She looked torn, like she wanted to tell me something but wasn’t sure if she should. “I’m not sure what he’s told you about his life, but I’m guessing not much because my boy likes to keep stuff to himself. Something happened to him a long time ago and the ten year anniversary of that is coming up next month. It was very painful for him and he hasn’t fully dealt with it yet. We’ve tried to push him to do that but he’s resisted. I’m watching him unravel at the moment, honey, and I think this year might be the one that finally breaks him. As hard as that is for a mother to watch, he really needs to go through that to move forward. And I’d like him to have as many friends around him to help him through it.”

She’d pulled my heartstrings with her little speech; my heart was hurting for him and I didn’t even know what had happened. I could only guess that it must have been pretty bad because she was right, Nash was unravelling.

I reached out and squeezed her hand, and nodded. “I’ll be there for him.”

Relief washed over her. “Thank you.”

A mother’s love was one of the strongest on earth and it was clear to me that Nash’s mother loved him very much. He was lucky to have that.

A couple of minutes later, he came back into the kitchen. “They’re all fixed,” he said to his mum.

She pointed at the table. “Sit, have your coffee.”

He looked at me. “You in a hurry to get going?”

“Nope, it’s all good.”

Taking a seat, he asked his mother, “You having any problems with your car at the moment?”

She rolled her eyes. “My car is not as bad as you make it out to be.”

“Yeah, it is.”

I watched their interaction with fascination. Nash was like a different person around his mother, and I loved what she brought out in him.

“Well, nothing has broken on it for awhile.”

He informed me, “Let the record show that when my mother says ‘for awhile’ in relation to her car, she means for a week or so.”

I laughed and Linda pouted, but I could see it was in good humour. “Did you know that Nash is a trained mechanic?” she asked me.

Raising my brows at Nash, I said, “No, I did not know that; he’s never told me that snippet of information about himself. I guessed he was good with cars though because he’s offered to fix mine.”

Now it was her turn to raise her brows. “Really? That’s interesting.”

I looked between them. “Why?”

Nash was shaking his head and muttering something under his breath that I couldn’t quite work out.

Linda answered me. “It’s interesting because Nash hates working on cars other than his own these days. He fixes mine out of love but he won’t touch anyone else’s.”

I mentally connected the dots. He hadn’t even hesitated to offer to work on mine. I smiled at him, but he just shook his head again.

Nash stood and jerked his head towards the front door, and said to his mum, “We’ve gotta get going.”

Linda followed us out, and gave him a long hug goodbye. I watched them again, liking the way he let her do that. Some guys were funny with displays of affection, but Nash was good with it. He was a lot taller than her and placed a soft kiss on her head before pulling away.

“Love you,” she said.

Smiling, he said, “Love you too, Mum. I’ll see you on Sunday.”

She turned to me and pulled me close for a hug. “Remember what I said,” she murmured.

“I will,” I promised, and then added, “It was so nice to meet you.”

“It was great to meet you too, Velvet,” she agreed, and then looking at Nash, she said, “You need to bring Velvet for dinner on Sunday night if she’s free.”

Because I had made the decision to follow Linda’s request and not let Nash push me out of his life, I chimed in, “I’m free.”

That made her ecstatic and she clapped her hands together again. “Good, it’s settled. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.”

Nash looked like he’d just been ambushed. The best course of action was probably to keep him moving, so I pushed him towards his bike. “Time to go, I need to get my shopping done.”

As we walked away from his mother, he muttered, “I’ve just been played by you and my mother, haven’t I?”

I smiled sweetly. “Your mother seems too nice to do something like that.”

“None of the women in my life are too nice to do something like that, you included.” Warmth settled in my stomach at his words, and I laughed at what he’d said. “Something tells me I’m going to love your family.”

“God fuckin’ help me.”

Chapter 15

Can’t Stand The Rain ~ Lady Antebellum

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Nash

I pulled up outside Velvet’s house and killed the engine of her car. I’d fixed it, and it’d been the first time in ages that I’d enjoyed working on a car. Now, I was returning it and hoping she had the time to drive me back to my house. Eyeing her driveway, I realised she might not because she had a visitor. Someone who drove a very expensive car.

A couple of minutes later, I knocked on her front door. I could hear shouting coming from inside; a male was yelling at Velvet. Without hesitation, I pushed the door open and stalked towards the voices. I found Velvet and a guy I’d never laid eyes on before in her kitchen. The suit he wore screamed money and I wondered who the hell he was. Regardless of who he was though, I didn’t like the way he was treating Velvet.