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I stare up at the moon, wanting nothing more than to pull it out of the sky for her. “You’ll get your dreams back, Koty.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” She holds her belly, her expression pensive, but not filled with the sadness I’ve come to expect. “I think that’s part of the reason I’m so scared about being back here. I had all these big dreams. And I want them. But I’m unsure how to fit them here in my hometown. They feel scrambled.”
A shadow of doubt passes in her eyes. “All I wanted to do was make my father proud. And I don’t even know if I’ve done that.” Her voice catches, and I know it’s a long-buried fear she’s finally releasing.
“Do you remember what you told me the night before you left for San Antonio? You said the future is wide open. And it still is.”
Her lips part in surprise. “You remembered.”
“I remember everything about you.”
She tilts her head, and the cap slips down, making her look like some big-eyed doll. “How do you remember me?”
I chuckle at the memories. “When I remember you, I don’t see you as the woman I picked up that night at the motel. I see you at the Roughrider Parade, hurling candy into the crowd. I see you dropping off the best damn banana cake for Charlie, and then sweeping the front porch, even though no one asked you to. I see you as the girl leaping into Lake Cascade in a little string bikini and screaming your fucking head off because it was too damn cold, but smiling the entire time.”
Dakota flashes me a smile. “So, what you’re saying is I need to jump scantily clad into more lakes?”
A groan tears out of my throat. “You’re still trouble.”
Keena lurches into view, saving me and my cock from the memory of Dakota that summer. I swear as my stupid dog leaps into a pile of snow and mud. Over and over Keena rolls, her face blissed-out beyond belief.
Looks like that midnight walk is going to turn into a midnight bath.
“She gets the zoomies,” I explain to Dakota.
Her lips quirk. “The zoomies?” I clear my throatand she palms my chest. “Under all that steel, you’re just a big marshmallow.”
“Don’t tell anyone.”
“Secret’s safe with me.” A shiver rolls through her slender frame.
“Been longer than fifteen minutes,” I tell her.
“Can’t go back now. Keena’s on a roll.” She looks over to where my idiot dog is literally rolling in the snow. “Keep me warm?”
Fuck.
But instead of walking her back to the house, I wrap my arm around her shoulders and tuck her into me. Her body melts against mine. My heart pumps out a hard rhythm, matched only by the throbbing of my cock.
“Is talking in the dark under the moon our thing now?” Her voice comes out slightly breathless.
I kiss the top of her head, inhaling her honeyed scent. “I like under the moon.”
“Me too.” She beams and every bit of self-control I have disappears. This isn’t an itch. Dakota’s a need. “Same time tomorrow?”
I should say no. But I can’t.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Fallon’s ringing up a customer when I exit the kitchen, so I hover back and wait until the store clears. Like wildlife, my little sister can be unpredictable when surprised or disturbed.
When she’s done, I hold up a jar of Montana huckleberry jam and ask, “Where does this go? Local goods or bread aisle?”
“Local,” she says, avoiding my gaze. Her discomfort is so obvious it’s painful.
Since our big blow up two weeks ago, we’ve been walking on eggshells. Making polite, stilted conversation. Running The Corner Store in shifts like two divorced parents who meet in the parking garage to trade children.
It’s the way Fallon deals. When she gets mad or sad, she powers down like a robot whose systems are only equipped for wild, never reality. When our mother left, she slept in her closet for two months.
