*Jordan

My shaking legs nearly give out, but I manage to reach Cole's bumper and I sit. I breathe. I just breathe. No matter how much I wish I could lash out or tell Eryn off, or even punch her in the face, I always freeze when I see her.

She looks exactly like Trey, but the female version. Same hair, eyes, skin, pinch to the nose as if everything around them was disgusting.

How did I ever fall for him? Why did I do this to myself? Damn it. Teenagers should be locked in towers until they are twenty. Instead, you make one horrible mistake as a kid and it follows you for the rest of your life. I'm still paying for believing he loved me.

Eryn loves to rub my face in my misery. My stomach turns and I pray I won't throw-up in the parking lot. My nerves are raw, my emotions at the surface. What is wrong with me? Usually, I can keep my feelings under lock better, but with Cole in town and the things we've shared, I'm too sensitive. Weak.

I glance up, hoping he's on his way. He is at their table, his barely contained fury visible across the parking lot and through the glass window. Is he going to start a fight?

My heart flips at the thought. A few years too late, but I'd take him as my knight in shining armor.

Just as I decide to go back, he leaves the table and gets the food boxed. He strides through the doors and towards me like he owns the town. I could jump his bones right there, if it wasn't illegal. Instead, I uncurl my body to stand up and hold my hands out for my breakfast. "What happened in there?"

"Not much. I had a couple of things to say. You all right?"

I roll my shoulders a couple of times and the nausea fades. "Yeah. I'm okay. Better now you've brought the rest of my pancakes." I try to joke, but he pulls me in a one arm hug to whisper in my ear.

"I'm not sure what her problem is, but she should steer clear from you for now on. I gave her a few good reasons to keep her mouth shut."

I nod, unable to speak. He defended me.

"Let's get out of here, what do you say?"

I head for the passenger side of the car and crawl in. The sun is above the tree line by now and the world is gold and warm. Cole cocks his head to study me, and the light glints off his tussled, dark hair and scruffy chin and cheeks. Fine lines crinkle at his eyes and his wide hands rest on the steering wheel.

My heart is about to burst. I'd never tell him, but the crush I once had is back and thousand times worse, because the man he has become is strong, caring, and absolutely fearless.

"You froze back there. It scared me. Are you sure you're all right?"

"It will pass," I say. "The problem isn't just that she's his sister. The problem is that I figure there are three people in this town who might know where Trey went with my daughter—Brandon, his mother, and..."

"His sister?" He scratched his chin and starts the car, staring into the diner.

"Exactly. Eryn. Spelled with a y."

"Spelled with a... so it looks like 'y'-rin?" he asks.

"No, Eryn, but y instead of i."

"Why?"

"Yes, with a y."

"No, I asked why."

I laugh, shaking my head. "I have no idea. Because Trey ends in a y, I guess. They wanted the names to be similar. They have a matching 'e', 'r', and 'y'. Cute, you know?"

"Trey and Eryn's parents were worried about them being cute?"

I start laughing harder. It's all so stupid, and completely pointless. I'm not even sure why I brought it up. "I know. Evil incarnate in the cozy town of Winona Bluffs, and they have matching letters in their names."

"This town is messed up. It's doesn't seem like it, but it is. All right, I need some fresh coffee. Where to next?" Cole pulls to the parking lot exit. "Your place?"

"My place."

***

At some point Cole admits he knows where I live, so ride in silence the last few minutes and he pulls into the gravel space in front of the car port at my front door. I reach for my door, but he touches my arm to stop me.

"I'm sorry we didn't get to stay at the diner."

"It wasn't your fault. She must have known or suspected I'd be there, otherwise she wouldn't set foot in it. It's not good enough for her. I'm glad I wasn't alone for a change. In this town there are two kinds of people—the ones who wonder if Trey was telling the truth and the ones who wonder if I am. But no one, besides Sharon, ever stands up for me."

"You shouldn't have to face them alone."

"That's my life."

"Fuck. And what if it wasn't your life?" He clenches and releases the steering wheel a couple of times.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What if you decided your life would be different from what you have now?"

