Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(71)

He studied her for a long moment before taking the bottle and shaking out several drops over his meat. He took a bite. The moment the brisket hit his tongue, his eyes went wide as saucers. Orion was out of his chair in a flash, running for the trash and spitting out the bite.

“Flag on the play!” Mav hollered. “Disqualified.”

Brae grinned as Skylar cheered. “What do you think, Kol? Got what it takes?” Brae asked.

He glowered at her, which only made Brae smile wider. Kol snagged the bottle from where Orion was sitting and shook out two drops onto his potatoes. Lifting the bite to his mouth, he paused, his hand trembling.

Finally, he dropped the fork to the plate. “Sh—” He halted what he was about to say. “I can’t do it.”

Skylar leapt from her chair, dancing around the room. “Girls rule, boys drool! Girls rule, boys drool!”

Owen grinned up at Brae. “Pretty bussin’, bruh.”

Brae flicked her hair over her shoulder in an exaggerated motion, sending a faint red-currant scent my way. “That’s my trophy right there.”

I reached over, unable to stop myself from touching her, even though I knew it was the last thing I should do. But everything about her drew me in. That scent. The way her eyes lit in victory. How her mouth curved in that taunting bow. My hand slid under that fall of hair, and I squeezed the back of her neck, relishing the feel of her silky skin as the pads of my fingers ghosted over her pulse point. “You did good, Hellion.”

Golden eyes found mine, flashing with something I couldn’t identify. “Thanks, Buttercup. I like your family.”

“You gotta tell me how Buttercup came about,” Wylder said as he struggled not to laugh.

I tried to glare at Brae, but it was more of a twitching smile. “Thanks for that.”

Brae beamed up at me as she answered Wylder. “He was soooooo very sunshiney when I first met him, Buttercup was the only name that fit.”

Kol let out a sound that was a cross between a scoff and a snort.

“Hey,” I shot back at him. “You’re the grumpiest a-hole around, so I don’t think you have room to judge.”

“A-hole still counts as a swear, Uncle Dex,” Sky cut in.

I shook my head. “Noted, Little Princess.”

Mav leaned back in his chair. “Buttercup works for me.”

“Don’t even think about it,” I warned, then turned to Brae. “Do you see what you’ve done?”

She just shrugged. “Sorry, not sorry. You kind of deserve it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. And as I glanced around the table, I knew she’d made more progress than I’d thought possible. Kol looked at her with grudging respect. Orion with something less than hatred. And Waylon? He was sunk.

It was enough to get started.





“All right,” Waylon said, rolling out a map over the kitchen table where dinner had once been. Skylar had offered to show Owen the animals, giving the adults time to talk about what we needed to.

I helped Waylon flatten the edges, using the hot sauce bottles from the earlier battle as weights.

“This map is gorgeous,” Brae said almost reverently, her fingers ghosting over the paper. “It’s like art.”

There was a shift in the air, and I knew where it was coming from.

“Orion made it,” I told her.

He worked in an infinite number of styles and mediums, but he always made something that took your breath away. This map in particular was a blend of watercolor and ink. The watercolors captured mountains, rivers, and forests, while the ink was there for roads, trails, and markers.

Brae looked up and toward my middle brother. “It’s amazing. I can’t believe you did all this.”

She was good with him. Never pushed him to respond but still made him a part of the conversation. The few people Orion was forced to come into contact with outside the family could be weird. Some asked question after question as if they could force him to speak. Others looked at him with pity. Some thought he was stupid. And still more would practically scream at him as if he were hard of hearing.

Brae treated him like everyone else. She didn’t take it easy on him by giving him a hot sauce win he would’ve hated. But she wasn’t pushy either. She just let him be who he needed to be.

Orion’s throat worked as he swallowed, and his hands lifted to sign.

“He says thank you,” I translated.

Brae beamed like she’d won the lotto and gotten a visit from royalty all at the same time. “You’re welcome.” Her gaze dipped to the map, instantly going serious. “This was the trailhead we hiked out of.” Her slender finger dragged along the route. “And this is where I went off the trail. Where Nova disappeared.”

There was a heaviness to her last statement. Guilt.

I couldn’t keep myself from touching her, even though I knew I shouldn’t. I slid a hand over her shoulder and squeezed, feeling the heat of her skin bloom against my palm. Scalding, just like the hellion she was. “It’s not your fault.”

“Maybe, maybe not. The outcome’s the same either way.”

I hated that she carried that weight. Because it was the kind of heaviness that could drown a person.

Kol cleared his throat. “They bring in search and rescue when it happened?”