Page 79 of Drifter’s Heart

The drive home is quiet, and not because we’re thinking. More that we’re all exhausted. Soft snores emanate from beneath West’s jacket as Cloakton encroaches. And the closer we come to the major town, the tighter my grip on West’s hand becomes. The closer we get to Brad, even stuck in his facility. Hell, I hope the treatment does something. Something good. I hope he goes home to his new family, makes up, and forgets that Sally and I exist.

My phone vibrates as messages come through, but I can’t look at them just yet. Reality is too real already and I’m not as prepared as I thought I was for this perfect bubble to burst. Ever.

“It’s too close,” I murmur.

West strokes the back of my hand. “Is it risking everything to say it’s all perfect from here on in and that we’ll make it work?”

I smile, not looking up at him as gold flares across the afternoon sky. Purple touches the high clouds above, which will darken soon. “It’s not too soon at all. Or risking it.” Turning my head, I press a kiss to his shoulder where his spare jacket pulls back. Heat that never stops rolling off him seeps soul-deep into me. “Will you stay?”

Some of the tension that’s dissipated from him in the last days returns. “Lanie’s staying with you and Sally for the next week, right, until Cord comes to collect her?”

I toy with a frayed patch on his jacket hem. He’s got the funds to replace it. I know that. West might not have a bank account the size of my brother’s, but he’s by no means broke. This just seems to be his favorite thing. “Yeah, she’s studying. Cord doesn’t want her driving. Especially at night. Migraines and all.”

I wince at the memory of once asking my bestie to drive back from Coyote Falls into the glare of headlights that cost her a three-day nap of hell lost in migraine land, and that was before she fell pregnant.

“Solid call. Cord’s doing something right for his woman. At least, he’s trying. I’ll stay out of the way while you two reconnect.”

“Look at you, having all the words today. Sure you don’t want to stay?”

“I have a limit. I just haven’t reached it. Yet.” His hand covers mine, squeezing. “What I want and what I should do are two different things. You need some space with your girl. I’ve got some work to tidy up. Then…”

Then what?

I’m not sure either of us have the answer to that question. Those two words hang unspoken between us, and neither of us try to answer.

Sally is dozy when I lead her to our front door, our bags slung over my shoulders. West stands back, refusing to walk up to the house with us in case he wakes her. At least, that’s the excuse he offers when I ask him in one last time. Sally offers a tired wave that he returns—fingers only, no full-hand wave that this cowboy is too cool for tonight. I’m tempted to blow him a kiss and show a bit of leg, but the door to my townhouse opens, and I’m not prepared for Lanie to ask me those sorts of questions just yet.

Which is pot-and-kettle territory, really, because we were there with her and my brother and my nosy nose only a few months ago.

“You’re back,” she croaks, shielding her eyes from the streetlights, or any light, it looks like.

“Oh, fruitcakes.” Realization slams me way too late. I mentally slap myself for not recognizing the symptoms earlier. Hell, Cordell even told me about her migraines. “It wasn’t the people at Coyote that you were hiding from after all, was it?”

Lanie shrugs and cuddles Sally, who pats her like she’s on her deathbed and moves cautiously around her.

“I won’t explode, Sally,” Lanie mumbles. “The migraine has been gone for three days. Just don’t move too fast, okay?”

Sally freezes and then moves in an exaggerated moonwalk. “I’M GOING TO THE KITCHEN. OKAY, MOM?” she whisper-shouts, loud enough for the entire street to hear.

I close my eyes. “I’m so sorry. My paramedic head should have worked out that pregnancy migraines were a thing and that’s why you weren’t talking to me for so long.”

Lanie waves the hand shielding her eyes. “It’s okay. You need to say goodbye to whoever brought you back?” She might have a migraine, but my bestie isn’t stupid by any means. I’m going to have to explain sometime.

“Oh. Yeah.” I dart back out and wave to West. He doesn’t move, just watches me. It’s both unsettling and leaves me feeling secure all at once. After a moment, he nods but still doesn’t move. I get the impression that’s where he’ll stay until the lights go out.

I bite my lip, knowing that the Miss Independence roiling through me should snark him a new one for that, but… I’m okay with it.

Sally grabs the cold chicken burger that Lanie hands her, eating on the go as she disappears into her bedroom. I’m too tired to tell her not to eat in there, and I get the feeling she’s not going to emerge anytime soon.

“Ten going on thirty, and she just had her birthday.” I study Sally’s closed door, the weight of my family, the week, and everything that’s happened settling on me as reality opens before me.

A future I don’t understand. One that I haven’t ever planned for.

“Hey, it’s okay not to know.” Lanie the mind reader is here to talk it out, even in her state of recovery.

I swing about on her. “You scared the shit out of me.” This is a two-way door. I should let it go, but I can’t.

“I scared the shit out of everyone. I’m sorry.” Lanie doesn’t crumple, her waist-length red hair knotted into a messy bun on top of her head. “How’s Cord?”