I was moving so fast toward the bedroom that I nearly collided with my mate as she stepped out of the bathroom. Stumbling back a step, I reached for her arms to steady us both.
She was wearing nothing but a towel, her hair pulled up in a knot at the top of her head. Little droplets of water beaded on the tops of her shoulders. I was mesmerized as one of them rolled down over her collarbone and got lost in the towel.
“Oh, you’re back,” she said. “How’d it go?”
It wasn’t what she’d said, and it wasn’t even how she’d said it…but something wasn’t right. I looked up to meet her gaze, but I couldn’t find anything there. She didn’t look pissed. She didn’t really have any expression at all.
“It went well,” I replied, following her as she turned away and walked to her room. “My mother was sleeping, but my father said she’s healing well.”
“And your sister-in-law?” Rosemary asked, her back to me as she started pulling out dresser drawers.
“They’re both doing well.”
“That’s good news.”
I opened and closed my mouth a few times, trying to think of something to say. There wasn’t any tension in the room. She hadn’t come out swinging when she’d realized I was back. On the surface, everything appeared fine. But something was off. There was a stiltedness to our conversation that hadn’t been there before, not from the moment we’d met.
“I think Uncle Dalton wants to bring you in on what he’s been doing,” Rosemary said as she pulled a sports bra over her head, still keeping the towel in place. “They’ve been waiting for you to get back.”
“He’s pulled Halle into it too?” I joked sarcastically, knowing the answer before I’d even voiced it.
“She came to see me,” Rosemary replied. She pulled on a pair of underwear, still hiding beneath the towel. When they were on, she finally let it go, and I was treated to the sight of her nearly bare back and thighs. I barely kept myself from moving toward her as she tugged a tank top over her head.
“The boys were curious, so they tagged along. She said normally she would’ve given us some time, but since we were staying with Pop anyway, she figured that they probably wouldn’t walk in on something they didn’t want to see.” There was no joke in her comment, no lightness in her voice.
“It’s a good thing they didn’t show up when we were in the barn earlier,” I teased as she pulled on a pair of brown canvas overalls. She turned back around as she pulled the straps over her shoulders.
She let out a huff of air. “Yeah, good thing.”
“I told you I’d be back in a few hours,” I reminded her, moving closer.
“You did,” she confirmed with a small nod. She reached out to pat me on the chest before moving around me.
“Hey, where you going?” I asked, turning to catch her.
She paused before the door as I wrapped my arms around her waist and bent my head to kiss the back of her neck.
She had a tattoo there that I hadn’t noticed before. Pulling back a little, I studied it. One small circle about six millimeters in diameter and three dots the size of the end of a ballpoint pen lined up beneath it. I traced it lightly with my tongue, making her shiver.
“It’s me and the boys,” she said softly. “Ian has the same one, but his circle is the second one, because he’s the second oldest. When Grant and Seamus are old enough, they’ll get theirs.”
“They’re more like brothers than cousins,” I replied in understanding.
“Yes.” She stayed in my arms a moment longer before pulling away. “I tried to get Ian to make his circle the head of a sunflower, but he wouldn’t do it.”
“Why a sunflower?” I asked as she pulled open the door and started back out of the room.
“You’ve seen him,” she said easily. “When he was little, he was shaped the same way—all skinny arms and legs, but his head was huge.”
“It was not,” Ian yelled from the kitchen.
“It was,” Rosemary confirmed. “But thankfully, he eventually grew into it.”
“You were perfect,” Halle consoled her son as we entered the room, her voice shaking with suppressed laughter. “Your head was just the right size.”
“Yeah, like a bowling ball,” Rosemary added.
“It’s all right, Ian,” the youngest boy said with a grin. “Not all of us can be perfect from birth.”
