“Yes, thank God. He knew the route even though I didn’t, apparently. And Dad explained later the tour probably took the same twenty-minute rest stop every time they made the trek, so the animal just followed the usual routine when he refused to budge all that time.”
“You were gone for two whole hours at nine years old?” He traced the pale network of veins on her foot, wondering how a whole family could overlook this vibrant woman.
“That really speaks to how much drama my mother is capable of creating.” Her obvious attempt to brush it aside didn’t come close to making him forget about it, but he sure as hell understood the need to ignore bad memories.
“You don’t deserve to be overlooked. Ever.” He squeezed her foot gently.
“It’s weird, though, because being overlooked is sort of what I strove for my entire childhood. If my mom didn’t notice me, I wouldn’t be the target of her next fury. So in some ways it was a victory that no one noticed I’d gone missing.”
He couldn’t believe that’s how she would rationalize it, although it certainly explained a lot about how independent she was. “Erin.”
She must have heard the concern in his voice because she hurried to interrupt.
“I know. I mean, obviously I realize as an adult that wasn’t cool. Maybe it was one of those ‘be careful what you wish for’ moments.” She took a deep breath. “Anyway, it was a long time ago. I haven’t dreamed about rattlesnakes for years, but I always hated the way I could practically taste the red dust of the desert on my teeth when I woke up afterward.”
She’d only shared it to help him forget about his nightmare. He rubbed her arms and up to her shoulders, kneading away the tension there.
“You let me know if the rattlesnakes come back,” he drawled in her ear to make her smile. “I’ll show them what I used to do to the water moccasins.”
“Ew. I don’t think I want to know, but thanks just the same.”
He slowed his soft massage of her shoulders. Skimmed a touch over her cheek.
“Thankyou, Erin.”
Her cheeks flushed a little, this beautiful woman who wasn’t used to anyone paying enough attention to her. If he didn’t come with so much damn baggage attached, he would have liked to be the man who showed her how captivating he found her.
“Should we go try the quiche?” she asked, quite possibly looking to distract him from focusing on her.
His stomach growled in an answer too obvious to ignore.
“I’m taking that as a yes.” She darted from the bed, flipping some lights on in the house as she left the room.
Remy took his time finding his shorts and shirt. He was fairly level despite having the nightmare again. He’d thought he’d gotten a handle on them. But maybe beingwith Erin—getting involved with someone—was churning up the old feelings he’d tried to put a lid on.
He stepped into her bathroom to splash cold water on his face and pull himself together. A grief counselor had once warned him that two steps forward could also mean one step back as he tried to put the past behind him. Were the nightmares his step back?
Erin had woken him up this time—before things had turned really bad. He’d have to make sure he didn’t fall asleep around her again.
“That looks amazing.” Sarah admired Ally’s deft skill with a toothpick as she steered the butterfly sticker into the center of her pinky nail.
“I love watching the manicurist work at the salon. She’s so creative with nail designs. I can’t make the cool free-hand art she does, but I can do stickers. They just take patience.” Ally sat cross-legged on a bright turquoise futon in one corner of her massive bedroom.
Her family owned a construction business, so her parents let her customize her room with a reading loft and a mini-fridge built into one wall. There was a curtain of feathers around the loft so you could read in privacy, and Sarah thought it was the prettiest thing ever. In the corner by the futon, Ally had a chest that turned into a game table and that’s where all her nail art stuff sat. They’d been listening to a local band’s new music on Ally’s laptop. The computer was attached to a huge flat-screen TV that played the music videos on the wall next to them.
“Well, your artistic side shows in the room,” Sarah announced. “Have I mentioned that it’s totally sick?”
“Thanks.” Ally laid a new design on the next nail. “I didn’t get into it until recently, but my house has been kind of crazy this year while my parents go through—I don’t know—like ‘how to be married’ classes. When I complained about the arguments, my mother said I should make my room asanctuary.”
“You really did, too.” Sarah’s gaze went to the birds and owls painted close to the ceiling like a border. “I think the little owls are my favorite up there.”
“Yeah?” Ally stopped painting on the top coat for a minute to look up at them. “That’s funny you say that because I did the owls and Aunt Erin did all the birds. Actually, the border was her idea because she said the feathers around the loft would look good if we made it a theme.”
“I had a dream room once.” Sarah didn’t think about it. She just said it. Maybe because she’d talked about the past a few times today—at the cop station and again at Erin’s house—and it hadn’t been bad. The moments at Erin’s had actually been pretty good because she’d shared some of the happy stuff.
“Did you move or something?” Ally went back to putting another butterfly on the next nail. Each nail was a different color with a contrasting set of wings.
“Yes.” She had hated that move. “My dad was in a hurry to leave the house where my mom died so he had our stuff from Louisiana packed and shipped to the new place in Florida. It was weird. The last time I walked out of that house I didn’t even realize it would be the last time I was in it.”
