Page 55 of Some Cowboys Brave the Flames

He cleared his throat, moving closer to her. “I need you.”

“Are you willing to consider my terms?”

Ash shook his head. “That’s not a fair request?—”

“It’s more than fair, Ash. I heard you out. I gave it a chance. I let you talk me down before because you’d assured me that everything would be fine.”

“And it is.”

“But itwasn’t,” she said softly. “When you were out for those two days, it felt like an eternity. I didn’t know if you would wake up. Not really. It didn’t matter how many times the doctors andnurses assured me that you would come out of it. There were no guarantees.”

“There’s never a guarantee?—”

“I know. But that’s just it, isn’t it? There will never be a guarantee that you’ll be safe. The fact that I can’t mentally handle the worry—maybe that’s just an indication that I’m not ready to be in a relationship.”

“But you would be if I quit my job,” he said bitterly.

She sighed. “I don’t know.”

His breathing was getting heavy, and it wasn’t because he’d had to sprint around the house in his effort to get to her. Ash rubbed at the spot just above his heart. “So that’s it then? No compromises? Nothing I can say or do to convince you?—”

Her smile didn’t reach her tear-filled eyes. Slowly, she shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Ash could feel his heart breaking. Each crack and fissure from her words only went deeper. How could she ask him to pick just one? To lose either felt like he was losing a piece of himself.

“You’ll always be my first kiss,” she whispered.

He couldn’t bring himself to look at her then. Anywhere but at those beautiful eyes.

“And my first love.”

Ash shut his eyes tight and wished he could go deaf. He couldn’t bear to hear the finality of it.

“I’ll always love you for it.”

He clenched his hands tight, digging his nails into his palms. “Please reconsider,” he rasped. “Don’t do this.”

“I’m sorry, Ash.”

Time lost meaning. He lost track of how long he stood there. It could have been seconds. It could have been minutes. Heck, if an hour had passed, he wouldn’t have noticed. Finally, he nodded. There was no way he could go out the way he’d come.To have to look Mason and Daniel in the eye after the scene he’d made would only make things worse.

His heart was in shambles. His last spark of hope had been stamped out. There was no other way to salvage what had just happened.

Ash turned around and headed from the kitchen to the front door. She didn’t call after him. She didn’t ask him to stay. And he wasn’t going to push. He’d already taken more than he had a right to have.

24

Charlie

Charlie nearly collapsed on the floor. It took everything she had to remain on her feet. Daniel and Mason came inside shortly after Ash left. Daniel only looked at her with concern. Mason was the one who made it worse.

“You did the right thing, sis.”

How was she supposed to respond to that? How was she supposed to look herself in the mirror and not see a coward? Because that was exactly what she was.

There was no other way around it.

Perhaps she’d always been a coward. From the beginning she’d been under her brothers’ wings. She’d done what she’d been told. She stayed close to home. She cooked, cleaned, and took care of them as much as a mother might have, but that was all she could do.

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