Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(27)

Brae winced and gave me a little shrug as she pointed to her shirt. “It was me. Owen’s got surprisingly good aim for an eight-year-old.”

My gaze dropped just for a second before I forced it up again. No wet T-shirts. No nipples. Just, no.

“You shouldn’t scream,” I gritted out. “I could’ve called the cops.”

Brae’s lips twitched, the action drawing my eyes there now. The way they were almost stained red as if she’d been devouring raspberries. How they curved when she smiled, one side just a bit higher than the other. “But you didn’t call the cops,” she challenged.

“I could’ve,” I clipped. “And you might’ve been arrested for disturbing the peace.”

A laugh bubbled out of her throat, husky and just a little bit raw. She held out her hands. “Cuff me, Officer. I dared to yell when hit by a water balloon.”

All sorts of images flew through my mind at the words cuff me, none of which should’ve been there. Fuck.

“I could call them now. Feels like this qualifies as assault with a deadly weapon.”

“A water balloon is a deadly weapon now?”

“Could be when you’re wielding it.” Because she was hell on wheels.

Brae really laughed then, and the sound hit me square in the chest. The vibrations it carried moved through me like a wave of waking up. She laughed like she was truly free—a laugh that reached from the tips of her toes to the top of her head, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d let myself feel something so completely.

“You’re funny, Buttercup,” Brae managed through her laughter.

My scowl was back. “Buttercup?”

She smiled so widely that it lit up her whole face, turning those amber eyes gold. “It fits your sunny personality.”

“Fuck me,” I muttered.

That only made Brae’s grin bigger. “Come on, live a little. Haven’t you ever wanted to have a water balloon fight to celebrate the start of summer? A little mischief might be good for you. It’s a reminder that we’re alive.”

There was something beneath her words. A depth to them. It’s a reminder that we’re alive. It only raised more questions. Had there been a time when she thought she wouldn’t be alive? Had she lost someone? One thought spiraled into another until a Tarzan-like cry split the air.

“You’re going down!” Owen yelled.

A water balloon landed directly on the back of Brae’s head, dousing the rest of her. She let out a comical, mock-pain yelp and then turned, stumbling toward her son. “I’ve been hit.”

“Death blow,” Owen said with a toothy grin.

Brae grabbed him in her arms, taking them both to the ground and rolling as the beast dog ran around the side of the cabin, letting out a happy bark and joining in on the fun. Owen laughed as Brae tickled his sides. “That’s cheating!”

“I’ve gotta use all the weapons at my disposal.”

Owen laughed harder until he finally escaped his mom’s grasp and scrambled to his feet, staring up at me with curiosity in his green gaze. “Did you come to play, too?”

Brae grinned, leaning back on her hands in the grass, soaking wet from head to toe. “Yeah, Dex. Did you come over to play? Or are you running scared?”

Some part of me wanted to join in. To grab a water balloon and chase them both around the yard. To remember what it was like to laugh as freely as they did. But I couldn’t.

“I’ve got a thing,” I said dumbly. As if that was an explanation. But it was all I could manage. Until I saw the disappointment on Owen’s face.

I leaned down, speaking in a stage whisper. “I saw her secret stash of balloons by the planter. Give her hell.”

A huge smile stretched across Owen’s face as he ran for the balloons.

Brae scrambled to her feet. “You’re a traitor, Buttercup!”

“That’s what you get for calling me Buttercup,” I yelled back.

But I stayed there for a moment longer than I should’ve, watching the battle rage. The pure joy on both their faces. The part of me that wanted to reach for it flared again, but I knew I couldn’t.

Because opening yourself up to the good meant you had to open yourself up to the bad just as much. And that wasn’t something I could risk. Not with all the demons swirling in my past.





11





DEX





Slamming the door to my 4Runner, I took in the tree house in the golden light just before sunset. It made the sage-green siding look even richer and the image of the house itself that much warmer.

But Twisted Oak Ranch didn’t need the sun to make it warm. It had that because of the refuge it had always been. No place on this earth would ever feel safer to me.

I started for the front door, taking stock of Kol’s Forest Service truck and Wylder’s pickup. Of course, Mav, who’d required everyone’s presence, still wasn’t here. And I knew Orion wouldn’t show until he was damn sure everyone else had arrived. He wasn’t about to let someone come in at his back.

My boots hit the front porch steps, and I grinned at the thought that those boots would be getting their intended use now. It was a reminder that I needed to hit some trails. Maybe tomorrow morning, before the tourists packed some of my favorite spots.