epilogue
SILAS
Iblew out my breath. “Wish me luck?”
Clementine scoffed. “Baby, you don’t need luck.” She leaned over, slid her hand up into the back of my hair and pecked me on the mouth. “You’ve got me.”
I grinned against her lips. Nine days since the night she’d thankfully stumbled upon me in the gym and we were still riding the new-couple high. I hoped we never came down.
Her thumb traced along my jaw. “And if you don’t get the job, we still have a house, a farm, a small herd of cows, and a new gym that’s almost open. So, no stressing.”
She was absolutely right. My worst-case scenario was better than a lot of people’s best. I laughed and inhaled her flowery scent. Oh, I shouldn’t have done that right before I walked into the closed Seddledowne School Board meeting. Being near her like this made my brain fuzzy, and I needed to be able to answer whatever questions they threw my way. Smart Silas would’ve pulled back.
But Love-drunk Silas let my hand run along her spine and nuzzled her neck. “What about food?”
“Eh. Who needs groceries when you’re living on love?”
“True.” I pressed my lips against hers. “Still, it might be nice to have some rice and beans occasionally.”
She ran her tongue across my bottom lip, melting me, making me even less clear-headed. “Momma has a five-gallon bucket of twenty-year-old instant potatoes in the attic. I’ll sneak it out next time I’m up there. Probably feed us for two months.”
I fought back a laugh and gave her one more kiss. “Sounds delicious.”
Someone pounded on the window, and I jumped, bumping Clem’s teeth. I whirled, ready to cuss. But it was Anna, standing next to Brooklyn, both grinning, their backpacks over their shoulders.
I wound the window down, biting back all the comments I wanted to make about how Anna had on too much makeup and her shirt was too tight. She didn’t, and it wasn’t. I just didn’t like that my niece, who I’d helped raise from infancy, looked like she could own any boy in this school with one toss of her dark hair. Did not like it one bit.
“Told you they’re adorable,” she said to Brooklyn.
I beamed. “Yeah. We are.” My eyes danced to Clementine. “Some of us more than others.”
She shook her head, blushing.
I looked back at Anna. It felt wrong that she wasn’t living with us and we only saw her here and there. Clem and I kept finding reasons to go help at the ranch, just to get a few minutes with her. We’d taken her out for ice cream when she and Brooklyn made the JV volleyball team a week and a half ago. But every time we dropped her at my parents’ and returned to Firefly Fields, it felt like someone was missing. The two of us were happy together. Ridiculously. But without Anna, we were incomplete.
My throat closed up, and I cleared it. Then I tugged at the collar of my dress shirt. “Aren’t you two supposed to be inclass?” They weren’t. We’d heard the class-change bell ring a few minutes ago. I was just giving them a hard time.
Clem leaned across my lap. I rested my hand on her waist, still not used to the fact that I could do that now. Whenever I wanted. “How’s your first day of high school?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Any cute boys?”
Anna stepped closer, gripping the open window ledge, her eyes gigantic. “Lemon,” her voice was barely a whisper, as if my truck might be bugged and her words might be broadcast over the loudspeaker to the entire school. “Blue Bishop is in my second period class. And he is hot.” The t was more of a tuh.
I snorted. “Somebody named their kid Blue?”
Clem pursed her lips at me, but she was hiding a smile. She put a hand over Anna’s. “Spill the tea.”
Anna bounced on her tiptoes. “He’s the JV quarterback. Tenth grader. Light brown hair, like five eleven. But it’s the dimples for me.” She fanned her face and her chest shook with a fake cry. “And when he looks at you, it’s like he knows something about you that nobody else does.”
Brooklyn’s head bobbed. “The boy is a delicious snack.”
Anna closed her eyes and exhaled. “No. He is the entire meal. And a piece of warm, gooey chocolate cake for dessert.”
“Drippin’ the rizz.” Brooklyn nodded.
Anna’s eyes sparkled. “It’s sending me.” Her hand cut through the air like a paper airplane plummeting over a cliff.
I gaped at them. Horrified.
Clem laughed so hard at my expression that it shook my ribcage. Which made me smile. If she was smiling, I was smiling. Even if these two teenagers were discussing a boy like he was food at a cheap buffet.
