“I couldn’t let him shave his pretty head.”

“Pretty?” I gaped at her. It was bad enough for her to say things like that when we were alone, but this was twice that she’d done it in front of other people.

She smirked.

“You lose any other steel?” Lisa asked, turning my chin to the side to check out my ears.

“No!” Tenley practically shouted.

Jamie laughed. “You put your foot down on that?”

“Damn right. No way was he losing any of the important stuff,” Tenley replied.

The banter was light as we moved to the kitchen to help prepare dinner. Cassie was in charge tonight, and Nate wasn’t allowed past the island when she was working her magic.

Tenley donned the flowery apron, shooting me a wink as she went to work on a side dish. I was prepared to step in if necessary, but she didn’t need any help. Though her baked goods were amazing, based on the contents of her kitchen, I’d assumed she couldn’t cook. I was wrong.

While the girls were doing their thing, Nate pulled me aside under the guise of discussing the property we were renovating come spring. The one I’d taken Tenley to on Christmas Eve. I followed him to his office and took a seat in the chair across from his. I waited for him to ask me about the session, but he pulled out the folder that contained paperwork and spreadsheets of costs and labor instead.

“Aren’t you going to ask me about yesterday?”

He settled back into his chair. “I wasn’t planning to. You went. You’re here today and so is Tenley, which is a good sign. I’m not going to ask for information you aren’t ready to give.”

Well, shit. That wasn’t what I expected at all. “I have another appointment set up.”

“I’m glad. You liked Beatrice, then?”

At the old-fashioned name, I’d almost turned around and walked out before I met her, picturing an old lady in her seventies who’d take one look at my arms and make all sorts of judgments. Turned out she was a tall, thin woman in her early forties with an eclectic fashion sense. She didn’t give a rat’s ass about the ink.

“Yeah, she’s all right.” I ran my palms over my thighs. They were sweaty. “Thanks for doing that for me. I know you’ve wanted me to go for a long time.”

“I only scheduled the appointment. You’re the one who had to do the hard part.”

“I don’t think I would have gone if it wasn’t for Tenley.”

“She has quite an impact on you.”

“I’m in love with her.” Seriously. I should have stopped at thanking him.

Nate smiled. “It’s obvious she feels the same way for you.”

“Yeah. For now, anyway.”

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

The one thing I couldn’t bring myself to talk about yesterday kept plaguing me today. It was the fear that had kept me paralyzed for so long. I grabbed the stress ball from his desk so I had something to do with my hands. “Officer Miller called the other day. She said they might have a lead on my parents’ case.”

He rolled with the change in subject. “That’s a good thing?”

“I guess. It could end up being nothing.” I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

“The waiting must be difficult.”

“Part of me doesn’t want to know anymore.”

Nate nodded. “You’ve been a long time without closure. I’m sure the possibility of having justice is just as uncomfortable as going without it.”

“It’s not that. Well, I guess that’s part of it.” I looked at him and the thing I hadn’t wanted to tell anyone came out. “What if I find out it’s my fault? What if I’m the reason they’re dead?” That’s what I feared the most.

Nate leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers, swiveling from side to side. “Hayden, I’m going to say something, and I hope it doesn’t offend you—but your parents made some unfortunate decisions when it came to you. They weren’t blind to what was going on. They knew what you were doing when you were out with your friends. You didn’t even try to hide it—”

“Which says what about me?”

“That you were a teenager asking his parents to notice him. They loved you; don’t ever think otherwise. But they made the choice to go out on a night you were grounded, fully aware you’d take off the second they left. They did nothing to prevent you from making those decisions. You were a kid, doing what kids do when there aren’t enough restrictions placed on them. You aren’t responsible for their deaths, no matter what you find out.”

“But I—” I dropped my gaze, squeezing the ball in my hand until it was at risk of bursting. It took me a minute to accept what Nate was saying. “I hadn’t looked at it that way.”

“Of course not. You’re viewing the situation from the perspective of a twenty-five-year-old who’s never gotten past what happened. Not that of the kid you were when it happened.”

“Which is where all the therapy bullshit comes in.”

What he said was true. Beatrice had said something similar, but I’d known her for all of an hour. Coming from Nate, it finally hit home.

“Can I ask you something?” Nate rested his elbows on his desk.

“Sure.”

“It’s about your thinking that Tenley’s feelings for you are transient. I’m going to offer you my unsolicited opinion, and you can feel free to tell me to piss off or shut up at any point.”

“Okay.”

“Tenley has been through an unprecedented trauma and not only survived, but thrived in spite of it. Correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Has what she’s been through ever deterred you from loving her?”

“Absolutely not.”

“So if anyone can relate to what you’re feeling, it’s her. She’s the best kind of anomaly. You’ve found an incredibly strong, resilient young woman who sees exactly who you are, and she has the same in you. There is no way to predict the future. But as an outsider looking in, what you two have isn’t something most people would walk away from easily.”

“So I should stop worrying about things I can’t control?”

“You can try. It’s not always that simple.”

“I’m learning that.”

Nate always seemed to know when I’d reached my limit on the sharing emotional crap. He flipped open the folder with the projected costs for renovating the house and slid it toward me.

“What would you say if I wanted to fund the project on my own?” I asked.

“I’d ask why.”

“Tenley stays at my place. It’s not big enough to move all her stuff in.” Not that I wanted her furniture in my condo. Maybe her bed. It was nice, as long as it went in the spare room. Mine was a king; it had lots of places to hold for leverage when we got down to business.

“Can you access enough equity to cover the costs?”

“I think so. I’ve already started looking into it.”

“Have you talked to Tenley about this?”

“Not yet.”

He gave me a speculative look. “Why don’t you find out about the financing first? We can take it from there.”

When we were finished reviewing how much money I’d need to free up, Nate shuffled the paperwork into a folder. “Oh, one more thing.”

He dropped a paper bag on the desk.

“What’s this?”

“I found them in the garage.”

One glance inside confirmed what I already knew: it was Tenley’s shoes. “I—uh—”

“Cassie thought it would be best for me to give them to you.”

“Thanks. If Tenley knew someone else found them, she’d be—” Embarrassed as fuck. I could feel the heat in my face.

“I’m glad you want to show Tenley what you’re working on.” His grin told me he knew exactly what had gone down in that garage. “For future reference, there’s a switch beside the door that heats the garage floor. Or next time, you could go inside and show her the whole house.”

Cheeky fucking bastard.

31

TENLEY

We were just about to round up the boys for dinner when the doorbell rang.

“That’s odd. I’m not expecting anyone else,” Cassie said, frowning as she looked at the time. It was almost seven.