Everything I Need (Nashville Nights, #3) Author: Stacey Mosteller

SarahBeth Pearson has made mistakes, and I might just be the biggest one of them all. After spending months keeping secrets and lying to everyone close to us, it’s all fallen apart and we are each left alone to pick up the pieces. I’ve loved SarahBeth in one form or another her entire life. The steps that brought us closer together weren’t easy for me to take. After letting her dictate our relationship, I’ve found myself practically homeless and estranged from my closest friends. Now I’m left trying to move on, finding a new place to live and getting everything I need in order, while she’s trying to mend her broken heart. There’s just one problem…SarahBeth’s still keeping secrets - and her secret just might change everything.  
David laughs, clapping me on the back as he leads me out of his office. When we get to the front door, SarahBeth is just getting out of her car, but she freezes when she sees us standing next to each other. Her eyes fill with tears and David rushes down the steps to hug her tightly, whispering something in her ear that has her eyes widening, suddenly fearful as she stares back at me. He pulls back, forcing her to look up at him, and finally, she nods. My brow furrows as I take in their serious expressions, and I make a mental note to ask her what's up when I get her alone later. Shit is beginning to add up, and I'm more than a little worried at the possibilities. Walking slowly over to where they stand in the driveway, I look between the two of them. "What's going on?" David doesn't answer. Instead he looks at SarahBeth with one eyebrow raised. She tries to cover her fear with a smile as she looks up at me. "Nothing. David's just being overprotective." He snorts, obviously disagreeing, but doesn't contradict her. There's no way for me to contradict her without it being obvious that I don't believe her, and since we're trying to learn to trust each other again, I'm stuck between what I want and what I know I should do...which is backing off until she's ready to tell me. SarahBeth blushes under my scrutiny, adding to my suspicion that something isn't right, she heads for the house, saying, "I'll be back soon. I want to put my stuff away and take a quick shower." She hurries inside, leaving David and me standing in the driveway with him refusing to look at me. "Okay, now that she's gone, what the hell did you say to her?" My voice is sharper than I intended, but my head is reeling with all the possible things he could have told her. He could be warning her away from me, trying to get her to tell me whatever it is she's hiding, or so many other things. If it weren’t for the guilty look in his eyes, I would doubt the suspicions I have, but the fact that he doesn't even really want to meet my stare tells me that he's helping her hide something. "It's not for me to say." He does look at me now, his eyes narrow and his jaw clenched tight. "You're going to have to earn her trust before she tells you anything, and I can't really blame her for that...no matter how much I think you need to know. She'll tell you when she's ready, and there's nothing you can do to change that." There's nothing I can say to that, so I stand beside him, leaning up against Sarah's car and thinking over the past few minutes, the conversation they had, and the things he just said to me. It's all adding up to something, but surely if that was the case, someone would have told me, and David damn sure wouldn't be this understanding. We stand in silence waiting for SarahBeth to reappear, and when she does, the look on her face is one of fear and upset. It's not a stretch to think the fear has to do with tonight, being alone with me, with me asking questions she obviously doesn't want to answer, but I have no idea what's causing her to look so upset, so sad. David's noticed it too, and he walks over to have a hushed conversation with her that ends in him turning back to glare at me. Shaking his head, he mutters, "Stupid motherfucker," before walking back into the house and leaving us alone. SarahBeth's watching me closely, catching her bottom lip in-between her teeth and searching my eyes for answers to questions she doesn't want to ask. Unable to stand being so far away from her, I walk over and pull her into my embrace, keeping her close to me until she finally relaxes and slides her arms around my waist. "What's wrong, baby?" I ask her, concerned about the look on her face when she walked outside. She buries her face in my chest, refusing to look at me, or answer my questions, something that drives me crazy. There's no way for me to even try to make things better, to earn her trust, if she won't tell me what's bothering her. When I ask her a second time, she sniffles before lifting her face to mine. "I don't want to talk about it right now." She frowns, pulling away from me and walking over to the passenger side of my car. Torn between letting it go and trying to force her to tell me what's wrong, I don't move at first. She gets in but doesn't look back at me. Instead, she stares out the window on her side of the car, avoiding me and shutting me out in a way that damn near kills me. I want to protect her, I always have...I can't make anything better if she doesn’t tell me what the problem is, but I also know that if I push it, she will push back and we'll be even more estranged than we already are. I'm not naive, I know she doesn't trust me, doesn't want to share anything with me, but it still causes an ache in my chest, knowing that the easy relationship we once had is gone, maybe gone forever. Resigned, I sigh before getting in the car myself.

 
 
 
 
 
Stacey is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author of Second Chances (co-authored with H.M. Ward) and the Nashville Nights series. She is also a wife, mother, writer and self-professed bookwhore - not necessarily in that order! As the mother of three growing boys, her Kindle has become her temporary escape from the insanity of boys, dogs and her husband. Stacey can usually be found curled up with her iPad when she's supposed to be writing or creating endless playlists on Spotify.