Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(47)

“Kol,” I called out.

He turned, but nothing changed on his expression: hard, wary, and maybe a little bit worried.

Brae forced her smile wider, but it trembled at the edges. “Thank you for hanging with Owen.”

Kol’s gaze dipped to her hands and then her knees. “What happened?”

I gave him a small shake of my head. “I’ll explain later.”

The tension in Kol’s face intensified.

“Mom!” Owen shouted, racing toward Brae. “Did you know Mr. Kol has the coolest job ever?”

Her smile became a little more genuine. “Cooler than a coder?” she asked as Owen came to a screeching halt in front of her.

“What about the FBI?” I cut in, a little offended that I’d already been dethroned.

Indecision warred on Owen’s face. “Okay, they’re all tied. But he looks for poachers and people doing bad stuff in the forest. He gets to go hiking, like all the time. And knows how to find people anywhere. Sky told me.”

My niece popped up then, and Brae’s smile widened. I couldn’t help but grin. Sky was freaking adorable in a fluffy, pink skirt paired with combat boots. She had a T-shirt with a picture of a raccoon that read Cute but feral and rainbow necklaces I knew she’d made herself.

She grinned up at Brae, revealing a missing tooth. “Never play hide-and-seek with my dad. He wins every time.”

Brae laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m Brae, by the way. Thanks for hanging out with Owen.”

Sky just beamed. “I’m Skylar. And that’s my dad.”

Kol simply grunted.

I rolled my eyes. Always big on polite chitchat, my brother.

“Skylar, I absolutely love your outfit. You have fabulous style,” Brae told her.

She twirled to show it off properly. “Thank you. I love your shoes.”

Brae’s focus dipped to her high-tops. “Thanks. Owen decorated them for me. He makes me a pair every year.”

“That’s so cool. Daddy, we should do that. I can draw hearts and Nerf guns all over them for you. And use my glitter markers.”

Kol gave his daughter a pained smile. “Nothing I love more than glitter hearts.”

“Samesies,” Sky agreed earnestly as Brae fought a laugh.

“Mom, what happened to your hands?” Owen asked, frowning at her.

I didn’t miss Brae’s wince, but she covered it quickly. “You remember when I tripped over Yeti and gave myself a black eye?”

Owen giggled. “But you told everyone you got into a fight with a ninja and kicked their butt.”

She grinned at her son. “It was a much better story.”

“Only when you showed off your moves while telling it,” Owen added.

“True,” she agreed. “Well, I dropped a glass at work, and I got all cut. But I think we need a better story. Maybe I dove through a window to escape a pack of wild wildebeests.”

It was Skylar’s turn to giggle. “Or to hide from invading aliens.”

I ruffled Sky’s hair. “You sound like Mav.”

“Uncle Mav has the best stories,” she pointed out.

“Just as long as you remember that none of them are true,” Kol muttered. His gaze flicked to Brae, landing on her hands again. “Are you okay? You get those looked at?”

Annoyance and pissed off were basically Kol’s love languages, so I knew he was softening toward Brae, even if she didn’t know it.

“Dex treated them with Maverick’s help. I’m all good,” she assured him.

Kol’s mouth thinned, but he gave her a quick nod.

That was the most we could hope to get from my surly older brother, so I turned to Owen. “Ready to hit the road?”

Owen grinned so wide I thought it would split his face in two. “You’re driving us?”

“I am. And I say we need milkshakes along the way. What do you think?”

“Yeeeeeeesssss!” Owen cheered, doing a little dance.

Skylar’s pigtails whipped around. “Can we get some, Daddy? Pleeeeeease?”

Kol glowered at me. “If she won’t go to sleep tonight because she’s all hopped up on sugar, I’m calling you to babysit.”





20





BRAEDYN





“So,” Dex prodded, a hint of mischief in those dark-hazel eyes.

I took a sip of the milkshake, letting the flavors play over my tongue as Owen raced ahead of us toward my SUV. “It’s like blackberries and raspberries combined in some sort of delicious goodness.”

Dex chuckled, the sound skating over my skin in a different sort of deliciousness. “I’m taking that as a good thing,” he pressed.

“Definitely.”

I studied him as we walked, milkshakes in hand, and was struck by something. Dex cared. Despite his gruff, sometimes-cantankerous exterior, he cared. And he didn’t show it with flowery words and false promises. He did it with his actions. Somehow, that was more powerful.

Apparently, the gruff caring act was an Archer brothers’ trait. Because despite Kol’s wariness of me and the whole situation, he’d wanted to make sure I was okay, too. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was what about me set Kol on edge.