Page 20 of Echoes of Us

S even days. Forty-two hours of Cole Westwood drilling physics into her brain with ruthless efficiency. No more lingering touches, no heated glances - just pure, focused intensity that left her mentally exhausted and oddly exhilarated.

The study room had become their battlefield.

Every afternoon from noon till six, he'd dissect equations with surgical precision, his voice steady and measured as he explained concepts that had baffled her until then.

She'd watched him teach for years in their future and had always admired how he commanded a lecture hall, but being on the receiving end was different. Intoxicating.

He was brilliant. Infuriating. Completely focused on the task at hand, as if that charged moment between them had never happened. Only the occasional white-knuckled grip on his pen, when she leaned too close, betrayed any awareness of her as more than just another student.

"You're obsessing," Sarah announced, flopping onto Ashley's bed and disrupting her physics notes. Early evening light filtered through their dorm window, turning Sarah's strawberry-blonde hair to fire. "I haven't seen you this focused since... well, ever."

Ashley gathered her scattered papers, carefully not meeting her friend's knowing gaze. "Dale agreed to give me the research position if I ace the final."

"Which you will, considering Cole's apparently turned into some sort of physics drill sergeant." Sarah propped herself up on her elbows, studying Ashley's face. "Speaking of Cole... you know he's not staying for summer, right? I heard he isn't even registered for masters next year."

Ashley's hands stilled on her notes. She knew differently - knew Cole would continue straight through his master's program. But she couldn't say that.

"Getting to know him through Dale is enough for now," she said instead, the half-truth bitter on her tongue.

She didn't add that she had to get close to Dale if she had any chance of preventing that terrible night. Didn't mention how the weight of foreknowledge sat heavy in her chest every time she saw his easy smile or heard his gentle laugh.

Sarah sat up, her expression shifting from playful to serious. "Ash... are you using Dale to get to Cole?"

The question sent her mind spiraling. Because wasn't she? Using Dale to save him, using him to understand Cole, using both brothers in ways they couldn't possibly comprehend?

"It's not like that," she whispered, but even she heard the uncertainty in her voice.

Sarah moved to sit beside her, their shoulders touching. "Look, I know Cole has this whole mysterious bad-boy thing going on, and Dale's like... the safe option. But they're people, Ash. Real people with real feelings. This isn't some romance novel where everyone gets a happy ending."

If only Sarah knew just how unhappy some endings could be.

* * *

Sarah's words followed her into restless dreams, haunting her until she gave up on sleep entirely. Dawn found her wandering the campus, her guilt as heavy as the morning mist that clung to Yale's ancient stones.

She hadn't meant to end up at the dining hall. Hadn't meant to search for either brother in the early morning quiet. But exhaustion had worn her defenses thin, and coffee called like a siren song.

The morning sun painted the vast room in stripes of gold and shadow, turning even the mundane act of getting coffee into something almost magical.

Ashley paused in the doorway, taking in the quiet beauty of the nearly empty space.

At this early hour, the usual chaos of students was replaced by a peaceful hush broken only by the distant clink of dishes and the soft murmur of early risers.

She'd pulled on worn jeans and an oversized cream sweater, her hair twisted into a messy knot at the nape of her neck. No armor today. No games. After a week of Cole's intensity and Sarah's accusations, she needed to just be.

That resolution lasted exactly as long as it took her to spot Dale.

He sat alone by one of the towering windows, morning light catching his wire-rimmed glasses and turning his dark hair almost golden.

Same sharp jawline as Cole and the same elegant hands wrapped around a coffee cup, but where Cole radiated barely contained energy, Dale's presence was all quiet grace.

A stack of papers surrounded his coffee cup, his neat handwriting visible even from where she stood.

She should walk away. After yesterday's charged encounter with Cole, the last thing she needed was-

"Ashley!" Dale's face lit up as he spotted her, genuine warmth radiating from his smile. "You look like you could use coffee."

He was already standing, already pulling out a chair for her, and she found herself moving toward him before she could think better of it.

Of course, Dale would be a gentleman - the kind of man who pulled out chairs and noticed when someone needed caffeine.

The kind whose goodness wasn't an act or a mask but bone-deep and real.

"Rough morning?" He signaled to a passing server for another coffee.

Ashley sank into the offered chair, oddly touched by how he'd positioned it - close enough for conversation but not so close as to crowd her. "Rough night," she admitted. "Physics."

"Ah." He studied her for a moment, head tilted slightly. "You know, I've been wondering something."

"Hmm?"

"Why physics research? For the summer position?" His gray eyes - so like Cole's but somehow kinder - watched her carefully. "It's not exactly a natural extension of behavioral science."

Heat crept up her neck. Her fingers found the edge of her sweater, twisting the soft material. "I-"

"Because if it's about spending time with someone..." His smile turned gentle, almost shy, and Ashley's guilt twisted sharper in her stomach as she realized what he thought - who he thought she was interested in.

She couldn't correct him. Couldn't explain that she was trying to save his life, to understand the brothers' relationship before tragedy shattered it. So she let her blush deepen and looked away, focusing on the patterns sunlight made through her coffee cup.

"The work isn't easy," he said softly. "But I admire the dedication, whatever the motivation." He paused, and when she dared to look up, his expression had turned thoughtful. "Anyway, I realized I know nothing about you. What do you think about reprimanding that?"

