I squeeze her hand as we push into the trees, making our way down a familiar barely-there path no one would even see if they didn’t know it was here. But I recognize it and know it by heart.
Because I made it with Killian and Connor.
We walked it so many times, we could probably do it blindfolded.
Gizmo trots along beside us, dodging around our feet and disappearing off to the sides to explore everything around us.
A few raindrops hit us, and Lucky flinches, glancing up at the trees arching overhead, toward the darkening sky barely visible between the branches and leaves.
“We’re going to get rained on, Liam.”
I grin at her. “Trust me.”
I’ve said those words so many times to her over the past month, made demands of her that probably weren’t fair, considering everything she had been through.
Trust is earned, and Lucky, of all people, has every reason to never trust anyone again.
But things have changed.
We have changed.
A light rain starts to fall, trickling through the leaves, the sound soft and soothing as I draw to a stop just in time.
Lucky glances around at the thick trees. “Why did we stop here?”
I pull her up against me, pressing my body to hers and feathering a kiss across her lips. “You didn’t think that I would let you get soaked out here, did you?”
Her brow furrows, and I look up.
She follows my line of sight, her eyes widening. “What is that?”
I grin at her. “That is one of the McBride brothers’ secrets. Something I’ve never shown anyone else. Our very first building project.”
LUCKY
If Liam hadn’t pointed it out, I would’ve walked right past it without even noticing it.
The structure blends into the trees the same way his cabin does up on the mountain, the beams and floorboards the same color as the limbs around them, supporting them as if the trunk itself grew specifically for this purpose.
“Is that a treehouse?”
He grins as the rain picks up and starts seeping through the canopy harder. “It is. Come on.”
His hand tightens around mine, and he pulls me to the massive tree where slats of wood appear to be screwed into the trunk to act as a ladder. “You first.”
I stare up at how high it is. At least twenty or thirty feet up. “You…can’t be serious.”
Heights have never scared me, but the thought of climbing up the side of a tree on old pieces of wood that have probably been here for decades makes my stomach drop out.
He nods, kissing my cheek. “I am. I’ll bring Giz.”
Sitting at our feet, Gizmo tilts his head, looking up as if trying to determine what the hell is happening.
I glance over my shoulder at him. “It can’t be safe, Liam…”
“It is.”
“Even after all these years?”
