“Could you maybe not give out details on my relationship?” Carter barked.

“Could you maybe not treat her like she’s five? By grace, twenty minutes with you and I need a drink.” Morgan’s chair squeaked as she pushed away from the table and headed to the bar.

I took another sip of my beer for fortitude and looked at Carter as I stood. “You’re an idiot.”

His glare went arctic. “Go ahead, chase after her. It won’t end well. She needs space because she doesn’t like confrontation. How do I know? Because, unlike you, I’ve been in her life more than five damn minutes.”

“You really think it took me five minutes to understand Paisley? It took me less time to save her life. I knew what kind of woman she was the moment her eyes opened. She’s a fighter.” I leaned over the table toward him. “And funny, that first breath she released? It was mine.” I didn’t waste another second, just weeded my way through the crowd until I got outside.

Finally, Alabama had reached a moderate temperature. I pushed up the rolled sleeves of my blue button-down. It didn’t take long to find her, leaning on Will’s truck, only one empty space away from where I’d left Lucy. Her hair hung in soft waves past her shoulders, the gold catching the light from the street lamp. Leave it to Paisley to make a parking lot off Rucker Boulevard beautiful.

“Don’t ask me if I’m okay.”

I leaned against the cool metal frame next to her, tucking my hands in my pockets, mostly to keep them from touching her. “Okay.”

Her head swiveled my direction. It didn’t matter how many times I’d looked into her eyes; I was lost, spun out of control. “You’re really not going to ask?”

I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling. “You’re kind of fun when you’re pissy.”

“I am most certainly not…that.”

“You can say it, you know.”

She crossed her arms in front of her. “I’m more than aware of what I can do. It’s not about the ability.”

“What’s it about?”

“Restraint, and knowing when to use it.”

“Restraint has never been my strong suit.” My gaze flickered to her lips, pale but shiny from her gloss. Stop. Friends, only friends. Shit, I even sounded weak in my head.

“Yeah, I could tell that with Marjorie perched on your lap like a baby bird waiting to be fed.” Her chin came up, and damn if that wasn’t sexy.

“You’re my only Little Bird,” I promised her.

“Why do you call me that?” she bit out through clenched teeth.

“Well, you did kind of fly at our first encounter. Why don’t you tell him that you hate when he calls you Lee?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples. “I don’t hate it.”

“Yes, you do. I just can’t figure out why you don’t tell him. He’s an ass if he hasn’t figured it out by now. Hell, he’s an ass, period.” Shit. I hadn’t meant to blurt it out.

“You don’t know the first thing about him.” She pushed off the car, and I quickly took hold of her wrist.

“Don’t go.” Shit, was that desperation leaking into my voice? “I’ve missed you.”

She shook me off. “I can’t be here with you. I can’t do this.” She gestured between us, like there was an invisible string tying us together. “Whatever this is.”

“You can’t have a friendship outside your relationship? It’s that weak? Worth turning away a friend? You act like I don’t know him, but I’m with him every day! He’s completely wrong for you.”

Because I was right for her. I wanted her—wanted to be with her. Admitting that was as thrilling as it was terrifying, and I had no idea what to do with it. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to let her think Carter was her only option.

She took another step back. “Will knows me in ways you don’t—you can’t. He knows every scary, damaged part of me, and he still loves me. That’s the kind of man he is.”

“Damn it, Paisley, listen to yourself. You act like you’re some charity case! You think I can’t handle those pieces of you?” I moved forward to close the distance between us, and her eyes widened, like she’d felt the shift in our relationship that I had. “I know you from your soul to your skin. Just being friends with you…” I flicked the stud in my tongue across my teeth, trying to find the right words. “I’ve never been more intimate with a woman, and that includes every girl I’ve ever had sex with.”

She retreated until she bumped into Lucy. “This conversation is over.”

I didn’t stop until my toes met hers, my chest nearly brushing the rise of her breasts. “Why, because it suddenly doesn’t fit in your neat and tidy friendship box?”

“We are friends, and you don’t get to make judgments on my relationship.” Her head bumped the glass of the window as she craned her neck to look at me.

I braced, then tested my theory. “He treats you like a little sister.”

“You hush.” She squeezed her eyes shut. Damn. I’d been right.

I lifted her chin, but she still wouldn’t open her eyes. “He sure as hell didn’t stand up for you against Marjorie.”

She swallowed but didn’t speak.

The need to reach her clawed through me, to make her see what I did—that she was worth so much more than anything Carter or even I could offer her. I dragged my eyes away from the delicate arch of her lips. Rather than backing off, I caged her in, leaning my forearms on the glass on either side of her perfect face.