Page 34 of Aspen's Defense

"Nash." My heart sinks, tears springing to my eyes. "How can you possibly think that?"

"You don't remember, do you?" He seems surprised. "You guys were on the way to see me, Aspen. I knew it was the last game of my college career, and I wanted you guys there. Mom and Dad closed the bakeries and checked you out of school to drive down for the game."

"Nash, that doesn't make it your fault. You aren't the reason the brakes failed." Tears stream down my cheeks, my heart hurting for him. He's carried this for so long. God, no wonder he's so overprotective. He thinks he's the reason I almost died.

"I know," he says quietly. "Logically, I know that. But back then? It's all I thought about every time I hit the ice. That's why I skipped the draft. I would have washed out my first year had I gone through with it."

"I always thought you skipped it because of me." I dab at my eyes.

"It wasn't you, Aspen. Why are you asking this now? What's on your mind?"

"I'm buying the coffee shop, Nash," I confess. "And I don't want you to give up hockey to come chasing after me. My future is here, but yours has always been on the ice."

"You don't want me there." He can't hide the hurt in his voice.

"It's not about me. It's about you. You've spent the last twelve years looking after me. It's beyond time for you to have a life of your own." I expel a breath. "This is where I belong. It's where I'm happy. And I'm in his hands here."

"You mean Noah's hands."

"Yes," I acknowledge with a small smile. "But not just Noah. Jack is here, looking out for me. The sheriff is looking out for me. My friends and their husband's look out for me. This is my home now." The people here will never replace Nash in my heart. They'll never replace our parents. But they've become family too.

"This is really what you want?"

"It is," I say, my voice clear and firm.

Nash expels a heavy breath. "Okay."

"Okay? Just like that?" I ask, highly suspicious.

My brother chuckles. "I know you, baby sis. I know when you've made your mind up about something. This time, you actually believe what you're telling me. You aren't just saying it like you have been for the past two years."

"I have not just been saying it."

"Yeah, you have. Because in your heart, you knew you were there for the wrong reasons. You weren't fighting to stay for you. You were fighting to stay because you didn't think there was a better choice, or not one you were willing to live with, anyway," he says. "Now, you're fighting for you."

"My future is here."

"I'm getting that." He pauses. "Am I at least allowed to come visit?"

"Yes." I bite my lip. "But not until the end of the month."

"Why the fuck not?"

"Because that's when I sign the papers for half the shop," I say. "And if you come before then, you might not be so willing to let me stay."

"I just agreed, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but that was before I told you that Noah has a bodyguard stationed outside right now because I walked in on a robbery the other night and someone shot at me."

"What the fuck?" Nash shouts.

"See? I told you."

"Someone tried toshootyou?"

I cringe. Brick cringes. I think the actual house cringes. He's big mad.

"They missed, and Noah hasn't let me out of his sight since," I hurry to say. "I've already identified the two men responsible. Dillon is working on getting them brought in."