Ashley smiled at him. “What would you like to know?”

“Actually… I’ve been curious. I heard you’re from Cambridge, so how come you’ve ended up going to Yale?”

Ashley wrapped her hands around her coffee cup, letting its warmth seep into her palms. How can she explain a choice she hadn't actually made? In her timeline, she'd gone to Harvard and stayed close to home. But here...

"Sometimes the best things in life happen when you take an unexpected turn," she said finally.

She could tell him about Sarah, about the wager, that she lost instead of won, but that wasn't really true, and it was not in this timeline.

"I had this whole plan mapped out - Harvard, staying in Cambridge, marrying my high school boyfriend.

.. That didn't work out. Being here opened a new possibility. A path I haven't tried before."

Dale's expression softened with understanding. "And now? How's that path looking?"

Ashley watched the sunlight dance across her coffee cup, creating patterns that shifted and changed with each small movement. "Terrifying. Beautiful." She looked up and caught his gaze. "Sometimes both."

"Both," Dale repeated softly, something knowing in his tone. "Yes, I suppose the best things usually are."

A comfortable silence settled between them.

Outside the towering windows, early morning light painted the courtyard in gold, students hurrying past like leaves caught in a gentle wind.

Ashley found herself studying Dale's hands as he absently organized his papers - the same elegant fingers as Cole, but these moved with careful precision rather than restless energy.

"You're good at that," she said suddenly.

"Hmm?"

"Making order out of chaos." She gestured to his neatly arranged notes. "Everything in its perfect place."

Something flickered in his eyes - an old pain, quickly hidden.

"Not everything." He paused, seemed to debate with himself, then: "Cole used to be the organized one, believe it or not.

Could solve complex equations in his head while I was still counting on my fingers.

" A faint smile touched his lips. "He'd help me with homework, but he'd make such a mess of the papers - numbers and theories scattered everywhere like he could see some pattern in the chaos that I couldn't grasp. "

"What changed?"

Dale's fingers stilled on his coffee cup.

"We did, I suppose. Or rather, we were changed.

There was this opportunity in high school - a chance to skip a grade.

Mother..." He shook his head. "Mother saw it as validation of everything she believed about us.

Her brilliant sons, destined for academic greatness. "

"But Cole didn't see it that way?"

"Cole saw it for what it was - another hoop to jump through, another way to prove our worth.

" His voice held no bitterness, only a deep sadness.

"I agreed to it. He didn't. That was the beginning, really.

Every choice after that seemed to push us further apart - me following the expected path, him.

.." Dale trailed off, then laughed softly.

"Well, you've met my brother. He doesn't exactly follow paths anymore. "

"He blazes his own," Ashley murmured, thinking of the man she knew he'd become.

"At what cost, though?" Dale's question was so quiet she almost missed it. He looked up, and for a moment, his guard dropped completely. "Do you know what it's like to watch someone you love deliberately set fire to everything around them? To know you helped light the match?"

The raw honesty in his voice made her chest ache. Without thinking, she reached across the table and covered his hand with hers. His fingers were warm from the coffee cup, and he stared at their joined hands like he'd forgotten such simple comfort existed.

Ashley's throat tightened. She knew exactly what he meant - missing someone who was right in front of you, yet somehow out of reach. "When did it start? Really start, I mean."

"The skipped grade was just the catalyst, I think.

" Dale withdrew his hand gently, reaching for his coffee.

"Mother... she has this way of taking good things and spoiling them for us.

Every time I achieved something, she'd use it against Cole.

'Why can't you be more like your brother?

' 'Dale's already applying to graduate programs.' As if we were in some sort of competition neither of us signed up for. "

"And you couldn't stop it?"

"I tried. God, I tried." Frustration colored his voice.

"But the more I achieved, the more ammunition I gave her.

And Cole..." A shadow passed over his face.

"Cole built his walls brick by brick, year by year.

The more Mother pushed him toward academia, the more determinedly he threw himself into everything else - parties, women, that carefully crafted image of not giving a damn about anything. "

"But he does," Ashley said softly. "Give a damn."

Dale's eyes snapped to hers, sharp with surprise and something else - hope, maybe. "You see it too? Most people don't look past the surface he shows them."

Heat crept up her neck. She'd said too much and revealed too much understanding of a man she wasn't supposed to know. "I just... notice things sometimes."

"You do, don't you?" Dale studied her with renewed interest. "That's why he agreed to tutor you, isn't it? Because you see past his act."

Before she could respond, the dining hall clock chimed nine, making them both jump. Dale glanced at his watch and sighed.

"I have a class to go to," he said, gathering his papers.

But he paused, looking at her with those kind gray eyes.

"Thank you, Ashley. For listening. For understanding.

And..." He hesitated. "Whatever's happening with you and Cole.

.. just... be careful with him. He pretends nothing can hurt him, but. .."

"But that's part of the pretense," she finished quietly.

Dale's smile was sad but genuine. "Exactly."

She watched him leave, her coffee gone cold and her heart aching with the weight of everything she couldn't say. How could she tell him that in trying to save his life, she might be falling in love with his brother all over again?

That somehow, impossibly, she might be falling a little bit in love with him, too.