Southern Heart, Madison, Natasha [the little red hen ebook TXT] 📗

myself even when my hand shakes as I wash his chest.

“What are you going to do?” I ask him, trying not to embarrass myself while I am washing him. “After all this.”

“I have no idea,” he says, and his voice sounds tight.

"If you can do anything, what would it be?” I ask him.

“I guess I would do construction,” he says. “When I wasn’t on tour, I would love building things for the cabin.” I look at him.

“What is one thing that you’ve built?” I ask him as I take a towel in the clean water and rinse him off.

“I built a coffee table,” he tells me, and I can see his eyes light up, “then I added two bedrooms to the cabin.”

“You like it,” I tell him.

“I guess I do,” he says. “What about you?”

“I want to get my career going,” I tell him, “then I want to do the regular girl things.” I smile at him when his eyebrows pull together. “You know, husband and kids.” I don’t tell him that he’s always been the one I’ve seen holding my hand. I don’t tell him that he’s the one I’ve always wanted. Ever since I saw him that first time. “Do you see yourself having children?” I ask him, and I hold my breath now, the thought of him with someone making me feel sick.

“No.” He shakes his head. “I’ve never been in a relationship. I have nothing to bring to the table,” he says while I wash up his arm. “I have nothing. The only thing I did have is now burned to the ground.” Stopping at his shoulder, my face is very close to his.

“Everything can be rebuilt,” I tell him in almost a whisper, and he doesn’t say anything else. He looks at me and I don’t move as my face hovers next to him. I know that if I move even an inch, my lips could be on his. My heartbeat is echoing in my ears. “Do you think you can?” I move away from him now, pointing at his bottom half.

“I got that,” he says, and I just nod my head. “Call me when you are done.” I walk to the door. “I’m going to leave the door open, but I’ll be in the kitchen.”

My hands shake as I walk to the kitchen and grab a glass of water. I look out, his words playing over and over in my head. I have nothing. “Stupid man,” I mumble.

I walk over to the freezer, taking out a frozen chicken and putting it in a pot of water. This is what I do when I’m stressed, I cook.

"I’m done!" I hear him yelling and walk toward the bedroom. I find him sitting on the bed, his shirt in his hand.

"How was it?" I ask him. When he looks up at me, I can see little drops of water still in his hair.

"Heaven," he says, and I swallow when I see that he’s just wearing a pair of black boxers.

"Um, I’ll give you a couple of seconds to get dressed," I tell him, turning to walk out of the room.

I look over at him. "Does this offend you?"

I scoff now. "No, of course not." Ignoring the heat rising up my neck.

"I was going to say you already ripped my clothes off me," he jokes, and I just glare at him.

"That was a medical emergency"—I shake my head—"and it’s too soon to joke about it.” My voice goes soft as I walk over to the supplies. "But I cut them off you. Now lie back."

When I turn back around, he is lying down. I stand next to the bed and bend over. My hand is shaking just a bit. "Chelsea," he says my name softly, and I look up at him. "You saved me."

I swallow down the lump forming in my throat and ignore the stinging of tears in my eyes. It takes me no time to get everything changed and dry, and when I look up, he has his eyes closed. "All done. Did you want a pain pill?" I turn my face to look at him and realize I’m suddenly very close to him. His eyes open, and we stare at each other, and I swear I stop breathing. His hand comes up as he cups one of my cheeks. I don’t move. My stomach flips back and forth as his thumb rubs my cheek.

"No pill," he says and then he drops his hand, and the moment is gone.

"I know that you overdid it today." I walk over to throw out the other bandages, then walk back to him and hand him the pain pill with a glass of water.

He takes it without saying anything to me. "Thank you," he says, and I just nod at him and put down the glass.

"I’m going to take a shower," I tell him, and he just looks over at me.

"Leave the door open just in case." He smiles shyly at me, and I walk out of the room with a huge smile on my face as I shake my head.

When I finally get out of the shower and walk into the kitchen, darkness has come. I walk toward his bedroom and see that everything is off. Walking into his room, I see that he is sleeping. A T-shirt covers his chest. I try not to make noise to wake him, and when I get close to the bed, his eyes open if only for a second and then quickly close. "You are what dreams are made of," he says softly and falls back asleep.

Chapter 13

Mayson

"I’ll kill everything that you love. Nothing is safe from me."

My eyes flicker open, and I see darkness again. My eyes roam the four corners of the room and then look out the window. I close my eyes again, and this time I see Chelsea. I was so close to crossing a line yesterday. So close to kissing her that I could have