Then she moves.God, she moves.A slow, swaying walk across the deck, hips rocking gently to the music like she’s answering an invitation only she can hear.Her fiery hair catches the breeze, her smile lazy and luminous, and for a heartbeat, she looks like a woman with no ghosts at her heels.
Monty meets her halfway, setting both drinks on the sideboard without breaking eye contact.He sweeps an arm around her waist, pulls her in, and spins her across the deck with a fluidity that doesn’t match his crisp, collared shirt.
Frankie’s head tips back, sunlight catching her freckles as she laughs.The sound floats over the water, mixes with the music, and settles in my chest with a swirly warmth I didn’t know I needed.
“Her,” I say, answering Wolf’s question.
“You want Frankie?”His head jerks back.
“For friendship, you gremlin.”I poke his ribs.“I’ve never had a loyal female friend.Definitely not one like her.She gives strong woman sass but also vulnerability.Protective, but at the same time, accepting and kind.I don’t have much experience with kindness.Most women judge me.Or use me.They all fuck my brother.I’m not normal.”
“Neither is Frankie.She doesn’t have experience with female companionship, either.Before she met my family, her closest friend was her boss.”
“The doctor.”My stomach sinks.
“Yeah, and you know how that turned out.”
Dr.Rhett Howell lied about being her gay best friend.Turns out, he was her stalker, her kidnapper, and her rapist.Until the Strakhs hunted him down and hacked him into three hundred pieces.
“She needs a good friend, Bluebell.”Wolf entwines our fingers.“And so do you.”
Leo stirs on the lounger and lifts on an elbow, his dual-colored eyes searching, searching… When he spots Frankie twirling in Monty’s arms, his face brightens.Softens.Fucking melts.
He pushes to his feet, strong and balanced, like a Viking born for the sea.Monty notices him and, without breaking rhythm, passes Frankie smoothly into Leo’s waiting arms.
Leo catches her, his big hands settling on her hips.She beams up at him, rising on tiptoes to loop her arms around his neck.He sways with her, awkward and adorable, his feet doing something that can’t be called dancing, but she laughs like it’s the best performance she’s ever seen.
Kody leans against the railing, an unguarded smile glittering in his black eyes.He doesn’t move toward them.Just watches in his brooding way.Content.
Leo tries to spin Frankie and nearly flings himself sideways, but Frankie saves it, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close.They sway again, slower this time, her cheek resting on his chest.
Then Monty slips in behind her, one hand at her waist, the other on Leo’s bicep.She sighs as they sandwich her between them, the three of them stepping to the music and bumping into Kody, their movements imperfect and unsynchronized, yet in total harmony.
Wolf regards them with a soft hum in his throat, his chin nudging my temple.
“That,” he murmurs, “is how they survived.”
Frankie presses her freckled nose to Leo’s chest, her hand reaching back to squeeze Monty’s ass, her other reaching for Kody.
Kody takes it and joins their circle.
She looks held from all sides.
She looks safe.
She looks loved.
I understand what Wolf means when he says this family doesn’t operate by normal rules.They don’t patch wounds with distance.They patch them with closeness.With touch.With presence.With whatever strange balancing act keeps them from tipping over again.
Frankie laughs louder as Leo spins her.Badly.Monty stumbles.Kody steadies him, and the foursome dissolves into a golden knot of motion and light.
“Come on.”Wolf slides his hands beneath my thighs and lifts me.
My arms wind around his neck as he carries me out onto the deck.Sunlight washes over his dark hair, the breeze tugging at it like even the wind wants a piece of him.
He sets me on my feet, his palms wrapping around my waist, guiding me close, his body pressing along mine.He starts to move with the music, far more skilled than I expect from a man who grew up in the frozen wilderness.
He’s tall and heat-warm, firm everywhere, his chest a solid wall my hands can’t stop groping.
