Stepping onto the porch just after Emberly knocked on the door, I met Mallory’s blue stare. The desperate plea still lingered there, even as her defenses slowly slid into place, preparing for whatever she’d be met with inside.
Or maybe it was just me.
As I had so many times throughout the years, I instinctively reached for her. Only this time, I didn’t stop myself the second I realized what I was doing. This time, I let my fingertips trail against her palm and felt my pulse go wild when she stiffened but didn’t rip her hand away.
And her quick, nearly inaudible inhale that filled my world the second my skin touched hers?
I was sure I’d never forget that sound.
Every one of those earlier defenses fell away as if they’d never been there at all, and her eyes widened with something undefinable when my fingers curled around the tips of hers. But then, as if the moment had never happened, Mallory shifted her hand away and looked toward the door just as it opened to someone already talking.
“...knocking instead of just coming—” Hunter’s wife cut off mid-sentence, her face lighting up with the excitement she always showed for everyone and everything when she noticed us standing there. “Hi, friends! You know you can just come in; you don’t have to knock. Oh!” she quickly went on in that adorable rambling way of hers. “Great timing, actually. Can you take my that?”
A huff of a laugh wrenched from my suddenly strained lungs when Madison held out her baby girl for me to take. “Yourthat?” I teased, since she had a habit of calling everything herthisandthat.
Madison playfully glared at me. “I need extra hands right now. Mostly because there’s about twenty million kids in this house and—” Her eyes widened and mouth formed a largeOwhen she stepped back to let us in, only then noticing Mallory. “Oh, I’m so—” An excited gasp left her as she reached forward to place her hand on Mallory’s arm, not seeming to notice or care when Mallory flinched at the casual contact. “Are you Mallory? Is this Mallory?” The second question was directed at a smirking Emberly before Madison’s attention snapped back to Mallory. “Oh my word, I’ve heardsomuch about you.”
I gave her infant daughter an exaggerated look, making her smile, even as I reproachfully said, “Rude to assume, Madison. What if she was someone else?”
Madison just huffed and gave me another playful glare. “Like you’d bring anyone else here,” she said before focusing on Mallory again, “I can’t believe I’m, like, the last person to meet you!”
“Not the last one,” Emberly corrected from where she stood at my other side, music still playing, earning a triumphant look from Madison.
“I’m sorry, does that mean I’m right? Thisisthe renowned Mallory?”
I kept my stare firmly on the baby in my arms so I wouldn’t search out and try to analyze Mallory’s expression from this short conversation as I said, “Sheis right there and can answer that for you.”
“Y’all haven’t given her a chance to say anything,” Madison shot back.
I gave my cousin’s wife a knowing look. “Ihaven’t given her a chance?” I muttered as a wry smirk tugged at my mouth.
“You hush,” Madison said as she smacked my arm, then hurriedly gestured us inside. “Come in. Everyone else should be heading back any minute.”
“IamMallory, by the way,” Mallory awkwardly confirmed once we were inside the restored farmhouse, the chaotic sounds of kids playing and screaming filtering down from upstairs.
Madison just gave her a wide smile as she backed into the living room. “Oh, I know. We hear enough about you?—”
“Madison,” I said in low warning.
A look crossed Madison’s face, as if she couldn’t figure out what was wrong with what she was saying. Which wasn’t her fault because, like the rest of my family, she’d been forced to listen to me go on and on about the girl standing at my side.
My best friend.
The fierce warrior who’d captured my heart and kept me at arm’s length.
The woman who’d slowly destroyed me over the past three months.
The enigma who’d managed to stun me multiple times with her reactions, all within a couple days.
But Mallory probably wouldn’t have reacted well to what Madison was about to say on a good day. Today wasn’t exactly a good day.
Just as Madison drew in a breath to continue, she abruptly clamped her lips shut. Her eyes darted between Mallory andme as if she was only just then noticing the unstable tension radiating between us.
Her eyes drifted up in surprise and my jaw twitched agitatedly when the same music from my truck started playing through the downstairs speakers. I looked over at Emberly to see her slip her phone back into her pocket, a proud smile tugging at her mouth that she was clearly trying to fight, then focused on Madison again in time to see understanding fall across her features as she once again looked between Mallory and me.
Subtle . . .
“Right,” Madison began as she clapped her hands together, trying and failing to come up with anything to say after.
