All My Heart (Count On Me Book 4) by Melyssa Winchester Page B

babysit.”
    Where I expect him to get upset or show some sign of my words bothering him, his face just goes soft, his green eyes even lighter and he strokes my face with his fingers softly.
    “The last thing I think about you is that you’re a kid I need to take care of. I don’t want to come home because I think you need me. I want to come home because I need you.”
    “You need me?”
    “Yes.” He says before another grin crawls across his features. “Isn’t the way I greeted you when I got here enough to prove that?”
    I blush and he laughs before reaching out and lifting my head up to meet his, noticing the way it fell the minute my cheeks started to overheat.
    “Last year, when I needed a wakeup call, there you were. Last fall when I needed a sign that we coul d get through what happened at homecoming, what I did to you for all of those years, there you were. You have always been there, Belle, and you’ve always been exactly what I need. Do you remember when I asked you that question about the world ending two weeks ago?”
    “Yes.”
    “There was a selfish reason behind it.”
    “Okay.”
    “The world could burn around me and as long as I have you, I have everything I need. I wanted to know if it was the same for you.”
    Soon, I’m pretty sure I’m going to change colors from my natural shade of peach to the dark pink he brings out of me when he makes me blush. He doesn’t even have to try, he just seems to know exactly what to say.
    “Kayden?”
    “Yeah?”
    “We need each other.”
    “We do?”
    I know why he’s asking it like this. He’s so secure in the way he feels about me, but he’s not sure that it’s the same with me because every chance I get, I fight tooth and nail to prove I can do things on my own. It’s the way I’ve always been, even with my mom. I don’t want to need her, even though I know deep down I do.
    “Yes, we do. I still think Toronto is where you need to be, but that’s the unselfish part of me. If I’m selfish, the answer is that the only place you should be is here with me because I can’t do this without you.”
    It doesn’t happen often, so when it does, it excites me. Kayden blushing. My words having such a strong impact on him that he reacts in a way he has no control over.
    “You want me here?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then here is where I’m going to be and Belle, I’m not leaving again.”

Chapter Ten
     
    Kayden
     
    When I got back to school last night, I expected to be hit with a gigantic ball of Dillon resistance.
    The scouts came calling last fall and again in the spring and both of us were a sure bet for a scholarship, so after he got with Cadence, we started planning the way things were gonna happen if we both ended up being offered the same deal in the same place.
    Despite not entirely trusting him at the time, we made the plan of rooming together here when we both accepted and never looked back. If I’m serious about going back to Wexfield, I’m giving all of that up and leaving him. Something I don’t expect him to be all that happy about.
    Funny thing about this jackass. He really has changed in the last six months or so. He’s nowhere near the same guy and his reaction to me wanting to start transfe r papers proves it.
    “I wondered how long it would take.”
    “That obvious, huh?”
    “Yeah. You’re predictable.”
    “You didn’t hear what she told me, man. I can’t just come back here and pretend I didn’t hear it and hope it doesn’t get worse.”
    “Wait—back up. You told me you were transferring back to Wexfield. You didn’t say why.”
    “Belle’s dealing with us again.”
    He looks c onfused for a second and then seems to get it.
    “They hurt her?”
    “Yeah, but according to her they didn’t. She doesn’t get the word hurt obviously. I can’t sit here and let them get the chance to do it again.”
    “What the fuck happened? I thought she was off helping some kid like her?”
    “Yeah, it’s because of her