Bram just laughs that easy laugh of his. “My brother does have a sense of humor.”
“Or maybe he just thought no one would come looking for us here. I hear he’s clever, your brother.” Emmett’s face pops into myhead again, the infuriating smile, the hair he can’t seem to tame, those goddamn eyes.
“Ahh.” Bram nods sagely. “Very clever indeed.”
Brown hair. A strong hand on my forehead soothing away a fever.Emmett is just something I need to sweat out. I’m nothing to him but a means to an end.
“I don’t want to talk about my brother,” he says, his gray eyes sparkling like starlight. They’re not a color I’ve ever seen on a person.
“What do you want to talk about?” I ask.
“I don’t think I want to talk at all.” He picks up my hand and traces along my pointer finger. His hands are warm. “You’re wearing my ring.”
“Haven’t taken it off.”
My heart leaps into my throat, but the space between us goes quiet and still. It’s not desire I feel, but the burn of inevitability.
I swam in the sea once as a child and got knocked over by a wave. I tumbled in the surf, scraped my knees against the sand, and snorted water up my nose.
It was the first time I felt truly small, the first time I knew what it felt like to be carried away by a force I couldn’t control.
I taste salt water in the back of my throat now.
“Ivy.” He whispers my name under his breath like he’s been longing for his mouth to taste it.
Then he takes one more confident step toward me and presses his lips to mine.
I’ve never been kissed before. It’s warmer than I expected, a little wetter, too.
For one panicked second, I just freeze, but Bram takes over,confident and sure. It’s obvious he’s kissed others, but in this moment I’m not sure if I care.
I move my lips against his and thread my hands through his curls reflexively.
He pulls me closer, his hands strong on the small of my back.
I keep waiting to feelsomething.I thought I’d feel sparks or church bells or licking flames. But all I can think isAm I doing it right?I have to get this right. I have to make him want to marry me, or I’ll let Emmett down. I could be letting the whole country down.
Bram wrenches back as if it pains him and looks down at me. He really is extraordinarily handsome, his face just this side of otherworldly. I reach up and trace the pointed shell of his ear, just because I can. He shudders against my touch.
He smiles softly, and finally I feel something, a hollow wrenching in my heart.
I have to fake it, so I smile back, then duck my head. I don’t think I have it in me right now to play lovestruck, but shy, I can do.
“I have to go find my sister,” I whisper.
“I’ll help you,” he whispers in return, and I have the feeling that there is little I could ask Bram that he wouldn’t do for me.
We’re rounding the corner back to the house when I see a small figure in the dark, hunched over on a bench.
“Lydia?” I call.
She raises her head, and I can see her better now. The flowers in her hair have wilted.
Bram follows me to where she’s sitting. She’s got that dazed look on her face, the one I loathe so much because it makes me worry that’s she’s lost again, and I cannot survive her being gone for good.
I bend down and peer up at her face. “Lydia, let’s get you back to Mama.”
She blinks back to herself, like she’s been wandering somewhere I can’t see. “Oh...” She trails off. “Yes.”
