Ashton was waiting by the tree line for her the next morning at ten, like he said he would be. She left Hailey to wander around town, and her parents to do whatever it was they did all day, while she went to his cabin with him. She had no idea what he wanted to talk about, but she knew what she needed to tell him.

Once they had taken a few steps into the forest, she took the plastic oval out of her pocket and handed it to Ashton. He looked at it for a long moment. "What is this?" he asked, turning it over.

She smiled at him. "A nail."

His eyes grew rounder. "Someone lost their whole nail?"

She laughed at his shock. "No. Well, kind of. There are two other types of nails it can be. When you get your nails done at a salon, they put fake nails on the tip of your finger, but those are pretty securely attached and don't pop off much right after they're done. The other option is a store-bought nail. Those pop off easily, but it's hard to tell which it is."

He studied it a little more. "Why did you want to show me this?" He handed it back.

She stuffed it in her pocket. "I found this at the crime scene." She quickly told him about finding the vomit – which he said was Taylor's and he told her what she'd eaten – and about going to the scene and finding the nail next to the blood. "Oh, and I met Mason Spurlock."

Ashton frowned. "Stay away from him. He likes younger girls."

She glanced at him. Maybe Hailey was right. "I figured as much. But, hey, I don't plan on going back any time soon. I got a pretty good lead."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, sometimes, when those nails pop off, we get them replaced – especially if we don't want it to be noticed."

Ashton thought it over. They walked up the steps to his front door and stopped with his hand on the knob. "We have a salon in town. This girl – Lynn – should know whose nail that is, if she replaced it." Nicole nodded and watched him take a deep breath. For the first time she noticed the sweat on his forehead and the nervous way he was bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet.

"What are you up to, Ash?"

He glanced away. "Well, um, I thought it was about time I tell you more about me and show you a few things I've kept over the years."

She studied him carefully, relieved they seemed to be on the same page. She smiled at him. "I'd love that."

He gave her a small smile that seemed genuine. With a second deep breath, he opened the door and walked inside, followed by Nicole. The cool air washed over her skin, bringing goose-bumps for a few moments. She looked around. A trunk sat in the middle of the room near the sofa. "I want to show you a few pictures first," Ashton said, a hand on her shoulder guiding her towards the picture Nicole didn't remember seeing. It was sitting on the floor and Ashton picked it up. It was an 11"x14" photo of what she assumed was Ashton's family. A smiling woman stood next to a smiling man in a police uniform. A young boy that looked to be about fifteen stood between them. The woman held a baby wrapped in a pink blanket.

Nicole touched the boy. "That's you?"

"Yep. That's my family right after Ella was born." He got a faraway look in his eyes as he sat it back on the floor. "I love her." He stared at it a moment longer before moving on to a few more pictures. He showed her a picture of his favorite dog, Buddy. A picture of his childhood friend that had since moved on to a bigger place downstate. He showed her a picture from a couple of years ago of him and Trisha, hugging. He swallowed as he showed it to Nicole.

Nicole stared at it, feeling a little jealous, but she kept reminding herself that he had told her that he liked her, not Trisha. "You're good friends, then?"

Ashton let out a breath she hadn't realized he was holding. "Yeah. We've grown up together and she's always been there for me, but only as a friend. It wasn't until last summer that I realized she had other intentions. Not long after I met you she told me she was in love with me, but I didn't return that." He sighed. "It hurt me nearly as much as it hurt her to tell her I wasn't interested." He stared at the picture and said quietly to himself, "But I had to."

Nicole, who'd been watching him closely, reached over and put her hand on his arm. He rewarded her with a smile. "Do you have more things to show me?"

He quickly sat that picture back down and led her into his bedroom, where several more pictures had found a frame and a home on his dresser. Pictures of his sister, pictures of his old pets, but, strangely, no pictures of his parents except for one lone picture of his mother.

Once he'd shown her all of them, he brought her back into the living room. They sat on the sofa, and he opened the trunk. "I got some of those pictures out of here," he said. "There's not a whole lot, but it's all I brought from my old home. It's all I cared to remember," he added quietly.

Inside lay an old dog bone, a dog collar, several drawings by a child she presumed was Ella, and two old journals. She pointed at them and looked at Ashton. He sighed, seeming to think it over and finally shook his head. "Not yet." She nodded and instead looked through the drawings.

The more she flipped through them, the more she noticed something disturbing. She shook her head, and her eyebrows drew together. She flipped through them again. The top one was a drawing of Ella and Ashton. They were both happy. Out of the six drawings, four of them were of her and Ashton, but one they weren't happy. They were sad. At least, Ashton was. The other two included their dad. She thrust them at Ashton.

