I’d never known how sacred asecondcould be, or that coming home could feel so much like rebirth.
“Stay with me,” she whispered.
“Yes.” I twisted, wincing from the sudden, breathless pain in my side as I pulled her beneath me, both of us sweat-glossed and smeared in dust. “Yes, always.” With one hand to the base of her spine, I rolled against her faster. Eva hitched a moan and bit my ear. The smell of green things filled the room, intoxicating me. She was warm and wonderful, summer incarnate.
Her body grew frantic, her movements less precise. “Arthur,” she whimpered.
“I’m here,” I promised.
This time, her peak rose like a tide, a flush spreading across her chest like watercolor on a page. Eva held her breath, tear-streaked, smiling. Tiny gasps marked the path of her release. I kissed aconstellation of freckles, my own body reduced to snatches of sensation. A tug on my hair. A breath in my ear. Her legs wrapped around mine.
But it was her laugh that sent me over the edge. I groaned at the honest, golden sound, taking in the sight of her bright and free and happy.
Happy withme.
When I gasped her name, Eva grabbed my face and kissed me through the end.
Chapter 43
Isobel
Isobel found Dane sitting on the steps of the front porch, staring blankly at the long, empty street. Dad was in the bathroom, taking a shower, having already wolfed down the first of the two cheeseburgers she’d gotten him.
Isobel stepped out onto the porch. “Hey, Charming,” she said softly.
He didn’t look back, but the curve of his spine straightened a little as Isobel gingerly sat on the porch step beside him.
She’d made a mental log over the years of the emotions he kept under lock and key, but this expression was a stranger to her, new and raw and more than a little bit lost.
“I really wanted to believe he’d changed,” Dane finally said, the words coming out flat. “I thought he could, Isobel. Even after… everything.” He drew in a long, heavy breath. When he let it out, Isobel set a hand on his knee.
“You’ve given him every chance,” she said just as softly.
Dane hung his head, deflated. Gone was the authoritative lawman who’d kept order and clarity moving as they coordinated thesearch for Eva and Arthur, and in his place was a very tired, and very worried, older brother.
“Do you think Lenny’s alive?”
Isobel chewed her bottom lip. She knew why he was asking, after what had happened to Avi. There was a mystery hidden in those woods. Maybe her father had been right about ancient places creating unusual things.
“I hope he is,” she said honestly.
Dane nodded at his shoes a moment, then covered her hand on his knee with one of his own. There was a small cut on his arm. Isobel’s focus contracted on the smudge of red-green, long dried now.
“Jack gave me that tea a month after what happened,” Dane said. “I told him I was having chest pains. You know how he is with herbs. I thought he could suggest something. But I never thought… All this, it’s unbelievable, Isobel.” He turned to look at her.
“I know.” Turning her hand over, she clasped his hand with her own, heart in her throat. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“Why didn’t you?”
The simple, earnest question could have been a cut thread between them. Instead, the way he’d said it felt like a lifeline.
Dane Walker was one of her oldest friends, and time and time again, he’d shown Isobel that he could adapt to remarkable truths about her family. He and June had been there for every major milestone since Isobel was young. It was always the three of them.
“I didn’t want to lose you too,” she said, looking away. “And that is selfish.”
The silence stretched between them as Dane sat without answering, simply considering. Finally, he spoke. “I should have done more for your sister.”
Isobel’s eyebrows arched in surprise.
