Page 30 of Fragments of You

By the time I exit the clinic just after six, I’ve almost forgotten about the shit show that is my new reality. But don’t you worry, it’s there to slap me right in the face moments later.

Chapter Eight

Nash

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING here?” Paisley stops several feet shy of her car when she finds me leaning against the passenger door waiting for her.

“Take a ride with me,” I say in lieu of actually answering her question.

Frustration tugs at her features, but it doesn’t deter me. It’s always been one of my favorite looks on her. The way her petite nose flares. The way she drags her bottom lip through her teeth like she’s physically trying to restrain her mouth from spouting off what she truly wants to say.

God, she’s so fucking beautiful it’s breathtaking. I mean, I’ve always known it. Hell, from the first time I saw her when I was only six, my first thought was how pretty she was. And she is. In a way that can’t be easily explained with words. And she’s only gotten more so as the years have passed.

“What?” She looks at me like I’ve sprouted a third eyeball or something.

“Take a ride with me.” I push away from her car, closing the few feet between us.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I’m asking you to.”

“I don’t know what reality you woke up in today, but in case you missed the last four years, you aren’t really in a position to expect me to do anything you ask.”

“I don’t like how we left things,” I tell her, dropping my head slightly to keep her gaze when she tries to look away.

“Well, I didn’t like how we left things four years ago, but alas, you left anyway.” She shoves past me, heading toward the driver’s side door.

“P, wait.” I reach her before she can tug it open, pinning her between me and the door.

“Move, Nash.” She grinds her teeth together so violently that I can quite literally hear it.

“Not until you agree to take a ride with me.” I press a little closer, not missing the hitch in her breath as she stares up at me. “I just... Please.” I soften my approach.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she finally says after a long moment.

“Why? Because you think Felix will be upset if you do?” I challenge.

“Because I don’t want to.”

“Uh-huh.” I try to figure out which buttons to push to get her to agree to my request.

“Felix trusts me.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“You.” She flattens her palms to my chest in an effort to push me away, but it has the opposite effect because the instant I feel her touch, all I can do is lean farther into it.

Fuck, how I’ve missed the way my body responds to her. A simple press of her hand and I’m overcome with the desire for more. The only thing that has ever made me crave something so intensely, with my whole being, is drugs. Because that’s what Paisley has always been to me, an addiction. Only this is an addiction I don’t ever want to be cured of.

Standing here now, I don’t know how I survived four years without this.

“Come on, it’s just a ride.”

“And what do you hope to accomplish by this ride?” She’s trying so hard to remain defiant, but I can tell by her very demeanor that I’m close to breaking her down.

“We were best friends once.” I wrap my hand around one of her hands still pressed to my chest, and as if just now realizing they are still there, she pulls the other away. “I need you in my life, P. Even if it’s just as my friend.”

“I could never be your friend again.” Her words sting, but I have to believe she doesn’t truly mean them. If she did, she wouldn’t still be standing here.

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