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Faster than I could register, Keaton let me go, reached in the bag, and threw a protein bar at Cade’s face, hitting him in the temple with a smack. Cade jerked back in surprise, but scowled, bending to pick the bar off the ground and soft pitch it back to Keaton, saying, “You can have that one, but don’t try it aga—” The bar hit him in the forehead, and when he’d recovered from the surprise, he stomped toward us, muttering a string of threats. But two steps in, Keaton stepped us back inside and slammed the door in his face.
After a brief brotherly exchange through the door, Cade gave up and left with the rest of them. Keaton headed for the spot where he’d thrown his clothes a couple of days ago, rummaging around for his phone, which was dead as a brick, just like mine. Seconds after plugging them in, a cascade of notifications pinged on our screens, but Keaton’s went on well after mine stopped.
Eyes on the screen, he sank into a chair, his brows drawn. I moved to his side, and without breaking his gaze, he opened one arm and widened his leg so I could sit in his lap. He turned the phone so I could read too, first message threads from his brothers. Then his foreman. Some from my sisters, and a few from Jensen at the police department.
And then there was a string from Marnie.
First that her dad was acting strange, then a phone conversation of his that she overheard after Keaton had gone over there to refuse him. The threat of the trust fund and the state of Keaton’s business. That I was part of the deal.
And then it was the embezzlement.
She noted what she’d found out about the bribe to Jimmy and how it’d led to the emails that led to locked and hidden spreadsheets, all of it using the same password he’d used for everything—one of two versions of Mandy’s birthday. What she’d found, questions as to what she should do, but after that, the messages went from shocked and frantic to resolute. She let Keaton know what she was doing, that she wouldn’t let him sacrifice his business or me, wouldn’t let her father take advantage of anyone else, especially the town. And he’d never use Mandy as leverage ever again.
For a long while, we sat there reading, rereading. He reclaimed his arm from around me to text her back, and I left him to it, kissing his temple and smoothing his hair, getting up to shower and to think.
The water was scalding hot, tendrils of steam rising to lick the ceiling. I closed my eyes, tilting my head back into the stream, and I sighed out a million worries to be carried away on the rising mist.
My fingers were buried in my sudsy hair when Keaton joined me silently. He stepped in behind me, replacing my hands with his.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I dunno,” he answered, turning me around to rinse me out. His eyes were on his hands as they tilted my chin and sloughed away the majority of the suds. “Marnie … I think … well, one of the things I think pushed her over the edge was that he used Mandy. She gave plenty of reasons, but my gut says that was the last straw. Marnie looked up to her, but more than just a sisterly way. Mandy was who Marnie wanted to be, the only person Marnie would listen to. After reading all that, I get it. She was half done with her father anyway, but this went too far. I’m gonna call her later on. Maybe drive to Austin, if you want to come with me.”
I looked up at him, and he met my eyes, abandoning my hair to cup my jaw. “You go. I’ll be here when you get back.”
“Good,” he said softly, the smallest smile at the corner of his lips. “Tell me you’ll always be here.”
“Where else would I go?” I teased.
A chuckle. “I dunno. But when you’re not with me, I have this … this feeling like you’re gone. Gotta talk myself down from it every time.”
“I’ll have to give you something then, something you can carry around with you and hold when you feel that way.”
“I think I have an idea of what that could be.”
“Oh?”
He nodded, smiling as he lifted my chin to angle for my lips.
“You gonna tell me what?”
He shook his head. “You’re gonna have to wait for it.”
I groaned and laughed until his lips were against mine.
He didn’t give me a chance to tell him I’d wait forever, if that was what it took.
But I was awfully glad I didn’t have to.
32
THAT VIEW THOUGH
DAISY
Two months later
The shelter opening had been a smash.
Lindenbach had come together today to do what we could to celebrate our new residents, and we’d turned it into a festival of sorts. Three food trucks were set up, offering free barbecue, street tacos, and cupcakes and coffee. Donations had been collected and distributed, and plenty of music and smiles and happy chatter, enough to fill my heart to bursting.
