Page 79 of Colt

This is fun. And relaxing. There’s no place on earth I’d rather be right now.

My heart spasms when Colton presses his thumbs to Dean’s cheeks, making sure they’re dry. I laugh when Dean figures out a particularly gnarly corner and literally howls with delight, tipping his face up to an imaginary moon.

Because my brain is short-circuiting thanks to a lethal cocktail of lust and happiness and hunger of every variety, I decide to howl too.

Colton’s eyes bulge. I don’t give a fuck. I keep howling, Dean doing a little happy dance as we sync our voices.

“Y’all are nuts.” Colton shakes his head.

I grin at him. Keep howling.

Dean elbows his dad. “You do it too! It’s fun, I promise.”

Colton picks up his beer and drains it. The glide of his Adam’s apple as he swallows, up and down, has me feeling some kind of way.

But when he suddenly tilts up his head, purses his lips, and howls too?

Yep, I’m a goner.

CHAPTER 16

Headlights

COLT

I have never, in all my thirty-one years, felt more stupid than I do howling like a wolf at my kitchen ceiling.

But I can’t stop smiling, which I take as a good sign.

Dean is really going for it now, bowing out his arms as he lets out a high-pitched sound that’s half howl, half scream.

Lainey shakes her head so her howl reverberates, her hair going everywhere.

Gone is the perfectly put-together princess. She’s wild. Unhinged even. No fucks given about how she looks or what I think.

I think you’re hot as hell, honey.

She’s making my son laugh so hard he can hardly breathe.

It’s the kind of laughter that’s infectious. One minute, Lainey and I are locking eyes and howling like we’re Georgia Bulldog fans (God forbid. Texas forever!).

The next, Lainey breaks down and laughs too. I think that’s why I “accidentally” confided in her about Billie and Ryder that morning we went riding. There’s just something…down-to-earth about her. Real. For a split second, I felt comfortable enough to let my guard down. I wouldn’t say I regret that.

In fact, I’d like to do it again, much as I hate to admit it.

Because all of a sudden, I’m joining in with a belly laugh. I wonder if I’m high. Maybe someone spiked the Shiners? I’ve only ever laughed like this when I was drunk or stoned, my sides aching, lungs spasming in an effort to pull in oxygen.

Come to think of it, I never ever saw Abby laugh this way, with tears leaking out of her eyes and her entire face going pink the way Lainey’s is.

I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead. It’s not fair to compare the two. Everybody’s different. And Abby’s not here to defend herself. Who knows? Maybe she laughed this way with other people? Maybe she didn’t feel comfortable doing it around me.

Or maybe I got so lost in trying to be a good dad that I forgot to be a good husband, one who’d make his wife laugh this way.

Done making that mistake.

Grabbing my phone out of my back pocket, I change the song. Dean leaps from his chair the second “Who Let the Dogs Out” starts.

“I love this song!” He wiggles his little bottom in time to the beat.