Evie hugged her, laying her cheek on the girl's head and sparing me an amused glance. "I know. I'm sorry."
"You get that from me," Nan said, joining us in the doorway. A breeze sprinkled our backs with light rain, so I herded us all inside Nan's small cottage kitchen. It smelled like cinnamon rolls and rosemary, and the rain pattered intermittently against the diamond pane windows in a soothing cadence. Something inside me settled, a boiling pot brought to a comfortable simmer. The word "hearth" came to mind; warmth and safety and belonging.
Nan gave me a silent look of gratitude over Tessa's head. "You weren't too long, then."
"He charged in and rescued me," Evie said with a slight laugh in her voice. "It was very heroic."
Tessa pulled away and gave me a disgusted grimace. "Gross."
I stuck out my tongue, and she returned the favor. And then I noticed the figure leaning casually against the back door, watching us with folded arms. Ghost was still here, silent as a shadow but observing with interest. I waved. He stared. "What happened with the PD?" he asked a moment later.
Evie plucked at the hem of her sweater. "They were asking me questions, but I think… I might have misunderstood them. I thought they assumed I was involved in the car theft."
Ghost's hard features tightened with incredulity. "They didn't alert you to their suspicions about the safety of three women alone on a property and covered in bruises?"
Evie rubbed her lips together, thinking. "Uh, not… overtly."
"Evelyn has a past with being questioned," I supplied. "She wasn't viewing the encounter through a clear lens. They let her go when we informed them that she was safe and wished to leave."
"They'll be back with more questions," Ghost warned us calmly.
I hooked an arm around Evelyn's waist, tethering her to me. "I'll be here. It won't be a problem."
Evelyn hinged a quietly surprised look my way. Nan grinned. Tessa rolled her eyes. Ghost straightened away from the wall, his inscrutable expression only marginally softer than it had been a second ago. "I would mock you for that, but…"
"You saved a girl once, and then you married her, and she had your babies?" I guessed.
"Yeah, that." Ghost checked a smartwatch on his wrist. "On our end, we got lucky. One of your assailants was an actual player. He's singing pretty songs in the back of my van, and we'll have the game shut down within the day. You shouldn't be in any more danger, but I'll keep you updated."
"That was fast," Evie said with a touch of disbelief.
I didn't blame her for distrusting her own safety—on all fronts. Her parents had left her when she'd been impressionably young, and although she bore the scars with poise, I knew she was reluctant to attach herself to others, to trust that they would still be around in the future. And then she'd become the target of this cruel game, and time after time, she'd been attacked in places where she should have been safe. It would take time for her to heal and feel secure again.
And there was a determined light inside of me, a coal in that welcome hearth I'd found here, that burned for her. It compelled me to give her that security again. To rekindle her own hearth space and help her find comfort in her home once again. I wasn't sure I was exactly qualified for the job—hell, she certainly deserved better. But I couldn't ignore that burning need in the center of my chest.
I rubbed her back in small circles as Ghost nodded and tapped something into his watch. "Your safety was at risk. I wasn't going to fuck around with it. We have all the perpetrators in custody, and you'll retain your security measures until we're sure the threat is eliminated." He glanced up at us, his icy eyes almost white in the gray lighting. "But please believe me when I say I wouldn't tell you that you're safe when you're not."
"I'm sure that's true," Evie said, but her hands went back to playing with her sweater nervously.
"I'll get out of your way, but if you need me, I'm the first contact in your phones under the contact ‘One.’” Ghost went to the back door, and I frowned, trying to remember if I'd ever given him permission to put his contact information in my phone. But then he was gone, and I realized I definitely hadn't given him access to my personal device. And he probably hadn't needed it.
As he left, Nan seemed to slap on a bracing smile. "Well. That's more than enough excitement for me for one day. Should we eat cinnamon rolls and play Bullshit?"
If anything, I wanted to eat cinnamon rolls off Evelyn's body and play an entirely different kind of game. But Evie put a hand to her stomach and let out a relieved, "Yes, please."
Tessa marched over to one of the mismatched chairs, one that had been upholstered in faded gold, and she plunked herself down cross-legged. She gave me a critical, squinty eye. "I bet your poker face is bad."
"Oh, it's terrible," I lied, sitting down as well. "You'll wipe the floor with me."
Tessa grinned, already overconfident, and Evie caught the amused twinkle in my eyes. She smothered a smile and set a plate down on the table in front of me. Leaning down, so her alyssum-scented hair curtained behind me, she whispered, "Stop teasing."
I held her gaze as she straightened. "Never," I mouthed.
We turned off the A/C and opened the windows, letting the rain fill Evie's house with petrichor and blissfully cool air. She puttered around her kitchen for a while, cleaning the few dishes she'd used that day and watering her plants. I sat at the table with my laptop open, staring down an email that felt as reckless as it was final. And yet, it felt right. I couldn't remember a time in my life when a decision had been more obvious, more freeing. Not even when I'd joined the residency program after being discharged. That had been fraught with fears and tension—I'd been running away from my nightmares.
This, I was runningtosomething. Or someone. I glanced up from my computer screen to where Evie was whispering to a rhododendron, encouraging it to flower. A smile tugged at my lips, and I tapped the send button. She would probably run for the hills when she saw it, but it was a risk I was willing to take. For once, I knew where I wanted to be and I knew, without a doubt, that it would bring me joy. If she would let me.
Evie glanced at me, pulling her hair over one shoulder and setting down her watering can. "Is it Wells?"
