“Then there’s Jace,” Josh adds proudly, his chest puffing.“Looks just like me, but he’s ridin’bulls for a livin’. On tour right now.”
“And last but not least,” Lily gestures to a girl at the table,“our Grace.”
Grace glances up from her phone, rolling her eyes but smiling with her mother’s warmth. Beautiful already, with soft light-brown hair and her father’s striking green eyes.
“And this here’s Asher,” Ethan says, gesturing to another man leaning casually against the wall. Tall, dark blond hair falling across amber eyes, cowboy to his bones.“He ain’t blood, but he might as well be.”
“Good to meet you,” Asher says, tipping his chin my way.
I murmur a nervous hello, cheeks burning under so many sets of eyes. I know they see the bruises, the swelling around my eye, the split in my lip. Their gazes linger just a second too long. But no one asks. No one pushes. Instead, they smile, nod, and make room for me at their table like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
Lily waves me toward an empty chair. My heart beats faster as I slide into it, the scrape of wood on wood echoing louder than it should. The smell of pork chops and mashed potatoes drifts up, rich and buttery, and my stomach twists with both hunger and nerves.
Josh takes the head of the table, green eyes twinkling as he leads everyone in prayer. His voice rumbles low and warm, steady as the land outside, and for the first time in a long time I close my eyes without fear.
When I open them, I feel it. Cas’s gaze, unwavering and intent, pinned on me from across the table. He doesn’t look away when I catch him staring. Instead, one corner of his mouth curves, like he knows exactly what he’s doing to my insides.
Heat flares in my cheeks, and I drop my eyes to my plate. My fork trembles slightly in my hand as laughter ripples around the table, the Hawthornes teasing and joking, passing dishes with the ease only family can have.
I should feel out of place here. I should feel like an intruder. And yet, with every smile tossed my way, every helping spooned onto my plate without me asking, every soft“you’re welcome, darlin’” in Josh’s accent, something inside me loosens.
But it’s Cas who undoes me most. His quiet, unwavering attention. Like he’s making sure I don’t disappear in all this noise. Like he sees me.
And Lord help me, why do I feel warm when he’s looking?
CHAPTER 4
Casper
Penny sits across from me, shoulders tight, fork trembling just enough that only someone really paying attention would notice. And I am paying attention.
She tries to hide it behind polite smiles and those downcast lashes, but I catch everything.
“Pass the potatoes, son,” Dad says, pulling me back into the room. I hand him the dish automatically, my gaze never leaving Penny.
She startles when Mom piles her plate high, like she’s not used to someone serving her before she can protest. The way she murmurs“thank you,” all small and wary, makes my jaw go tight. It’s like she’s bracing for correction. Lord. It makes me want to drive straight back to Illinois and teach a man some manners with my fists.
But I clamp down on that, keep my voice even. The last thing she needs is another man’s temper.Lord, give me patience.
So I do the work that doesn’t need shouting. I watch. Quiet. Steady. I let my presence be the unspoken sentence: you are safe here. Under my roof, nobody will lay another hand on you.
When her eyes finally flick up and meet mine, I don’t look away. Can’t. Those whiskey-colored eyes are wide, wary, but there’s a flash in them, a little spark of fight, that almost knocks the wind out of me.
She flushes, drops her gaze to her plate, but not before I catch the hitch in her breath. She feels it too. The pull.
“Grace, eat your green beans before they get cold,” Mom scolds, light and easy. Laughter ripples around the table.
Conversation hums, Ethan winding into a story, Jude and Dad bickering about the game, silverware chiming against plates, and the smell of pork chops fills the air. Through it all I keep stealing looks at her, watching the way her shoulders unclench like knots loosening one by one. She takes a bite. She breathes. For the first time since I found her, she seems to let herself be.
She doesn’t know it yet. But she belongs here.
And hell if I don’t already want to make sure she never has to run again.
???
Penelope
After dinner, Lily and Cas accompany me to my new room.
