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“Now who is this?” Toni said, pausing putting price stickers on some new cassettes to tease Nell as she walked into the store. The twinkling bells of the door suited her perfectly. “Looks kind of like Duncan, but more glamorous.”

Barrett was grateful for Toni’s teasing commentary; otherwise, it would have been completely silent. He couldn’t form a coherent word to save his life.

She was always beautiful no matter what she wore or how she looked, but with a dress, her hair nicely done, and what looked to be a little makeup, he thought his heart was going to leap straight out of his throat.

“Did you ride your bike wearing that dress?” Toni asked.

Nell, who hadn’t said a word since she entered, broke eye contact with Barrett to look down at her pretty light blue dinner dress and nodded. She rustled the skirt as if just remembering she was wearing it.

Admittedly, it was a bit much for a music shop, but he wasn’t complaining.

Walking up to them, he couldn’t prevent his grin from growing lopsided as she kept eye contact with him.

Barrett cleared his throat and managed a few words. “Weren’t you having dinner with your parents?”

She’d told him about her plans for the night, and he’d been happy to see her happy about it. It wasn’t often she spoke about her parents, but she’d been in a good mood when she told him her mom was excited for them to all go out.

That explained why she was so dressed up.

But at the mention of the arrangement, her mood shifted, and her eyes dropped from his to focus on the cassettes instead.

“Change of plans,” she said, her hand still fiddling with her skirt. “I wanted to talk to you.”

Barrett frowned. He looked up at Toni, who paused his pricing and raised his eyebrow in question. Barrett jerked his head, giving him the universal signal.

Toni cleared his throat. “I’m gonna go put these away,” Toni excused himself and took the cassettes away with him . . . to the nearest shelf. He was stacking cassettes, but slowly, with his ear turned toward them.

Barrett rolled his eyes. “You’re probably tired from riding. Let’s go sit in the back and talk.”

Nell nodded and walked around, entering the back room as he gestured for her to enter. He paused, looking over his shoulder to find Toni holding his hands out in offended question, expecting them to stay where he could eavesdrop. Barrett flipped him off and mouthed for him to stay out.

Nell sat on one of the metal chairs they had leaning against the shelves. With her dress and her hair, and everything about her, she looked out of place.

Her golden roots had grown out by inches, and with her hair braided back, hiding the faded dye on the ends, she looked angelic. Her blue dress made her eyes stand out, and her skin had a subtle golden glow even in the harsh light of the single light bulb.

Barrett paused to take it in.

For the first time since they met in that same shop months ago, she felt out of reach. For a split second, he was reminded of where they both came from.

But that second was fleeting because she smiled at him, and he remembered that no matter where they came from, she was here for him .

She was his. She’d said so herself.

He unfolded another chair and sat next to her, leaning forward so she knew she had all of his attention.

“Did something happen?” he asked.

She sighed. “I saw Minnie’s mom tonight, at the restaurant. She was our server.”

Barrett sat up straight and took her in carefully. The last time she ran into a relative of one of her late friends, it had ended horribly.

“You okay?”

She paused. He waited, giving her time to answer. He didn’t want to push, didn’t want to overstep.

Finally, she just shook her head. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard, and her eyes glistened at the edges.

Oh, this was the hard part. Nothing in this world made him feel more helpless than watching those tears show up and sitting there knowing he could not fix them for her.

And he would do anything to fix them for her.

She laughed, humorless, and looked at the ragged ceiling like she was trying to hold back tears that were already sliding down her cheeks.

“But that’s not even the worst part, you know?

The worst part is that my parents knew. They took me there on purpose.

I think . . . I think they thought that if I saw her, I would just magically heal and everything would fix itself, that I would just forget about everything.

” She wiped at her tears with the back of her knuckles.

“I want to, though. I really want to just forget too. A part of me wishes it had worked.”

Barrett’s hands clenched into fists, wishing they could grab onto the pain he could see in her eyes and yank it free for her. But since he was incapable of reaching through her thoughts, he stood up and crouched in front of her, settling his palms on both sides of her cheeks.

Touching her seemed to shock her away from whatever was in her head. Her attention snapped away from the ceiling and focused on him. He watched as her hazy eyes cleared into consciousness and softened.

He ran thumbs under both of her eyes, diverting tears from their paths.

She sighed, her eyes fluttering and the weight of her head nuzzling into one hand. Barrett’s heart stuck in his throat as he watched her. She was so content there in his hands.

He was so distracted by her face that he was startled by her left hand raising and wrapping around his fingers, holding his hand in place.

She looked up at him, through her lashes that grew thick with lingering tears. The blue in her eyes glowed against the red rims of her lids. “Take me to Bellevue with you.”

Barrett frowned. “But the van—”

“I can’t stay here anymore. I just need to get out for the weekend. I’m suffocating . I can’t get away from anything as long as I’m in Gemsburg. Help me, Scott, please. Get me out of here.”

He studied her eyes, and all he found was desperate sincerity. No doubt. No fear.

He leaned forward, sighing, and pressed his forehead against hers. Her exhale stroked his mouth, and he watched her eyes flutter closed, reveling in his touch.

His instincts told him to say no, but she’d secretly become his greatest weakness.

Instead of saying no, he leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers. She met him there—a gentle movement that he’d craved more than he cared to admit.

Only a few seconds, but he pulled away breathless, leaving only centimeters of space between their mouths so he could answer her question. “I’ll take you anywhere you want.”