I shake my head, confused. "I'd change my life in a heart-beat, if I thought I could."

He rubs his chin and glances through the windshield. "That old Ford you have. It's dead?"

"Has been for years. I drove it to school until it died. Well, Amber drove when she still went with me. It actually belonged to all three of us. Our dad—" My voice breaks and he throws me a quick look, worried. He shouldn't feel sorry about my dad being dead, though. "He bought it for the three of us, but Amber took off soon after he died, leaving only a note. The car had already stopped running by the time Reese left, right after I turned eighteen. I guess I keep it because I don't want to pay a tow truck."

"You want me to check it over for you? Maybe I can fix it."

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" I tilt my head as a flash of understanding hits me. "You like taking old, broken things and making them beautiful again, don't you?"

"I do."

I glance out the window at the car, remembering the image of my heart growing dusty in the shadows of my chest the same as that car. "Is that what you're doing for me? Is that why you are helping me, because you want to fix me?"

"For one thing, you aren't old. For another, you aren't broken. But yes, I'd fix everything for you if I could. Listen, Jordan." He touches my shoulder to have me face him and his eyes bore into mine. "I want you to leave town with me. I want you to go with me."

The world pauses, and it's as if I can see a wide open road, bathed in gold light in front of me. I could change my life. He's trying to change my life with a few words. "Leave?" is all I can say.

My chest and neck squeeze tight, not letting air in and my pulse races. Leave. I could walk away and never have to face these people again. The whole world is out there, a world where I wouldn't be judged, or pitied, or despised for walking on a sidewalk.

I shake my head. He can't be serious. Or I don't understand correctly.

"Jordan, hear me out. There's nothing for you here. This town is a toxic cesspool, it always has been for you and me. The freedom I found simply by moving, is something I can't describe. I get up in the morning and there's no heartache or weight on my chest. I don't have to think about that man in my mother's house or her. I take every day as a new one, easy and good. You could have that too. I won't leave you here when I go. Not when you could have what I have."

"Why do you want me to go with you?"

"Because this place is shit. I just said that."

"No. I mean, why do you want me to go with you, and not simply move somewhere else? Why with you?"

"Fuck, Jordan..." He presses his lips, frown lines between his eyes. He searches my face for something, and seems to find it. "Because I won't live my life without you in it anymore. I should have made you mine when I was a teenager. I knew I wanted you. I won't make the same mistake twice. Come with me."

"I can't." I hear my own voice saying the words, but I don't understand where they come from. "I can't." I have to escape the feelings crowding up in my chest. There's too much. Too much pain, too much hope, too much aching need to love and be loved. Too much desire to have this man forever, but I know there are no fairytales. Scratch that—no happy endings. The real fairytales all have monsters who win in the end. That's my life. Filled with monsters, who always manage to win.

I crawl out of the car, letting my legs propel me forward, away from Cole. I hit my porch and climb the steps, blindly. I crash through the door.

I need a drink of water. I run for the kitchen to get a glass from the cabinet.

Whatever he said out there—about wanting me to go with him—it's lies and manipulation, just like it always is when a man promises things will be different. Cool water rushes down my throat and rivulets spill from the glass onto my cheeks, running down the outside of my neck and onto my chest. I choke on the last bit and bend over the sink coughing.

Strong arms wrap around my waist and a heavy, warm chest presses to my back. Cole cradles me. "I won't let you go, not when I've finally realized how much I need you."

I twist to take his face in my hands and he kisses me, softly at first, like I might break. I bite his lip, moving urgently. I need to believe him.

He lifts me to the countertop, his eyes are dark with his desire. "Say you'll go with me. We should be together."

"I'm afraid. So afraid," I whisper almost silently.

"You can be afraid. You can be vulnerable. You can be weak. I'll still be here, holding you."

I face him squarely. There's none of the malicious calculation in his expression that I used to see in Trey, once I knew who he really was. There's only sincerity and strength.

"I—" My voice catches in my throat.

*** Maybe he can fix this after all.... Hit the star and thanks for reading!!! ***