Chapter Ten
Emily’s hands shook while she tuned her new guitar. She’d really thought that Mia had dropped the whole fake boyfriend thing. Nash sure picked up on that joke quick enough. He was just ready to tease her for her squeaky clean reputation.
It wasn’t that bad, was it?
His eyes when he’d looked at her had danced with amusement. He didn’t seem like someone who was in trouble.
River never did, either.
I overreacted. They are not the same man!
She groaned when she realized it. She was hopped up on adrenaline like an addict on coke. Her eyes swept around the ground, surrounding the arena on both sides. Every detail came at her; it was a blur and horribly in focus all at once. Nashville was the glamorized version of Harvest Ranch. Urban cowboys, women she’d easily mistake for Daisy Duke littered the stands, along with a few salt of the earth farmers, people out on dates, families out for a good time, too. Each individual face stood out, expressions, laughter, all coming at her to crush her with its overwhelming pressure.
No wonder her breath couldn’t come out right. She should’ve had warmup techniques to fight her stage fright by now, except it really hadn’t been a problem before. She didn’t understand why she felt so insecure. Was she just more aware of what could go wrong after tragedy had touched her in so many ways? She put her guitar in its case, leaving the top open. Her every move was as difficult as if she was standing at the bottom of the ocean under suffocating waves of water.
A hand went to her back, making her jump.
She swung around and sagged with relief at the sight of Nash. She didn’t have to go far to apologize, though at the moment she felt more desperate to seek his solace. His brow was concerned. He was all that was manly in jeans and cowboy boots. His muscular shoulders seemed especially broad in a distressed tee with stars against stripes of red, white, and blue.
In true Nash fashion, he dressed casually when he wasn’t attending those awful parties, but even then he looked like he could shed those stylish dress jackets at a moment’s notice and take on one of these wild bulls if given the excuse. The city hadn’t softened him a bit. After all, hadn’t he thrown her on the back of his motorcycle as easily as he would one of his nephews?
Oh, she was a fool!
That’s why he’d been on her mind since then. She hadn’t forgotten one detail of that night, no matter how she’d tried to tell herself to forget about it. The memory of holding onto his strong back, the feel of his soothing hands, each touch was still engrained against her own skin, and he’d touched her a lot. She was a sucker for human connection, even if she pretended that it meant nothing.
From the first moment she saw him under those arena lights, she hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off of him… and she wasn’t the only one. Those sirens surrounding him were relentless. Maybe that was another reason why she flipped out.
I really do owe him an apology.
She grabbed at his arm, feeling the warmth of his skin under her cold fingers. “I’m sorry. I have no say on who you hang out with or–or date.” He winced at that, and she wondered how that came out wrong. “I’m not saying anything right. Please, forgive me—you’re a big boy, who can take care of your own life, it’s just that, I’m really scared about performing right now, so I don’t really know what I’m saying, only I just can’t–can’t… think straight.”
His hand found hers. She noticed the leather bracelet he wore sliding up his arm. His mother’s name was on it—Lily. The Slade men all wore one to support their mother’s fight with heart disease. He licked his lips before he squeezed her fingers. “I’m not dating Eva, not even a little bit.”
“No?” Somehow that stole her attention from the crowds. She focused on his face instead. His eyes crinkled at the corners—it was from all that time he spent roping cattle under the blaring sun. “Eva is after West, hardcore,” he said.
She made a surprised sound.
He broke into a grin. “I know, right? Gross. But for some reasonshelikes him, and she just thinks that she can get to him through me. She’s really into the ‘jealousy’ game. She’s got all sorts of tricks up her sleeve.”
“What sleeves?” That girl didn’t know what those were, not with those seductive dresses that she always wore.
He laughed.
She groaned. “See!” she said. “I get catty when I’m freaking out. Just–just…” As she stared at him, she remembered that he gave great hugs. There was always strength behind them, and for one weak moment, she sought his protection. “Just hold me right now, Nash.”
He obeyed, so fast that he took her breath away. His musky scent enveloped her as he crushed her against him. Yeah, his hugswereperfect. Her forehead brushed against his strong jaw and neck. His skin was rough from his facial hair, and she didn’t mind at all. It just felt so good to get lost in his arms. Somehow the confidence that made him who he was radiated to her. She melted against him. He was exactly what she needed, though she wondered if he could hear her wildly beating heart.
His hands rubbed soothingly against her back. “Yeah, you can pull back the claws. There’s no need to protect me from Eva. West pays me to keep her back from him.”
“No!”
She felt momentarily distracted by the shocking tidbit of gossip. He always knew what to say to distract her from her impending doom. “Just a second, I need to feel something.” Nash pressed his fingers against her neck to check her pulse. His lips cracked into a worried grin. “You need to unwind, girl.”
He’d caught that her heart rate was through the roof, did he? Now that they were making true confessions, she had one of her own. “I just thought you should know that I was glad…”
His brow arched.
“I was glad that you set the whole place on fire the other night,” she finished lamely, and shrugged defensively at his shocked face. “I didn’t want to perform. How’s that for bad? This is supposed to be my career. I’ll never survive out here.”