Into the Fading Twilight (Starlight Grove, #2) (97)

Nova tugged on the corner of my shirt, moving us toward the makeshift granola bowl stand and away from Sky’s keen ears. She’d picked up the book her class was reading, thoroughly enthralled in that and her granola sundae.

I studied Nova’s face, her body. She twisted the corner of the flannel she wore between her fingers. “I called Aster this morning.”

I waited for more.

Nova let out a breath that trembled as she exhaled—not fear exactly but nerves with an edge. “She’s going to help me find a therapist. One I feel safe with. I need … I can’t keep pushing all of this down. It’s tearing me apart from the inside.”

Relief washed through me, but something else was hot on its heels. Pride. My knuckles skimmed across Nova’s cheek before I tangled my fingers in her hair. “That’s my girl. So goddamn brave.”

“Hold that praise until I actually make it to the office.”

One corner of my mouth kicked up. “You’ll make it.”

She nodded, inhaling deeply. “I will. I’ll make it. I’m going to head over to Aster’s ranch this morning to talk to her. She had an idea about a type of therapy I might like, and she said she wanted to show me.”

“I’m really glad you have her.”

“Me, too,” Nova whispered. “Thanks for walking with me through the darkness. For being the light when I need it.”

My fingers twisted in her hair. “You’re the same for me. And I think that’s what it’s all about. Being the light for each other when we’ve lost it. Life will never be perfect, but we can be here to remind each other that it’s still beautiful.”

Nova’s eyes glistened. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I rasped. The words came so easily. The only one it had come easily with before Nova was Skylar. Even with my brothers and Waylon, it was a struggle to get them out. But with Nova? It was as easy as breathing.

“Are you guys going to kiss now?”

At the sound of Skylar’s voice, Nova and I startled apart, as if we were two teenagers caught making out.

Shit. Apparently, she had been paying more attention than I thought. Sky had never seen me with a woman in a romantic situation before. Hell, it was only since Dex started helping Brae that she’d seen me with any women at all. And I wasn’t sure how she’d react to the possibility of a woman entering my life as more than a friend.

I turned, studying my daughter. “What did you say?”

She looked supremely annoyed. “The prince is supposed to kiss the princess now, Daddy. I thought you paid better attention during movie night.”

I practically gaped at my adorable daughter. It seemed she had no issue with someone becoming more than a friend to me. She was just annoyed at how slowly I was taking it.

Nova let out a soft snicker. “Yeah, Boss. I thought you paid better attention.”

I sent the love of my goddamned life a scowl and crossed the distance to her in one long stride. I slid one arm around her waist while my other hand went to the back of her head to dip her. My mouth met Nova’s as I tried to prove a point, but the second I tasted her, I lost all sense.

Mint from her toothpaste still clung to her, but there was something else. Something undeniably Nova. And I drank it in.

Skylar let out a hoot and a cheer as she danced around us.

When I straightened, I met Nova’s dazed look. “How’s that for paying attention?”

Nova sent me a slightly drunk smile. “A for effort, Boss.”





Skylar’s chattering had slowed as we got closer to school. I knew my kid, and I knew she was puzzling through something in her mind. Sometimes, the topics were heavy, like her mom. Other times, it was as simple as wondering why goats liked to headbutt each other. I always just waited.

I never wanted to rush Sky the way my father had rushed me when I was growing up. Even in the time before we found out the kind of monster he was, he was always busy, in a hurry. Important business meetings for his import/export business, calls, and things that didn’t involve listening to us kids. But maybe what he was really doing was hurrying off to kill another woman with brown hair and green eyes.

“Daddy?”

“Yeah, Little Princess?” I asked, my gaze flicking to her through the rearview mirror as I turned on my blinker.

“Are you and Supernova boyfriend and girlfriend?”

My gut tightened. “I guess that’s what you’d call it.”

Just her asking had uncertainty filling me. Not about Nova and me—that felt rock-solid. But about the need to hide what we were. I couldn’t ask Sky to do that. And I shouldn’t have been asking Nova either.

I closed my eyes for the barest of seconds as I pulled to a stop in the drop-off line. Another time for me to cede control. Another stretch of what I could handle. I needed to hand off Travis’s case to someone else.

Because knowing that I would handle it the best wasn’t enough for me to make my family keep secrets. And it didn’t mean I’d stop working it. Not really. Not when my brothers and I could keep investigating from the shadows.

Skylar’s legs bounced against her booster seat. “What happens if you guys get married?”

A zing of energy zapped through me. Apprehension, nerves, fear, and … want. I wanted that. I never thought it would be in the cards for me, but I wanted Nova to be a part of our family in every way.