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“Oh yeah, the issues run rampant around here. Believe me. But River?”
I peered over at her, wondering what she would say. If she’d give voice to the ferocity that blazed from him. The viciousness. The danger.
My gut promised it wasn’t superficial. Promised there was something hazardous woven in his layers.
Her voice whispered in stark affection. “His go deep, Charleigh. He doesn’t believe he deserves to be loved or even happy, but he does. He deserves it more than anyone I know. If you understood the sacrifices he’s made? What he did for me? The ones he continues to make for others? The only thing I’ve wanted is for him to find his joy.”
She paused then tilted her head back a fraction. “Maybe you’re the only one who can show him he deserves it.”
“It’s not like that with us.” It rasped out of me. Our relationship had already been written. He’d vowed to be there for me, but only for a little while. It had to be enough. “I’m in no position to fall in love with anyone.”
She reached out and ran her thumb over the outer edge of my eye. I didn’t realize there was a tear there until she wiped it away. “You know, it’s funny that he feels the same way. Life has a way of convincing us that we don’t want something, or we don’t have space for it, or we believe we’re not even worthy of it. And sometimes what we need finds us, anyway.”
There was suddenly a wild pounding at the door. “Hey, what are you guys doin’ in there? You better not be havin’ a party without me. I been waitin’ out here for the whole day, and I almost don’t have any of the patience left. And patience is somethin’ Miss Liberty says I gotta have.”
A small shot of amusement rolled off my tongue, and Raven snagged me by the hand as she whipped open the door. “What? Have a party without you? That would just be rude.”
“The rudest.” Nolan said it with a resolute jut of his chin.
Raven took Nolan’s hand and started to haul us both back in the direction of the main house. “Since you mentioned party, I’m thinking that’s exactly what we should have.”
“Because I have smart ideas like my dad?” Nolan asked, jumping in the air with each step he took, his mass of curls bouncing around his adorable head.
“Um, heck yes, you have all the smart ideas like your dad.” She shifted to look at me with a mischievous grin on her mouth. “You know, like bringing you here.”
THIRTY
RIVER
I pushed openthe garage door to some kind of mayhem going down in my house.
Though it wasn’t summoned by the wicked or iniquitous.
Nah.
There was no question this mess was compliments of my baby sister. Should have known better than to have left her to her own devices.
Taylor Swift was blaring from the built-in speakers, and a riot of laughter carried above it.
Raven’s.
Nolan’s.
I was pretty sure there was a spot of it from Charleigh, too. That sultry sound rolling through the air and aiming right for me.
It speared me straight in the chest when I rounded the corner of the opening to the kitchen and found the three of them in the middle of it, dancing around like fuckin’ loons.
Nolan was on the ground, shouting, “Watch me!” as he spun on his butt, the kid’s signature move, while my sister twirled with a glass of red wine lifted over her head, singing, “Go, Nolan, go, Nolan, go!”
And fuck me…Charleigh was laughing and giggling and being adorable as shit as she was engaged in this awkward dance, trying to keep time yet totally off beat.
Still wearing those pink scrubs that shouldn’t be sexy but never failed to send a bolt of electricity straight to my guts.
My sister grabbed Charleigh’s hand, attempting to spin her, though the two of them got all tangled up as Charleigh tried to dip low enough to duck under my sister’s arm.
Cracking up, Raven stumbled to the side like she’d already downed a whole bottle of wine, and Charleigh was giggling all over the place as she got taken with her.
Her smile radiant and wide.
