Page 33 of Echoes of Us
"For the final.He..."Ashley swallowed hard."He found me in the library.Dale mentioned I might need help."
"Ashley."Sarah's voice was gentle but firm."This is Cole Westwood we're talking about.The guy who..."she trailed off, but they both knew what she meant.The party was still too fresh and the image of him with that brunette was too raw.
"I know who he is."Ashley's voice came out sharper than intended.
But did she?The Cole who'd cockily offered to help her tonight wasn't the same man who'd kiss her awake on Sunday mornings, the one who'd come home early just to console her after a failed counseling session and wasn't the one who bent for her on one knee, promising to take care of her for the rest of their lives.
The ache in her chest deepened as another memory surfaced - one that had defined them.The moment she'd first realized she loved him, she really loved him.Not the careful, cautious love she'd known before, but something that cracked her chest wide open and rebuilt her from the inside out.
The Dallas rain drummed against her hotel window, a steady rhythm that should have been soothing.Instead, Ashley sat cross-legged on the massive hotel bed, her presentation notes forgotten as she stared at the card that had just fallen from her folder.
Cole's precise handwriting covered one side - a physics equation she didn't understand.She almost set it aside, assuming he'd accidentally mixed his notes with hers, but something made her look it over.
The first side bore Schrödinger's time-independent equation - elegant, complex, beautiful in its certainty.When she turned it over, her breath caught.
"I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride," she read aloud, her fingers tracing Neruda's words.The rest of the poem blurred through her tears, but this line—this one line—now felt like it was written just for them.
She found another card.This one had Einstein's field equations on one side.The other held lines that made her heart stop.Dickinson's words pierced through her:
"If I could see you in a year,
I'd wind the months in balls…”
Her eyes skipped down the page, each word imprinting on her soul:
"But, now, uncertain of the length
Of this, that is between,
It goads me, like the Goblin Bee…
That will not state--- its sting."
With trembling fingers, she discovered one final card, a simple string theory equation, followed by words in his own voice: "Come back to me.The universe may be infinite, but my world makes sense only when you're in it."
Her hands shook as she gathered the cards, holding them close to her chest.She let the rain wash over her, let herself sink into the certainty of love that had settled deep within her bones.
Her throat tightened.God, she missed him.Not this sharp-edged boy with a dangerous smile, but her husband.The man who loved her so completely that it took her breath away.
"Hey."Sarah's voice was soft.She'd moved to sit beside Ashley, their shoulders touching."Talk to me."
Ashley pressed her palms against her eyes, fighting back tears."He's different when we're alone," she said finally.It wasn't a lie, not really."There's something...I don't know.Something real."
Sarah was quiet for a long moment."Just...be careful, okay?Cole Westwood doesn't do real.He does games.And you're too good to be anyone's game."
If only she knew.Ashley nodded, not trusting her voice.
Later, after Sarah had fallen asleep, Ashley lay awake, staring at the ceiling.The Dallas memory wouldn't leave her alone.She rolled onto her side, tears sliding silently into her pillow.Somewhere between now and her future, this reckless, damaged boy would become the man who quoted poetry for her.Who made her favorite breakfast and remembered her taste in coffee.
But right now, he was none of those things.Right now, he was all sharp edges and calculated moves, more likely to cut her than catch her.
And still, she couldn't stay away.Because somewhere in those dangerous gray eyes, she'd seen a flicker of the man she loved.The man who, in another lifetime, would build his whole world around loving her right.
CHAPTER11
Ashley's head felt stuffed with cotton as she pushed through the dining hall's heavy oak doors, last night's lack of sleep catching up with her.Morning light streamed through the tall, arched windows, catching dust motes in its slanted beams.The early crowd had thinned - most students already in their finals - leaving scattered groups hunched over coffee cups and textbooks, their whispered cramming echoing off the vaulted ceiling.
She heard them before she saw them - Cole's voice carrying an edge she'd never heard before, cutting through the sleepy morning atmosphere like a blade.
