Page 69 of Beach Cottage Kisses

Angel was the only one who responded. Glancing at Scott, as if to say,It took you long enough, the girl jumped down off the bed.

“Iris?” He called her name softly. Repeated his. Trying to wake her without instilling more alarm. Holding himself awkwardly so he was as far away from her as he could get, with no chance of touching her, he continued to talk softly to her, calling out to her. Letting her know she was safe.

“Scott?” Her voice, groggy sounding, shocked him at first. Mostly because he hadn’t realized she’d woken up. There’d been no sudden jerk back to consciousness. No change of position. No sign of shock that someone else was on her bed.

No reclamation of her independence with the confidence and inner strength that defined her.

He didn’t move but was prepared to slide back down to his chair. “Yeah.”

When nothing else happened, no words, no movement, Scott was at a loss. “You want me to go?”

He’d consider her silence as an affirmative. Leave without taking offense. He had no right to invade her space.

But didn’t regret what he’d done, either…

When no response came, he braced his hands to scoot himself toward his chair.

“Don’t go.”

The words froze him in place. Braced. But not moving.

She hadn’t moved, either. Not a muscle that he could see. And he thought of Sage. Of the nights he’d sat with her through heartbreak after Gray had broken their engagement the week of their big society wedding.

Which led him to remember Iris’s recent revelations. The surge she’d mentioned. Residual from a past trauma.

“You want to talk about it?” he asked Iris. “According to my sister, I’m a good listener.”

Her back remained toward him as she stayed hunched in the fetal position he’d found her in. “She told me you saved her life when Gray walked out on her.”

“I just sat there,” he told her, stating the truth.

“You knew she needed to not be alone. But to be left alone.”

He was willing to continue the conversation about himself and his twin if it helped her get through the moment. “She told you that?” With an affectionate shake of his head, he could hear his sister saying exactly that. He’d always been able to sense when Sage was struggling. He’d just never been all that good with the words.

“No.”

One word. That seemed to freeze the moment. In his mind. But deeper, too. Like Iris was telling him something. Talking about more than the relationship between him and his sister.

Or needing to do so.

She knew him well enough to have guessed what he’d done for his twin during her darkest nights.

Wanted him to do for her what he’d done back then. Be there. But shut up.

He could do that. Just needed to adjust his body a little, to ease the stress on his back. And prop his left leg differently.

And then he’d sit there all night, silently watching over her, if that’s what she wanted him to do.

Because he could.

Sitting quietly through the dark moments was what friends did.

The night, her need had nothing to do with sex. And with his body in its current state, it wasn’t like he could be more than brotherly, even if she turned over naked and asked him to make love to her.

At the moment, he didn’t even want to try.

He’d made a commitment to be the friend to Iris that she was to him.