Page 2 of The Bachelor

“Do you want to borrow my phone to call him?”

“I don’t know his number. I never memorized it.” Her eyes widened with fresh tears. “Who doesn’t know their boyfriend’s phone number? Lord, this is so stupid and awful. What am I going to do?”

“Do you know anyone’s number? Were you out with friends tonight or just him?”

“Just him.” The grimace she gave was so disgusted it was a relief. He could deal with her anger towards her ex better than tears.

“Where do you live? I’ll get you a cab home.”

“I don’t want to go there.” She shook her head. “We live together with Ben’s aunt and uncle.”

She was living with the lying cheat? Yikes. That was definitely a problem. “Can you call a friend?”

“I don’t know anyone here. I’ve only been in Nashville a few weeks.” She bit her lip, and her anger seemed to deflate. “But if I can get my purse, I can go to the hotel room I reserved for tonight. We were supposed to have a fun night, then have some privacy at a hotel. Now I’m glad I have it because I can’t go back there with Ben’s family, it’s way too humiliating.”

He could understand that. He really felt bad for her. She still had tears in her eyes and she looked confused, hurt, defeated. There was something about her that reminded him of a girl he’d known in high school, Jeannie Simms, one he’d nurtured a serious crush on. Jeannie had been a girl who had looked perpetually sad, and Shane had always wanted to comfort her.

Unfortunately, as a teenager, he hadn’t been great at helping a girl with her feelings. Instead, he’d offered comfort with his arms around her and his lips on her mouth. He was starting to have a similar reaction to this woman.

“Maybe you should go back to the house and wait for him so you can get your purse back and then head to the hotel. It’s late, where is he going to go?”

“Apparently to a whole lot of women’s houses. It turns out ding dong girl was just the latest in a long line.” She tossed her long hair back and shook her head. “Lord, I’m pissed off at him for putting me in this position. He promised me he wouldn’t do this again.”

Shane wasn’t sure what to say to that other than the man was an idiot and she was too trusting. Based on her words, he had to assume she meant he had cheated before. Shane had zero respect for a man who did that. He also thought she was a whole lot more forgiving than he would have been. He’d be one and done in a situation like that.

“I can give you a ride.” He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “Here, hold this. And my wallet.” He held them both out to her. “That way you know I’m not a serial killer.”

She cocked her head and blinked. “But if you kill me, wouldn’t you just take your wallet and phone back? And I’d be dead, so I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone anyway.”

That made him laugh. Maybe she wasn’t as naïve as she looked. “Good point. But you can use my phone to call for help if I get weird.” When she didn’t accept the offered items, he took them back and opened his wallet, pulling out two twenties. “Then here, take some money for a cab and I’ll wait with you until it gets here. I’m not leaving you standing on the sidewalk at two in the morning with no phone and no money.”

“Thank you so much, but…” She started to shake her head in protest. “I can’t accept money from you. Maybe I can just find a cop?” She looked around her helplessly. She drew in a big shaky breath. “They’ll help me, right?”

“You’re from Kentucky, right?” he asked. “Small town?”

“How did you know?” Her nose wrinkled. “Is it that obvious?”

“Only because I’m from small-town Kentucky. I know the accent. Trust me, cops back home might give you a ride and think nothing of it. Here, they have better things to do than shuttle girls home after a fight with their boyfriend. They’re not going to have a lot of sympathy. This is a party town and things like this happen every single night. You’re on your own, unfortunately.” He smiled. “Except for me. I’m feeling an odd sense of big-brother Good Samaritan-ness toward you.”

He was. She was making him feel homesick, which was odd. He hadn’t loved anything about his childhood other than his mother and sisters. Not the small town, not his cruel father, not the bleak lack of prospects for a better life. Yet he looked at this girl and suddenly he was seventeen again and wishing like hell that Jeannie Simms would turn her sad green eyes onto him and appreciate the man he’d thought he was.

But that was well over a decade ago and he wasn’t ever going back to Kentucky, and Jeannie Simms had overdosed a few years after he left, proving he hadn’t been wrong about those sad eyes. A piece of him had always felt guilty that he couldn’t help her, even though she had never really spoken about what was going on in her life to him. But he could help out this vulnerable girl tonight.

He lived his life by one rule—don’t be an asshole. It covered all his moral and ethics, from working hard to being kind to being loyal and honest.

He was no asshole and he wasn’t leaving this girl alone until he knew she was safe.

She fell backwards against the wall behind them, like she was tired of holding herself up. Tears ran down her cheeks and she sniffled. “This is so stupid. This is the stupidest of stupid things. I’m such an idiot.”

Shane pressed the two twenties into her hand but she didn’t take them. They just fluttered to the ground. After bending over to pick them up, he studied her. She didn’t look drunk. Just defeated. Shell-shocked. “I’m Shane, by the way,” he said. “And come on. I’m giving you a ride.” He didn’t want to let her out of his sight until he knew for sure she was safely in a house or hotel.

“I’m Avery.”

“Nice to meet you, Avery.” Shane took her hand, forced his cell phone into it, wrapping her lithe fingers around it. “Hold this.”

She finally obeyed. Then he took her other hand and squeezed it softly.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said, but she sounded unsure of herself.

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