Page 132 of Small Town, Big Storm

A dry laugh. “You think my brother and I talked about our feelings?”

“Is anger not a feeling?” I counter.

He snorts as he picks up the letter, turns it over and over in his hands. “You got me there, Pop.” A sigh. “But I doubt Rain opened his either. Hell, I don’t even know why I kept it.”

I do.

And it’s the same reason I’m not scared anymore.

Because Storm cares—despite all the darkness and bad memories, the hurt and pain, he cares.

I just hope that whatever’s inside the letter won’t hurt him all over again.

“Can I?”

He hesitates, only for a second.

Then he presses the envelope into my hand.

And my heart rolls over for him all over again.

The trust he just put in me…

I carefully take the envelope and tuck it into my nightstand. “It’ll be there,” I tell him softly. “When you’re ready.”

He’s quiet for a long moment.

Then he tucks me into bed, wraps me tightly in his arms…

And I make sure he doesn’t wake up alone.

Thirty-Five

Storm

She’s here.

I know it before I fully open my eyes, before I tighten my arms and draw the warm weight of her body more firmly against mine.

“Storm,” she murmurs drowsily, burying her face in my chest.

“I’m here, Poppyseed.”

A soft sigh, her body pressing closer.

“I missed you.” Her words are still quiet, still sleepy.

“I’ve been here all night, baby.”

“No. I missed you these last years. Wished you were here like this a thousand times.” She laughs and the gentle sound is sunshine and rainbows and happiness and hope. “Okay, well, maybe not when Sully was living with us.”

I grin, kiss the top of her head. “Yeah, as much as my ego doesn’t like it, I think Sully could have taken me.”

Another laugh and then she’s relaxing against me, her fingers tracing absent patterns on my chest.

I like it, like the way it feels to have her in my arms⁠—

No, I love it.