the most important moments of our young lives … and now, he barely swung them my way.

“Oh.” He stops short once he sees it’s me that he’s jumped out of his chariot to rescue.

What he meant to say is, “Oh, it’s you,” but the disdain in his tone still gets his message across.

I’m not sure where it all went wrong. My memories of that time are still fuzzy. All I do know is that we crashed and burned, both physically and in our relationship. And I ended up losing the love of my life for reasons he still won’t reveal.

“My car broke down,” I offer weakly, stating the obvious because I don’t know what else to say.

Bowen looks at the smoking hood and walks past me, not even a flicker of kindness thrown my way. He pops the hood and disappears. After a few seconds, I round it, not able to stand here in his presence if he won’t even speak to me.

“It’s fine, I’m calling for a tow. You can go.”

He ignores me. “I’m not a mechanic, but I’d say your radiator is busted. Is this … someone else’s car?”

The way he says it, he might as well ask if I’m seeing someone because his tone is so accusatory. As if he’d even care, which is the strangest part.

“It’s new. I bought it last week.”

“Someone took advantage of you.” Bowen’s gaze is unimpressed.

This treatment makes me want to cry as does almost every interaction with my ex-boyfriend. From high school sweethearts to practical strangers … it was tragic.

And in this instance, it was getting old. Jeez, it was far past old. It was ancient.

“I said, I’m fine. I’ll handle it. You don’t want to help, so go.” My tone has more bitterness in it than I thought I could possibly direct toward him.

Just as the words leave my mouth, the first of the rain starts to fall. Steadily pattering down onto us and the cars, I hold a hand up to cover my head. It does nothing, however, to remediate the sputtering under the hood of my car.

Bowen looks at the smoke, at me, and up at the rainy sky … and sighs loudly.

“I can give you a ride.”

No please, no real caring about the statement, no courtesy. “Yeah … I think I’ll pass.”

My sarcasm must have pissed him off. “Get in the car, Lily.”

The nails digging into my palms bite with pain. “I said I’m fine. Don’t do me any favors, Bowen.”

Overhead, the sky cracks with lightning, one I can almost feel the electricity of on my face.

“I’m not leaving you out here to fry. Or worse, drown. Get in the car. I won’t be the one blamed if you die.”

His words shock us both to stillness … and I realize he didn’t think about what he was saying until it was already coming out of his mouth.

Because once upon a time, he had almost killed me.

I move before I can think again, running to the passenger side of his truck. Bowen follows, a burly figure getting soaked as he angrily stomps through the rain.

The rain sluices the windshield as we drive in silence, the wipers batting it quickly, only for the watery curtain to appear seconds later. It might be cold and damp outside, but inside the cab of the truck, the humidity of our attraction, the chemical way we’ve always been pulled to each other … it’s scorching me.

This night isn’t unlike that night ten years ago, the one that changed both of our courses forever. Rain, lightning, darkness closing in and country roads that bend too easily. Him in the driver’s seat, me in the passenger seat. Some old Tim McGraw song on the radio.

Except we weren’t those kids anymore, the ones who were wild and in love and