His face was red, but she could tell he wasn't mad. It took a moment, but she finally placed it: shame. "I'm worried about her," is all he said. He wouldn't look at the drawings or at Nicole. After what felt to Nicole like several minutes, Ashton took the pictures and explained them to her. "Ella gave these to me earlier this week." He held up the one where the dad was mad, and Ella was crying. "When I got this one, she said Dad hit her." He held up the other one, a picture similar to the other, but it also had Ashton looking scared. "She said he talked about me a lot, and some of the things he used to do to me." His voice broke. He swallowed again. "I'm worried about her, Nicole."

She touched Ashton's arm. "What did your father do?"

He groaned and rested his forehead on hers, eyes closed, for a while. Finally, he whispered, "There's things that I don't ever talk about with anyone, things Trisha doesn't know."

Nicole ran her fingers through his hair and closed her eyes. "Ash," she whispered. "I wouldn't tell it to anyone. You can trust me with your secrets." She paused, wanting to add I love you but too scared. "You can trust me," she repeated instead.

---

Ashton had a fight going on inside of him. He wanted to tell Nicole everything, but the whole truth of it was humiliating. Even now, just him and Nicole with their foreheads touching and her fingers in his hair, possibly trying to be reassuring, he remembered everything with stark clarity. What would she think of him? He couldn't take her not respecting him. Not now. Not after he had realized how much he cared for her. After he realized he loved her. It would break him.

He took a deep breath, trying to think of something to say, but nothing came. His mind kept replaying the first time in his mind, the beginning of ten years of torture. "Nicole," was all he managed to get out and still in a whisper.

"Shh," she said, finger barely touching his lips. "I think I know what happened."

His heart sped up, suddenly scared. "What happened?"

She was quiet for a moment. He fought the urge to pull away and look at her. Please don't, he thought but didn't say. "I think your dad is evil. I think he . . . mistreated you and is starting on your sister."

Ashton felt like he couldn't speak. He couldn't tell her how close she was to being right. His face was red – he could feel it.

Nicole put a hand on his shoulder. "Ash, it's okay to tell me," she said in a voice near a whisper.

He closed his eyes even more tightly. He didn't think he'd be able to live with himself if he saw pity on her face. That was the one thing that might break him. He was sure now he was in love with her. Why else would it matter so much to him? After a long moment, he forced himself to look at her. She looked at him with concern and – his breath nearly caught in his throat – love. She didn't feel sorry for him. She wasn't pitying him.

"You're really close," he managed to say, surprising himself. "That's what I'm worried about. Those pictures really seem to suggest that." He pulled away and gripped her shoulders firmly, making sure not to hurt her, and spoke with conviction. "I love my sister almost more than anyone else. If that man has laid a finger on her, and if my mother knows anything about it, they're going to pay."

Nicole's eyes grew rounder, but he still saw love there. Maybe he hadn't scared her. That was what he feared, that if he let her close, she'd get scared by some of the things about himself. He let her go and took a breath. "Nicole," he said, unsure of how to say what he was thinking: I love you, you mean more to me than my sister, and you're the only one who's pulled me out of my depression this fast, but that's a problem that was already a problem long before these things happened to me but those made it worse.

She seemed to sense his hesitation, and rested a hand on his cheek. "Ash," she whispered back. She seemed to hold her breath for a second, also hesitating. He closed his eyes and put his forehead back on hers.

"Shh," he whispered gently, lightly outlining the shape of her lips with a finger. He heard her breaths hitch and he fought the smile. Maybe he should kiss her . . . His heart kept telling him he should. What he wanted was her. He wanted her to love him. He would be happy with that. She didn't have to give him a kiss, even – knowing she loved him would mean everything to him. And it took every bit of him to not tell her how he felt.

After a long moment, he dropped his finger and pulled away. She was looking at him, slightly flushed and trying to not look disappointed. She took a shaky breath and asked, "Why won't you kiss me?"

He had no idea how to explain this. The truth was what she wanted to hear, and he knew it. He'd told and shown her more about himself than he had to anyone else. "Mom taught me that I should respect a girl, and a good way to do that is to only kiss them when she agrees to marry me, and only then." He felt his face get red at the suggestion of marrying her and tried to cover it with a lame joke. "Unless I need to give her CPR. Then it's okay." He gave her a smile, which she returned, but only briefly.

"Oh." That was all she said. Oh. What the heck did she mean by that? He scratched the back of his neck. He was forced to admit to himself that he had no idea how girls' minds worked.

