The Ashtons - Cole, Abigail & Megan

sugar.” He stroked her hair. “I don’t know.”
    Dixie was silent a few moments. “I get scared. It could happen to me.”
    “To any of us. And it is scary.”
    Cole continued stroking, and it helped. He’d helped all weekend, just by being there. He’d offered to come here with her, and that meant so much…toomuch? The quick spurt of fear made her bite her lip. She was relying on him too much, wanting him to be there for her, like this, from now on. That wasn’t healthy…
    No, she told herself. Hadn’t she learned anything? She was afraid of relying on others, yes. And maybe she had reason. But pure independence didn’t exist. People had to help others sometimes, but being willing to help wasn’t enough. Sometimes you had to be willing to accept help, and that was a lot harder.
    For her, anyway. But watching her aunt had shown her that pure self-sufficiency was an illusion.
    Her eyes began to drift shut. “Sorry,” she murmured. “I’m really tired.”
    “Then sleep. You’re not my personal houri,” he said, an edge to his voice. “I’ll survive not having sex for one night.”
    That stung, mostly because there was some truth in his assumption that she felt obliged to offer sex. She didn’t like seeing that about herself.
    Eleven years ago, she’d believed he was mainly interested in her because of the sex, yet he’d been ready to propose. And she hadn’t had a clue…his fault, in part. He’d pulled back emotionally. But she’d screwed up, too. She’d begun to depend on him, and that had scared her even more than losing him. Leaving him had been incredibly painful, yet easier than staying and facing her fears.
    Not this time, she promised herself as her eyes closed. She wouldn’t run away again.
    Cole watched the woman sleeping in his arms. In the moon-washed darkness he could see the way sleep erased the troubles from her face. He thought he could even make out a few of the pale freckles on her nose.
    Why was she so hard on herself? All weekend he’d seen a woman who found the strength to laugh with Cole at some of her aunt’s absurdities, such as her conviction that they had a king, not a governor, who lived in a castle in Hollywood. Dixie had been endlessly patient, letting the older woman tell the same story again and again, acting just as interested the fifth time as the first.
    At one point Jody had grown angry because Dixie wouldn’t let her slice the tomatoes. She’d kicked her niece. Dixie had told her firmly that kicking wasn’t allowed and gone on fixing supper.
    Cole had distracted Jody at that point, but how many times had Dixie had to deal with that sort of thing when no one was around to help? And all Dixie could think about was how much better she ought to be handling things.
    Had she been like this before, and he’d failed to notice? Because this wasn’t the flighty, inconstant woman he’d remembered…that he’d been determined to remember, he thought with a strange ache beneath his breastbone. This was a woman who would stick by a man…if she truly loved him.
    Apparently she hadn’t loved Cole enough.
    That was past, he told himself fiercely. They werelovers again, but this time they weren’t in love. At least, she wasn’t.
    Cole swallowed. He’d come close, painfully close, to falling for her all over again. He had to pull back. He didn’t want this affair to end with her out of his life completely—because it would end. She’d left him before, and she would leave him again.
    Not because she was lacking. Because he was.
    But she wanted him. He knew that very surely. And he would use it.

Chapter Ten
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    C ole was pulling back. Just as he had before.
    “I’m still not sure about leaving those two alone together,” he said darkly as he signaled for the turn.
    “Relax. Hulk has decided he likes having a groupie.”
    “More like an acolyte. Your cat has stolen my dog.”
    Dixie chuckled. “He’s never had a dog of his own before. I didn’t know he wanted one.”
    She was imagining things, she told herself. Cole liked to keep things light and friendly, yes, but that was no change. Just because he hadn’t spent every one of the past five nights with her didn’t mean he’d lost interest. They were on the way to his cabin now,weren’t they? And he certainly hadn’t looked disinterested when he invited her. He’d promised her a tour, dinner and a fire in the fireplace, and had asked her to wear her blue sundress, the one with the full skirt