Page 58 of Brother's Keeper

I offered him one of the buds. “Would you like todance, Mister Nash?”

He swayed back, and color flushed his bear cheeks. “I’m more of a hug and sway kind of guy. Not so light on my feet.”

“Thank fuck.” I sighed and stumbled into him, grabbing the shoulders of his button-down. “I don’t have it in me to do any fancy shit tonight.”

A humming sound reverberated inside his chest. “Still not gonna tell me what you’ve been up to?”

I shook my head. “Not bringing my trouble in here. Or my problems.”

It wasn’t hard to track that comment back to its source.

Nash pushed me back enough that I could look up at him. “I’m sorry Pip said that,” he said. “Sorrier that you heard it—”

“Nash, just hold me.” I blinked wearily. “Dance with me. I wanna be close to you.”

He worked his jaw, biting back argument before putting the earbud in. The volume clicked up a couple notches so we could both hear clearly as the next song on the playlist began.

“Come here.” He drew me in.

He was everything warm and welcome and wonderful, offering comfort I couldn’t get anywhere else. I hung on loosely with my fingers laced across his spine and my head tucked under his chin.

When I spoke again, my words were muffled. “Hey, how long’s it been since someone took you on a date?”

If I’d been thinking clearer, I would have been able to silence that question before it found voice. Instead, itescaped and hung between us, and I hoped like hell he hadn’t heard me.

The sudden jolt in what had been a smooth, side-to-side sway, made it clear I had not gotten away with the slip. Nash shifted his grip to my shoulders and pushed me back a step so he could fix me with a dubious look.

“Dare I presume where you’re going with this?” he asked. “Because I’ll tell you, it’s been a minute. I would blame it on my hectic work schedule, but…” He rolled his eyes in reference to the vacancy around us.

Smiling, he raised his hand to tuck the longest strands of hair behind my ear. When I tipped my head into his palm and let it rest there, his expression softened with affection I couldn’t deny. Or get used to. It twisted my stomach into knots.

“Truth is,” he continued, “I’ve been kinda hung up on this guy, but I didn’t think dating was his thing.”

I cut my gaze away, chagrined. “It’s not.”

“Who said you were the guy?” Nash asked with a wily grin.

Heat rushed my cheeks, and I raised my head, feeling like a bobble doll with the fluid still sloshing inside my skull. “Call it a hunch,” I muttered, and he laughed.

He was still holding me, searching my face and waiting patiently while I muddled through a mess of uncertainty and outright fear. Asking him out had been such a flippant thought when I was talking to Holland on the beach. That was before I considered how easily he could turn me down, and how that rejection would slot him in with all the others who used, then discarded me. I wasn’t prepared for how badly that would hurt.

I was staring at my shoes when I worked up the nerve to speak at last. “So, do you wanna go on a date with me or what?”

Quiet answered me and stretched until I couldn’t stand it any longer. I met Nash’s dark brown eyes and found them pinched beneath a furrowed brow.

“Damn.” He shook his head. “You really said it. That was not on my Bingo card.”

My face twisted into a scowl. “I couldunsay it.”

He shook his head again, harder this time. “Relax, I’m kidding.”

A breath left me as a sigh that I could not deny was one of relief. I also couldn’t deny that I’d never seen Nash as happy as he looked just then. Merriment made his eyes sparkle, and his lips pulled in an uncontrolled smile until he worked them around to speaking again.

“Mister Farrow, I would gladly go out with you,” he said. “Name the time and place, and I’ll be there.”

I sighed again, relaxing so completely I might have dozed off if Nash hadn’t drawn me in and kissed me, soft and deep. He tucked me to his chest, placing a few more kisses at my temple and on the top of my head.

The music buzzing through our earbuds seemed to swell, and I closed my eyes. Nash started swaying again, leading me along. As my body grew heavier, I rested more and more on him. Peaceful breaths filled and emptied my chest, each one drawing us closer.

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