She turned it over once, then again. “Hexafoil.”
“You know it?”
“My grandma—out in North Carolina—she had one carved into the lintel above her back door,” she said, voice dipping into memory. “Didn’t know what it meant at the time, but she always said it kept the rot out. Called it ‘ancient protection.’”
“Hazel believed that too,” I murmured. “She scratched ‘em into everything.”
June looked at me, and her smile faded.
“You’re scared I’ll get hurt again,” she said. Not a question.
“If you’re stickin’ around,” I replied, “you should know I’m always scared.”
June laughed under her breath. “I”m starting to get that about you.”
“And it hasn’t made you want to hightail it outta here?”
She looked up at me. “I don’t scare easy.”
I didn’t look away from her—I didn’t want to, when I could have looked at her for years and never gotten sick of her. Instead, I stepped just an inch or so closer, my fingers twitching with the urge to touch her.
“You seemed so damn steady when we first met,” I said.
“I am,” she said.
“But it made me think you had nothin’ in your past that ached like I did,” I said. “Made me think…two different worlds, no common ground. But you sussed me out the second you laid eyes on me, didn’t you?”
“No,” she said. “I was curious about you. Thought you were a man who’d been hollowed out by grief, and still showed up anyway.”
I didn’t say anything—had no idea where to start.
June held out the charm. “Will you put it on me?”
I nodded, speechless, and June gathered her hair in one hand to pull it over her shoulder as she turned. It bared the skin of her neck…the freckles that dusted her shoulders, the silver chain of her cross necklace.
My hands didn’t shake, but they sure as hell wanted to.
I stepped closer and gently looped the leather cord around her neck, the charm smooth against my fingertips. The knot was simple—secure but easy to undo if she ever wanted to take it off.
I hoped she wouldn’t.
When I finished, I let my hands linger for a moment, just barely brushing the sides of her throat.
“You know when I said pump the brakes…I didn’t mean get out of the car,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.
I kept my hands on her shoulders as she turned around,unable to pull away now that I was touching her. She didn’t seem to mind; she stayed close, gazing up at me.
“I was…” she paused. “I really wanted you to fuck me the other night.”
The words were so forward they took the breath out me. “June?—”
“But I don’t think that’s for us, huh? I don’t mean sex, just…well, going fast. I don’t think you’re the type of man that does anything fast, are you?” She reached up to run her fingers over the charm, the smooth wood. “No…you’re the type to take the time. To sculpt and treat things with care. You grieved a long, long time, Silas.”
Damn if she didn’t have the power to find all the places that I hadn’t realized still hurt.
“You’re right,” I said, voice rough. “I did grieve a long time. Too long. Got used to thinkin’ I was supposed to be alone. That if I wanted somethin’ again…the world would punish me for it.”
Her hand found mine. “You know this isn’t a punishment, right?”
