“Oh, really?” Axel’s eyebrows waggled. “You two had dinner? Like a date dinner? With candles and everything?”
“We had food. At a table. With utensils,” Ryker deadpanned. “Try not to strain yourself imagining it.”
“Tell me there were cloth napkins. That’s how you know it’s serious.”
“Axel,” Ryker said slowly, “I’m going to count to three.”
“Ooh, scary. What happens at three?”
“Guys,” Dakota interrupted, smiling, “can we save the banter for after we get inside? It’s cold out here.”
Twenty minutes later, we’d assembled in my tiny backyard around the worn bonfire pit the previous tenant had left behind. Was itprobably a fire hazard? Yep. But did it still burn the twigs we’d gathered from around the yard and the leftover firewood we’d found? Also yep.
The air carried a sharp bite, and smoke from our makeshift fire curled up toward a sky pricked with early stars. In the distance, the amber glow of the state penitentiary’s security lights painted the horizon with a constant, ominous reminder that sat like a stone in my stomach.
“Here.” Dakota offered me a thick blanket. “You look like you’re shivering.”
“Thank you.” I smiled, pulling the softness around my shoulders.
When Dakota sat back down, Axel immediately moved behind her chair, strong hands working at the tension in her shoulders. The casual intimacy made something twist inside me. Not jealousy exactly, but longing. Would I ever have that? That easy comfort with someone?
“So,” Scarlett said, settling into her chair with the grace of someone who’d never met an awkward moment, “are we going to talk about the sexual tension that could be cut with a butter knife, or are we all pretending we didn’t just witness that almost kiss?”
“There was no almost kiss,” Ryker said firmly.
“Right. And I wake up like this,” Dakota shot back.
“Can we please talk about literally anything else?” I begged.
“Sure,” Axel said cheerfully. “Let’s talk about how Ryker checked his watch seventeen times in the last five minutes. That’s a new record, even for Mr. Type A.”
“I have not.” Ryker’s face tightened.
“Twelve,” Jace corrected mildly. “But who’s counting?”
“Apparently everyone,” Ryker muttered, and even I had to smile at that.
Their laughter mixed with the snap and hiss of the fire. Normal. Easy. The kind of night that should’ve felt like a gift.
My gaze drifted past the flames to the penitentiary’s distant glow on the horizon. Dakota’s brother, Knox, had spent over adecade behind bars for murder. How many times had Knox stared at these same stars through concrete and razor wire? Missing everything.
Would that be me soon? The missing piece at these gatherings?
“You okay?” Dakota’s voice cut through my spiral.
I blinked, finding her watching me with that careful look. The one that said she knew exactly where my thoughts had gone.
“What’s it like?” I wondered. “For Knox in there?”
The fire crackled into the silence that followed.
Dakota’s eyes flicked to Ryker.
“Don’t.” His voice was steel. “You’re not going to prison.”
“You can’t promise that,” I said.
“I can, and I am,” Ryker declared.
