“I’m sorry, Dash,” she said. “I could have reached out, too. I just thought . . . I didn’t want to be a bother, and—” “A bother?” He vaulted himself from his leaning position to stand at his full height. With a flicker of hesitation, he lifted his hand and let his fingers touch her jawline. Steady, kind, familiar—and yet . . . entirely new, this jolt it sent straight into her heart. It was the first time he had touched her in fifteen years, and something, in that small gesture, fell away. Broke into a chasm within that scared her, for it was the place she kept the treasures—and she had so few
...more
