“We’re here,” he said needlessly. She opened her eyes—intoxicated from their touching—and found him again, mirroring exactly how he felt.

Her gaze moved past him to the valet who rushed over to get Rico’s door, then backed away when he saw them. Ashna untangled her hand from his. He dropped a kiss on her fingers before letting go.

“Thanks for the ride, Ash.” He got out, attempting grace, but only managed it because she had cared enough to help him.

She might’ve been influenced by her father, but her feelings weren’t fickle, and she wasn’t a coward. Maybe that was the reason why she let those she loved have their way. To use that love to pull her in opposite directions was to tear her in half.

He turned around and leaned into the car window. The need to go back to her, to press his lips into her hair, her eyelids, any inch of her he could have was an inferno. But she had to want that enough to come to him herself, free of anyone’s influence, even his.

Every piece of him might feel like a puppy ready to follow her to the ends of the earth, but their only hope was a love that felt balanced, that didn’t need constant validation. That was only possible if they both believed in it and believed themselves worthy of it.

“Thanks for . . . for today, Rico.” Her eyes, were limpid pools of longing, and yes, fear.

“Talk to your mother, Ash. Give her a chance. Maybe you’ve missed things. Maybe you can’t see them because you’ve let someone else’s thinking influence you.”

Some of the softness left her eyes. “Thanks. Even if I were influenced, she’s never done anything to disprove that opinion.”

He pulled away and she drove off, leaving him with the sense that there was something they both hadn’t said. Something that was essential.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Maybe you should come stay with us,” Mina said in the way Mina had of saying things to influence you without sounding managing.

“What you’re trying to say is that I should give Ashna some space.” Shobi paced Bram’s kitchen, while Mina sat primly on a barstool at the island.

It had been weeks since Ashna and she had argued. It had also been weeks since they had said a word of consequence to each other. Shobi had considered pushing her, but Ashi’s shutdown mechanism was so hard and quick, she didn’t have it in her to let it topple their fragile truce.

That truce had to mean something.