“Are you sure it’s not a bother?” I asked. “Like I said, taking care of you is what I was meant to do, Dakota.” Confusion bound, and I couldn’t get free of the snare of those eyes that were watching me. I had to refuse it. Not allow my head to go tripping into fanciful things. It’d hurt too damn much when I’d learned Ryder would never love me back. Not the way I’d wanted him to. So, I found the will that I’d come to find then, the strength, and I pulled back up some of those walls that sometimes threatened to slip, remembering that Ryder would never be anything more than a friend.
