Mariah’s carefully neutral expression cracked, just slightly, at the corners. The pink in her ears traveled to her cheeks. She pressed her lips together like she was fighting something, and her arms uncrossed just long enough for her to press one hand flat against her sternum before she caught herself and crossed them again.
There it was.
“Oh, she’s thawing,” Greta said.
Bear made a skeptical noise as Mariah turned away from the water gun battle and went back to arranging the food platters with great focused dignity.
“Bear. I’m telling you. She’s already halfway there. She just doesn’t know it yet.”
“When I win, I don’t want the money,” Bear rumbled against the side of her head, and a shiver raced down her spine. “I want you gasping under me?—”
“You get that every night.” She thumped his chest. “And there are children present.”
River materialized beside them, paint still on his shirt, grinning. “Yeah, according to Walker, I’m one of them, so keep it in your pants, big guy.”
Bear growled at him in typical bear fashion.
Greta smothered a laugh and turned to River. “You painted that awful banner?”
“I did,” River said, completely unashamed.
“It’s crooked,” Bear grumbled.
“Art isn’t supposed to be perfect, Honey Bear. It’s supposed to be felt.” River pressed a fist to his paint-smeared chest and looked genuinely moved by his own statement.
Bear’s expression darkened by about three degrees. The muscle in his jaw ticked once.
“Call me that again,” he said, low and even, “and I will break every bone in your body.”
River didn’t even blink. “Then you can ask Ghost to help you hide what’s left of me.” He jerked his chin toward where Ghost stood at the edge of the yard, Naomi still tucked under his arm. “He’s got an alphabetized list for body disposal. Right, Ghost?”
Ghost didn’t look up from where he stood across the yard. But the corner of his mouth moved. “Got a new one and it involves that ugly-ass banner.”
“It’s only ugly because you have no joy in your soul.” River glanced over as Naomi tucked herself against Ghost’s side and said something to put that fractional twitch at the corner of his mouth again.
River watched this for a beat. “Okay, maybe a little joy,” he added softly. “Recently acquired.”
And if Greta wasn’t mistaken, there was a note of—what was that, sadness? Loneliness?—in the words.
Then River shrugged, and the moment was gone. “Ah, well. My sister Rainey got all the artistic talent in the family. I got all the good looks and charm.” He winked and wandered off toward the grill.
“What the hell was that?” Bear muttered. “You saw that, right?”
“Yeah,” Greta said. “His shine wore off for a moment.”
River clapped Boone on the shoulder and stole a hot dog off the grill. Boone swatted his hand away without looking up from flipping the burgers.
A line formed between Bear’s brows. “I should go talk to him.”
She smiled at that. Two months ago, he would’ve avoided a heart-to-heart like the plague. Now he was volunteering for one.
“Good idea.” She stood on her toes to kiss his bearded cheek. “I think he needs a friend right now.”
Greta watched him go, then found a spot at the far picnic table, the one in the shade of the big ponderosa, and settled in beside Alice. “You okay?”
Alice nodded, then grinned when the still-unnamed puppy squirmed in her lap and tried to lick her chin.
The puppy’s name had become something of a running joke at the ranch. River had suggested Gerald, despite her being a girl. X had lobbied hard for Lieutenant Biscuit. Logan had offered Potato, which had gotten a surprised laugh out of Alice and a flat no from everyone else.
