Harley turned to face him. “No, bud. I’ll be over at ... my house.” She met Jericho’s gaze. Smiled. “But I’ll be close. And I’ll come over all the time to play with you.”
“Good.” Daniel launched himself into her arms. “Daddy says you catch bad guys.”
She laughed. “Sometimes.” She kissed him on the forehead, then set him down.
“Speaking of catching bad guys,” Jericho said as Daniel ran off again, “Deke said that Mars started talking. Gave them their storage locations in exchange for some deal Lydia put together. Did you have something to do with that, Harley?”
“I’m going to get to the bottom of who killed our parents, so yes. If Mars has information, I’m ready to trade.”
“Any news on Wilder?” Jericho asked.
“Deke says they’ve been to the crash site, but there’s been at least two storms since the Maverick Air plane went down—there’s no tracks left. Wilder is in the wind.”
“And so is Sloan.” His mouth tightened.
The front door opened, and Malachi came back out. “Hudson says the security system isn’t working. Needs the boiler man.”
Jericho raised an eyebrow. “Me?”
“Well, it’s not me,” Malachi said. “I’m Slick the Salesman.”
Jericho huffed out a laugh, then glanced at Harley. “Don’t go anywhere.” Then he kissed her, quick, sweet. Like it was absolutely the most normal thing in the world.
Maybe it was.
She went back to the kitchen to help Sunni unpack the boxes. Sunni wore an oversize sweatshirt, her hair pulled back, her ankle still in a boot.
“How are your parents?” Harley asked as she pulled out a couple appliances the Bowie home didn’t have—an Instant Pot, a rice cooker.
“Good,” Sunni said. “Dad is healing. I think they’re going to come out and live here for a while until they find Sloan.” She pulled out a mixer.
It felt right that the kitchen would be inhabited by someone who enjoyed cooking for her family. Harley had a feeling she was going to like getting to know her sister-in-law.
“So nice of the Bowie boys to let us stay here. I used to think they were the coolest family around.”
“They still are.”
“What about you and Jericho? Are you two getting married?” Sunni unwrapped a cookie jar.
Harley stared at her, her mouth open.
“Oh, c’mon. We’re sisters now. We can have secrets.” She winked at Harley. “It’s not like he doesn’t have forever written in his eyes when he looks at you.
Forever.
She liked the word. “Maybe,” she said softly.
Harley finished unloading the box, broke it down, and brought it back to the front.
Jericho stood on the wraparound porch, hands jammed in his jacket pockets, breath clouding in the frigid air. Darkness had fallen, the sun nearly gone. He stared out toward the whiteness of the lake, a distant look in his eyes.
She grabbed a jacket and stepped outside to join him. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, then pointed up to the sky. “Look.”
The northern lights shimmered across the sky, ribbons of green and purple dancing between the stars. Below, the dome’s lights spilled through the forest, the trail between houses packed down now, a reminder of why she’d come here in the first place. Why she’d stayed.
Orlando pressed against her leg. She wasn’t alone anymore. She had backup, had people watching her six. A whole clan, in fact.
