Chapter 85

I was surprised to find Nicole waiting outside my dorm room, so late at night. Her dark eye makeup was slightly smudged, like this was the end of a long night for her.

I wondered where she’d been tonight.

“Can we talk?” she asked me as Asher and I walked closer.

Asher met my gaze. “I can stay if you need.”

I smiled at him, appreciative, but, “Nicole’s my friend.”

“I’m a lousy friend,” Nicole muttered.

After a quick goodbye to Asher, I invited Nicole into my dorm room. Head down, she worried her fingers together. I asked her to sit, but she chose to stand.

Waiting for her to start, I propped myself on the end of my bed.

“I need to apologize to you,” Nicole said. “For believing Elena and her rumors.”

I wasn’t sure Nicole ever fully believed the rumors, despite this apology. Remembering our confrontation in the library, Nicole had seemed upset with herself for being so rude to me. She’d wanted to forget the whole thing.

Though she had been distant since then.

“I was at war with myself. I didn’t know what to believe. I know you, we’re friends, but Elena is so convincing. And Coach does seem fonder of you than the rest of us.”

I couldn’t deny that, though it hurt me to hear her say so. Coach loved his job and he cared for all the girls on the squad. He only gave me special treatment because I was pregnant.

But I couldn’t tell Nicole that.

“I was at the club tonight,” Nicole said, surprising me enough to quiet my brain. “I saw you and Asher together.”

“I didn’t see you,” I said.

“No wonder.” She laughed a little. “You and Asher only have eyes for each other. It’s so obvious now, that you were with Asher when you disappeared at the competition. And everything else, I don’t know. Coach is just a nice guy. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know why Elena can’t accept it. Jealousy, maybe? She’s had her eyes on Asher for a while, from what I heard. Even before you and he started dating.”

I knew I should correct this misconception, even if it led to Nicole doubting me again. “Asher and I aren’t dating. I like him, but… my feelings are one-sided.”

“Does he know that?” She purposefully glanced at the love mark on my neck.

Swallowing hard, I covered it with my hand. Tonight had been something of a dream, pulled straight from my secret fantasies. I so wanted it to be real, but in reality, I knew it didn’t mean anything.

“Asher was just helping me get away from some creep,” I said. The words tasted like ash.

Pity softened Nicole’s eyes as she looked at me. “I have some serious doubt about that.”

I wished I could tell her about the baby, about Asher’s vow to protect me, about all of it. But I couldn’t. Not yet. So I had to let the whole matter drop.

In the silence, Nicole’s good humor soured. “I just… I’m sorry, Cynthia. I should have believed you from the start. I know I ruined everything, but –”

“I forgive you,” I said at once.

Her mouth hung open for a minute. She looked confused.

“You are one of my best friends,” I explained. “I know how things must have looked…” Especially with all the secrets I’d been keeping.

“That’s no excuse,” Nicole insisted. “Friends trust each other, and I should have trusted you.”

Nicole was such a good-hearted person. Even when she had doubted, she didn’t want to accuse me.

I felt fortunate to have her in my life.

“I missed you,” I said.

Finally, she started to smile. “I missed you too.”

I asked her to say for a while so we could catch up. It was nice to talk with her as I had before.

I couldn’t believe my luck. A few months ago, I only had Joseph. Now, I had Asher, Nicole, and Aimee.

Excited, I couldn’t wait for Nicole and Aimee to meet.

The next morning, I woke feeling refreshed. Things weren’t perfect. Elena’s accusations were still out there, wrong as they were. But I felt like I could take them on now, with so many friends in my corner.

As I finished getting dressed for the day, a knock sounded on my door. I walked over and opened it, revealing Asher on the other side.

He’d said last night that he wanted to talk to me about something, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him there. Yet seeing him again, in the light of day, after we had sucked love marks on each other, sent my heart into overdrive.

I glanced at his neck. My mark was still there, prominent against his fair skin.

He looked at the mark on my neck too, eyes dark as the deep ocean.

“Can I come in?” he asked, after we stood there a while, staring at each other.

Embarrassed, I stepped back and let him enter. “Of course.”

He crossed the room in three long strides. At my desk, he turned to face me. “I’ve been thinking of a better way to help protect you.”

A better way? “Asher, you’ve been doing a very good job already.” How many times had he come running to my rescue – often before I even realized I’d needed him?

He closed his eyes and his eyebrow twitched, showing his annoyance for a brief moment. I knew by now that, like this, his irritation wasn’t directed at me, but at himself.

Did he honestly think he didn’t do enough? He had almost been ready to sacrifice his body to Elena to stop the rumors about me. If anything, Asher did too much!

“I can fight with my fists. I can protect you from people that mean you physical harm. But I struggle with how to keep you safe from words. These rumors… They’re dangerous. They open the door for investigations, and if people start snooping around you…”

I crossed the room much slower than he’d done. When I arrived at his side, I reached out and placed my hand on his arm.

His eyes opened, focusing on me. Beneath the frustration he felt for himself, I could see the fear he harbored for me.

“Asher.”

“I will protect you, Cynthia. I just needed to think of a way.”

He couldn’t be thinking… “If you are still considering Elena’s proposition…” Jealousy strangled me, keeping me from saying anything further.

If he was considering it, I would lose my mind. And I couldn’t promise what I wouldn’t do to Elena. That she’d even suggested it made me want to make a challenge of my own.

And I would, before I ever let her have Asher.

“I’m not,” he said, voice firm and final.

I released a relieved exhale. Thank God. Anything else, I could handle, but not that. Not Elena with her hands all over a reluctant Asher.

Reminding myself he literally just said he wasn’t considering that, I forced my mind to calm.

Asher was safe from Elena.

“My plan is simpler,” Asher said. His eyes dropped to my neck again. “Since everyone already assumes we are together, maybe we should play along.”

Too startled to do anything other than blink and breathe, I just stared at him.

He couldn’t mean…

“I can’t use my fists to keep these demons away. But I can shield you with my reputation.”

He couldn’t possibly be suggesting…

“Cynthia. To protect you from these rumors, we should pretend to be a couple in love.”