“You’re not going to spend the next few weeks following me around everywhere, are you?”
“Maybe a little.”
“Look at me,” she demanded.
He turned his head. He’d left his sunglasses at the fire station and squinted against the light. A muscle in his jaw torqued as he ran his eyes across her face. The fear loosened from them, replaced by that impossible softness she’d seen last night.
She swallowed against the knot in her throat. He looked stressed, pained, worried and…scared. He was scared for her. “I’m okay,” she said firmly, unable to look away. Her hand fumbled for his. “See?” She laced her fingers through his. “I’m right here. Nothing happened.”
“It could have happened,” he said quietly.
“But it didn’t,” she insisted. “I’ll get new locks. I’ll get a security system for the house. This won’t happen again. Okay?”
“I don’t know what I would’ve done if he’d gotten past Riot.”
She didn’t want to think about that. Closing off the possibilities, she faced the road again. To soothe him, she brought their joined fists to her face. She rested her cheek against the link, fighting the urge to close her eyes and sink into his strength.
She was supposed to be strong for him. It was his turn to lean on her, not the other way around.
“Do you think they’re related?” he asked. “The alarm at the gallery and the break-in last night?”
“Nick, we’ve been over this. Nothing happened at the gallery. The alarm was a glitch.”
He didn’t seem convinced. Like a dog with a bone, he wasn’t going to let his assumptions about what had happened that night at the gallery rest.
When it came to his own, Nick was nothing if not doggedly devoted.
He needed a distraction. Perhaps this trip to the rez was a good thing for him. “I’m stopping by Ava and Chay’s house first. I want to see baby Gracie and check in with how Ava’s doing.”
He nodded, a fraction of his tension draining. “I haven’t seen Gracie in weeks.”
It had been Nick who had found her abandoned in the baby box at the fire station. He’d been as thrilled as Sassy had been when they learned that Ava and Chayton would be adopting the baby girl and starting a new life together on the reservation.
He reached across the console and turned the volume knob. The eighties’ hit song made her smile across the cab at him. In answer, he turned it up to blast, and they both joined in as Freddie Mercury took them through the roller coaster highs and lows of the ballad.
She didn’t let go of his hand as they crossed into Navajo territory.
* * *
Not only were Ava, Chayton and baby Gracie home, a whole Colton contingent had arrived before Sassy and Nick pulled into their driveway.
“What’s going on?” Sassy asked apprehensively as Riot trotted after them into the house, drawn by the voices echoing from within.
Ava and Chayton’s living room was bursting at the seams. On one couch sat Sassy’s uncle Sam Colton, former mayor of Dark Canyon. Tall and lanky, he had packed himself onto the couch with the others like a sardine. Sam had lost his first wife, Kate—mother to Jacob, Mark and Noah—to cancer. Kate had been deceased for four years, and Sassy missed her dearly.
Wedged between Sam and the arm of the couch was Sassy’s aunt Sherry Colton, Ava and Ryan’s mother. She was married to Sam’s brother, James. Sassy had envied Ava and Ryan growing up, thanks in large part to Sherry’s free-spirited parenting style. They’d been able to do whatever they wanted. Though somewhat flighty at times, Sherry had stepped into Kate’s shoes as the matriarch of the Colton family. Her warmth knew no bounds. She rocked slightly on the couch cushion, cooing at the baby in her arms.
Gracie, Sassy saw with a smile. Born Ella Ross, she wasn’t even a year old and already she’d been through so much. The only clue to her family was the Navajo blanket she had been wrapped in before she was surrendered at the fire station. After DNA testing, it was determined that Annie Ross, the woman found dead in Dark Canyon Wilderness in January, was her mother. Chay, an officer with Navajo Tribal Affairs, had wanted her raised on the reservation. He and Ava had recently won guardianship of her. They were engaged to be married.
Chay and Ava sat hip to hip on the love seat. Sassy noted the protective hand Chayton laid across his fiancée’s shoulders. They were still reeling somewhat from Ava’s abduction in February. Ava visibly relaxed when she recognized Sassy and rose to greet them. “I forgot you were coming,” she said. “My parents called this morning and said to expect the whole gang. I barely had time to rustle up a meal.”
“What’s the occasion?” Sassy asked as she drew her cousin into a hug.
“Colton Foundation meeting,” she said. “They all wanted to check in with Gracie, so they decided to kill two birds with one stone.”
Sassy wrinkled her nose. “I always hated that saying.”
“Me, too,” Ava agreed. Her eyes widened on Nick. “You brought Nicholas!”
