She made a wry noise and elbowed him gently.
“As I was saying…” She pointed up at the sky. “Planes would fly by and I’d point at ’em before I could even talk. I’d look at the women, all excited, eyes wide, like,Hey! D’you see that? See!?They’d nod.Okay, Leo. As soon as the plane disappeared, I’d give them the baby sign for more.” She tapped the gathered tips of her fingers together like two beaks pecking. “More! More!”
He laughed, the feeling lazy and warm in his gut, so easy he almost didn’t notice how rare it was. “You were addicted to planes even then.”
She nodded. “Yeah. Always wanted to fly.” Another sigh and she laid her head on his shoulder. He didn’t dare move. “After Mom…died, Dad was convinced I’d be an opera singer, like her.”
“Wait, what?” he asked, careful not to dislodge her. “Your mom was a singer?”
“Yeah. Pretty well-known too.”
The weight of her loss settled on him with devastating familiarity. “I’m sorry, Leo.”
He reached for her hand, landed on her slick, naked thigh instead, and moved away. A second later, she delved into the water and found him, threaded her fingers through his in that way that felt perfect, and let him hold her—or held him. He couldn’t tell. Wasn’t sure he even cared.
That was the way with her, wasn’t it? Sharing, trusting.
“What about you?” She shifted closer, pressed their sides together.
His first attemptedWhat?didn’t clear his vocal cords, so he tried again. “What about me what?”
“Did you know who you were? What you were? When you were a kid.”
A fugitive from the law? An accused murderer? A recluse roughing it solo in the wild? He didn’t say the words. It wasn’t what she’d meant and he refused to drag the moment down. Instead, he considered, long and hard.
“I wasn’t anything special. You know, my dad worked for the oil company and Mom stayed home with me. I didn’t go to school till I was in first grade, I think. Childhood was just this. Being outside.”
Her little noise of acknowledgment wasn’t quite a laugh, but it was close.
“Right? Got recruited to play ball in high school, ’cause I was big and fast. In shape from…justbeing, I guess.” He wrinkled his brow in thought. “Dependable? Is that too boring? Is that sad? Even as a kid, I was big and dependable.”
“You’re not boring.” Her sniff made him think she was crying, but it was impossible to tell with the rain in the mix. And what was there to cry about anyway? “You’re so fucking beautiful, Elias.”
In the next split second, he was on her, tasting her, drinking up her… Damn, this couldn’t be love, could it? Already? It felt like it, though. It felt warm and real and urgent in a way he couldn’t ignore. Didn’t freaking want to.
He gripped her waist with one hand and cupped her far hip with the other, pulled her onto his lap, and used every bit of willpower to keep himself from sliding right inside this body that had, in such a short time, become the absolute center of his existence.
Though he wanted that. More than anything right now. More than life, probably, and that was big coming from a guy who had nothing to his name but a brain and a beating heart.
***
“Okay, Jack,” Amka muttered to herself. “You better be ready, boy-o.”
She pulled a helmet over her head and squinted through the dark plastic as dogs barked everywhere, so loud and hungry that you’d think there were fifty of ’em instead of the couple dozen she’d released from the kennels. She couldn’t help a little chuckle at that. Poor dogs. Those bastards better not hurt a hair on the dogs’ hides.
She wouldn’t give them the chance to anyway.
“Here I come, Daisy,” she muttered under her breath as she turned the key and revved the engine. “Coming to get you, baby.” She exhaled. “Sorry about the window.” A laugh escaped her, half-hysterical.
“Sorry, Ben.” Though it was about time he replaced this piece of shit truck.
With that, she took her foot off the brake and let the old Explorer roll down the hill toward the lodge.
She took another slow, deep breath in and let it out. Nope. Not gonna be nervous about this. Not gonna let it scare her. If this was it, this was it. Hell, she’d always liked the idea of going out in a blaze of glory.
One of the dogs howled, then more joined in and it turned into a frenzy. She accelerated.
Too bad Daisy wasn’t here beside her. It’d be one hell of a Thelma and Louise moment. Except in their story, they’d survive and raise hell together for the rest of their days.