"Um." He swallowed. Things were only getting awkward. How could he move things along in a less awkward way? He glanced at his watch. "Do you want to go into town and have lunch with your friend Hailey?"

She sighed. "Okay."

---

Nicole had been in a few awkward moments with guys before.

One time, when she was in middle school, she'd landed a part as Juliet in the school play. The guy that played Romeo was Jack King, the one boy all the girls fell for. They rehearsed every part but during the kissing scene, they were told not to kiss until opening night. Which they did. When opening night came, and they got to the scene where Jack was going to kiss her, she leaned in and – for the first time ever – kissed a boy. Except it wasn't what they showed on TV. That was the first thing she noticed. Jack, apparently, didn't understand the whole quick-peck, less-than-two-seconds concept. The kiss lingered, and the longer it drew on, she was more and more repulsed by the taste coming from him every time he tried to stick his tongue in her mouth – which tasted like he hadn't brushed his teeth or used mouthwash in more than a month. By the time he pulled away, she was mortified because everyone in the school and their parents – and her parents – had seen her first kiss, and she was probably turning green because she couldn't get the taste out of her mouth yet.

Another time, she was hanging out on the bleachers in ninth grade, watching a few of the older kids on the field get ready for football that night. She liked the one guy that played the running back, Louis Graves. After practice, he saw her sitting there and he came up. Normally, they'd hang out and he'd help with her homework, or she'd help with his since they shared a few of the same classes. He thought she needed more help. When he started talking to her and realized she only came to see him play, he began to make her laugh. At one point, he swept hair out of her face and she froze. She thought he was going to kiss her, but he also froze. He narrowed his eyes at her, his humor fading. "What?" he'd asked. She just shook her head and said she remembered she had to go because of something her mom had told her and she just left him there.

But the moment in Ashton's house where she was sure he was going to kiss her and then him telling her he was going to wait until they were engaged – she felt more than awkward. She felt embarrassed. She wanted to leave him there and hang out with Hailey until she could forget about it. But she didn't want him to feel bad, so she now found herself walking through the forest with Ashton next to her, him holding limbs and branches out of her way until she'd passed.

He held her hand, too, which was different, but felt natural. When he mentioned marrying her, all she could think was if they would tie the knot one day. That was where she hoped this would lead, but Trisha's face popped in her mind, and she was suddenly very unsure. She wondered if he loved her enough to go through with a wedding. He'd told her so much that it was hard to imagine he didn't. Still, she couldn't shake the doubt.

They eventually emerged from the greenery and entered the town. It didn't take long to find Hailey. All she had to do was find a salon. Fortunately, there was only one in the small town. Nicole walked in followed by Ashton and found Hailey having her new nails painted.

"Hey, guys!" she said.

Nicole grinned at her and dropped Ashton's hand. "Hey, Hailey." She watched Lynn and studied her work on Hailey's finished hand. "You're really good."

Lynn smiled. "Thanks."

Not forgetting her second mission, Nicole asked, "Do you repair and replace them, too?"

"Oh, of course. Girls come in all the time for me to repair them. Especially Trisha." She paused and rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I don't know how she breaks them off! In fact, I just had to replace an entire nail yesterday! Normally, the tips snap off. But the whole nail?" Her eyes seemed to bug out. "When I first do your nails, you can bet they'll last at least two weeks before they have any chance of popping off, but I'd just done her nails one week before." She shook her head sadly and went back to Hailey's nails.

Nicole turned around to see Ashton's reaction. He swallowed and wouldn't look at her. He'd told her he didn't know what happened. She believed him, but now she wasn't so sure. Surely Trisha wouldn't keep this from him? And surely if he knew he'd help her out and try to keep her safe. Maybe there was a lot more about himself he wasn't telling her.

That nagging feeling tried to push its way to the front, but she shoved it back.

She looked at Hailey. Even though she appeared to be watching Lynn's work, she was thinking. She wondered what Trisha could have been doing to make that nail come off. One way to find out: try something.

Her eyes studied Lynn's nails. She'd given herself a manicure, and it looked fairly recent. "How long ago did you do your nails?"

Her face scrunched up in a delicate way. "A few days ago, I think."

"Has anyone else had their nails done a week ago?"

She sat back. "Well, yes, one other girl. She came in the day before Trisha. Brandy. You know, the woman that was about to have the baby last summer when you left?"

Nicole's face brightened. "Oh, yeah! How's the baby?"

Lynn brightened, too. "He's okay. Oh, he's beautiful!" The girls all grinned at each other.

"Well, I need to go by her to congratulate her."

