Page 111 of Shattering Nash

“So.” She cleared her throat, taking another sip. Liquid courage, though it backfired, and she choked a bit. Before shecould stop herself, her lips twisted, showing all her disgust for Scotch.

“Charley.” His voice was smooth and inviting, but she wasn’t going to play into it. They had things they needed to work out, and she wouldn’t let a little Scotch railroad her agenda. She wiped her lips and cupped the glass in her hands, settling them on her lap.

“Who’s going to start?” Charley asked.

Nash took a sip of his drink, and squared his jaw. “You ask, I’ll answer.”

“Everything?”

“As best I can. There are things I can’t share, and I’m sure you won’t tell me everything about your life.”

Charley knitted her brows. “I would.”

The corner of his mouth hiked. “Then tell me.”

Baring her soul and her past. For some who’d always been and would always be uber private, he was asking for a lot.Maybe I am too.

Charley sighed, slouching in the chair and hiking her feet up on the coffee table. Nash mimicked her move and for some reason, it made her smile. He was so different with her, calm, easy, and laid-back.

“Where should I start?”

His lips twitched. “How’d you get your name?”

Charley snickered, shaking her head. That was what he wanted to know?I see what you’re doing, Nash.He innocently shrugged, but she saw through it. Nash was smart, but he wasn’t fooling her. Inevitably, the history of how she got her name would start her story with her family.

“My mom and dad didn’t think they could have kids. They tried a few years after they got married, but it never happened. They went to a specialist and were told her chances of getting pregnant were less than fifteen percent. They hadn’t had somuch as a pregnancy scare. My mom said they considered invitro for a little while, but ultimately decided against it. According to her it took two years to finally be okay with never having kids.” Charley snickered. “A month later, she found out she was pregnant with me.”

I love that story.

“That’s the reason they named me Charley. After my dad. He wanted a namesake. My mother tried to talk him into naming me Charlotte and call me Charley. He didn’t like that. If he was only having one child, he wanted me named after him.” She shrugged.

“Their miracle.”

Charley glanced over at Nash. “Yes, until my brother showed up two years later. My mom loved to tease my dad. If he’d just gone along with Charlotte, they could’ve named my brother Charles.”

The amusement in his eyes was suspicious, and she was about to ask, but he interrupted. “Did that bother him?”

Charley grinned and shook her head. “No. He embracedgirlCharley. He used to say the girl version was better than the guy. And prettier.”

Nash’s gaze softened as he scanned her face. “Were you close with him?”

“Very,” she whispered.

“Close to your mother?”

She hesitated. Nash was hitting on a very sensitive topic and the root of where her story was present day.

“Not always.”

“Daddy’s girl?”

She blinked. “Not really. I mean, we were always really close as a family. Things changed after my dad died.”

“Why’s that?”

Charley peered down at the floor. She’d always kept her relationship with her brother and his issues secret. It was her way of protecting him. Seeing how it all turned out, Charley was reevaluating her decision. She had no regrets in standing by her brother and helping him. But all the secrets had become their undoing.

“Tell me.”

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