“Are…you…sure?” Nicole stared wide-eyed from one to the other.
“Positive.”
After waving her friends away, he led her to his truck. Once inside, he watched her stare absently at the road.
“There are things about me you should know,” she started after he got on the main street.
The way she said the words, with so much apprehension and nerves, made his animal worried. He could scent her fear. But why? There was nothing she could tell him that would make him feel any different for her.
“We don’t have to talk about it now.” He tried to make her more comfortable. She was sitting stiff on the passenger seat, and it worried him.
“I know, but I want to.” She glanced at him with pain filled eyes, before she looked away. “It might help you decide if this is what you really want.”
He almost put the car in park to shake her. She still didn’t understand that he’d wanted this––her––for years. For much longer than he was willing to admit to any other person.
“Jordan––”
“My parents were drunks,” she rushed out. “Angry drunks.”
He stopped the truck. Anger started to rise at thoughts of what they might have done to her.
“When they had me, they were having a dry spell. Until I was about four. Then everything went down hill.” She twined her fingers together tight on her lap.
He swallowed hard, listening to her heartbeat increase in her chest with her embarrassment. Sharp spikes of pain jammed his heart. He’d never realized how much she’d suffered. How much she’d needed for someone to care for her.
“It was difficult to grow up with nothing. No love. Nobody who cared. In a household where the money they got went to liquor. When I met Ellie…” She cleared her throat. Pain drifted from her, filling the truck with her sorrow. She didn’t have to deal with telling her story alone. He undid her belt and pulled her to his lap. The pain in his chest increased with each thick swallow she took. She dropped her head on his shoulder and took a deep breath. “Ellie became my salvation. I was a fat girl with parents who didn’t care, with old clothes that didn’t fit, and I had a shit attitude. I hated everyone. I hated me. But I loved Ellie.”
He hurt for her. No, he mourned for her. For the girl he remembered and the woman who’d lived with that. He’d been so close and yet had distanced himself to allow her to grow without realizing she needed people who cared. Guilt stabbed at his gut.
“Do you know why I love Ellie?”
He shook his head. He’d seen Ellie walk through their door one day with a quiet thirteen-year-old friend, but he’d never known the back-story.
“I was being teased one day. I could have handled it. They weren’t saying anything I wasn’t used to. Calling me names. Talking about my old hand-me-downs. I was getting ready to break a nose or two. And that’s where Ellie came in.” Her voice started to wobble. “I was used to dealing with that stuff alone, but Ellie came up beside me and asked if I wanted to sit with her at lunch.” She sniffled. “The prettiest, most popular girl in school became my friend instantly.”
Jesus. He’d need to buy his sister a serious gift for being so amazing. A knot formed in his throat. He couldn’t say anything.
“But that’s not all. She didn’t just become my friend. She tried to protect me. Whenever someone made an attempt to bully me, she jumped in to defend me. Ellie was the first person that was truly on my side. And she never asked for anything in return.”
Pain and pleasure made holes in his heart. He was furious Jordan had suffered so badly at the hands of other kids, but was happy Ellie had taken it upon herself to befriend her. His sister was a natural born protector and he couldn’t be more proud of her.
“Then I met your parents and you and your brothers. And… I didn’t understand how you could have such a loving family, but my parents didn’t even want to look at me.” She laughed bitterly. “Not unless they needed some of my babysitting money. Or to disappear on my sixteenth birthday, taking with them the money I’d saved for college.”
His chest tightened with rage. He was having a hard time reigning in the urge to snarl.
“How did you go to college if your parents stole your money and took off?”
He knew she’d attended alongside Ellie, but wouldn’t have imagined she’d gone through so many hardships. Obviously Ellie hadn’t shared enough of Jordan with him.
She lifted her face to his. Surprise filled her gaze. “Your parents helped.”
“What? What do you mean my parents?”
Where the hell had he been that he didn’t know about this?