Lynn nodded, going back to doing Hailey's nails. "She's back working down at the store. Trisha just about runs it since Brandy brings her baby to work and tends to him all day." After a moment of silence, she finished Hailey's nails and stood. "You know, if I'm honest, I'm kind of proud. I mean, who knew her nails would last this long with a squirming baby?" She shrugged happily at Nicole and Ashton and then seemed for the first time to recognize him. "Ashton?" she asked, surprised.

He waved lazily at her. "Hey, Lynn."

She took a step backwards, away from him. "Um, long time no see. How's it been going?" Her voice shook a little.

He frowned a little but kept up the friendly talk. "Things have been better." He watched her fumble a moment with the nail polish. "Here, let me help you."

She watched with huge eyes as he walked over and began putting the bottles back precisely and even straightening a few of the others she'd bumped into. "Thank you," she stammered.

He smiled kindly at her. "You're welcome." He walked back over to Nicole and brushed hands. She swallowed as she watched Lynn notice. The girl narrowed her eyes briefly at Nicole, but quickly eased back into her kind smile.

"Come on, Hailey, let's get your nails under the dryer and then I'll ring you up."

Nicole nudged Ashton gently, realizing that Lynn was dismissing them. "Well, it was nice to see you, Lynn. I'm going to go find Brandy and say hi."

"Okay. Have a good day!" she chirped at them, eyes skating away from them.

Out on the street, Ashton wouldn't look at her. "Go ahead and say it," she told him. His silence meant that he wasn't saying something, usually.

He sighed. "Nicole, I keep telling you that in this town I'm not welcome. Not by most people."

"I figured that out before I even met you. Why do you think I ended up nosing around your house? I figured out pretty quick that you grew up here and that you moved out there for a reason, but I didn't believe any of the ones the people here have." She looked at him, heat in her eyes. When she spoke, she'd lowered her voice. "None of them know you. If they did, no one would treat you that way. You're different and that's why I love you." After the words came out, she felt embarrassed, but she didn't want to take them back.

He stared at her a moment, eyes smiling and the corners of his mouth twitching. She braced herself to hear him brush her off. "I know you don't believe them, Nicole, and that's why I love you."

She was pleasantly surprised. It took all she could do not to grin at him, but she was sure her face just about glowed, the same way his was. She tugged his hand before dropping it. "Come on – let's go see Brandy."

He frowned a little at her, but he followed her anyway. She pretended not to notice. As he opened the door for her, she noticed that Trisha was at the counter. "Hey," Nicole said, smiling at her.

She forced a smile at Nicole. "Hi. How can I help you?"

Not forgetting part of why she stopped, she glanced down at her nails. "Ooh, those are pretty! Lynn did them?" She pointed at Trisha's nails. They were done in a French manicure-style with small pearls near the cuticle, forming emoticons.

She smiled genuinely. "Yeah. Isn't she talented?" She held out her hand so Nicole could take a closer look.

"She is. Hailey – the girl that came here with me – is over there having her nails done. Lynn is great at this."

Trisha sat her hand back down and blushed as she glanced at Ashton, who wasn't quite meeting her eyes. "Um, did you guys need something?"

"Oh!" Nicole brightened slightly as if she'd just remembered something. "Yes, I was wanting to see Brandy. I wanted to see her baby."

"Oh, okay. She's in the back with him." She gestured vaguely to the back of the store.

---

Ashton watched as Nicole walked to the back of the store and into the storage area. Once she was out of sight he turned back to Trisha, feeling strangely guilty. This time, she wouldn't meet his eyes. "I didn't bring her here – she brought me," he said in a low voice.

She just shrugged a little. "It doesn't really matter, does it?" She shook her head and turned away. She began straightening an already neat display.

He silently cursed himself. He wanted Nicole more than he'd ever wanted anyone, but he didn't want to lose a friend. "Trish," he whispered.

She finally met his gaze, and he was slightly surprised to find anger there. "Just stop," she hissed. "It's done. You're with her, you don't want me, so just leave it." Her eyes glistened and burned.

He swallowed, unsure of what to do next. "I don't want to lose my best friend."

"Ha." She turned away and took a deep breath. "Maybe you should've thought about that before you claimed her."

Ashton didn't know what to do. She'd been his best friend for most of his life, and for her to suddenly leave his life like this just made him hurt. He blinked rapidly, hoping to head off the tears that came up without warning. "Trisha," he said softly, reaching out to touch her shoulder.

She pulled away and walked around the counter. "Leave me alone," she said in a low, menacing voice as she left him there, staring after her.