I smiled, no teeth. “We already started it. Just making it official.”
She grunted, unimpressed, and wiped her hands on a towel. “Town’s gonna eat itself alive over this.”
“Good,” I said. “They could use the protein.”
Rosie snorted, then turned to Newt. “You doing okay, hon?”
He nodded, tried to smile. “Yeah. Thank you.”
“Just coffee,” she said, but the softness in her voice was real.
When she left, I leaned in, close enough that my stubble rasped against his ear. “You did good today.”
He shivered, a full-body quiver I could feel all the way down to my bones. “You think it matters?”
I squeezed his hand, tight. “It matters to me.”
He looked at me then—really looked. Blue eyes, wide and clear, searching for the catch. When he didn’t find one, he smiled, shy and real. “Thank you,” he said, barely above a whisper.
The simple obedience, the way he let himself be seen, made something in me snap. I was hard, already, and he must’ve felt it because he went even redder.
“Later,” I said, voice low. “When we’re alone, I’ll show you how proud I am.”
He swallowed. “Promise?”
“Scout’s honor.”
He laughed—soft, shaky, but genuine.
I finished my coffee in three gulps, never taking my eyes off him. When we left the stand, I put my hand at his waist, fingers spread wide, and guided him through the last of the crowd like I was leading a parade.
People stared. They always would. But no one dared say a word. Not with me there. Not with the brothers watching. Not with Newt smiling like he’d finally won something worth keeping.
I turned to Newt. “You want to run, you run, but I’d rather you stayed.”
He looked at the brothers, then at me, and smiled, slow and bright. “I’ll stay.”
“Good,” I said, and leaned down and kissed him. Not a peck, not a tease—just a promise, sealed and public. When I pulled away, he was grinning, eyes bright and a little wild.
Right there, in front of everyone.
The brothers cheered. The town gawked. And somewhere in the distance, I hoped James Bridger was choking on his own bile.
Newt tasted like cinnamon and adrenaline. I pulled him in close, holding him there, letting the message echo through every alley and every gossip’s tongue in town: He’s with me. Come for him again, and see what happens.
“Let them talk,” I said.
He nodded. “Let them.”
I got in the truck with Newt tucked close to my side, started the engine, and floored it out of the lot. Tomorrow, the world would still be watching, but tonight, he was mine.
And I was going to make damn sure he remembered it.
Chapter Fourteen
~ Newton ~
You ever have one of those mornings where your body wakes up before your brain, and by the time your consciousness catches up, the world has already rotated several degrees off its axis?
