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Breathing into his sweatshirt took me right back to being a girl, meeting a boy, not knowing that our romance was dark and fated. I remembered him wrapping his arm around my shoulders, pulling me in close. Curious, scarcely daring to believe it, I ran my fingers over the left sleeve until I found a little scorched hole. Brennan had been wearing this sweatshirt the night we met at a bonfire. When an ember from the fire had floated up and burned his arm, he’d taken off his sweatshirt, and I’d played nurse, pretending to check his broad forearm for burns. I’d looked up and found him watching me with those gorgeous blue eyes, bright in contrast to his dark hair and tanned skin.
There was a strange, broken sound, and it took me a second to realize it was my sob.
Dylan came to the closet door and looked up at me. I was holding the sweatshirt to my face, and it must have seemed like I was coming unhinged. I pulled the hoodie over my head, feeling transported for a split-second back to a happier time, and tried to smile.
“Let’s go talk to our new friends,” I said to Dylan, holding out my hand and hoping like hell that they really would be new friends.
They might blame me for what Nathan had done to Brennan. I was still a member of the Longroad pack—their sworn enemies. They had no more reason to trust me than I had to trust them.
Dylan and I padded downstairs, both barefoot and nervous.
When we walked into the kitchen, Cole and Karissa were there, setting the table by the windows.
A new, tall man leaned against the window, looking out at the creek, his hand in his pocket. He looked so familiar—tousled dark hair, that strikingly graceful and athletic silhouette—that, for a second, I thought he was Brennan.
Then he turned around, and my heart broke all over again.
If anything, he was even more conventionally handsome than Brennan had been, with high cheekbones and a chiseled jaw covered with dark stubble. Bright green eyes met mine, and he frowned as if he realized he had disappointed me somehow.
“This is my little brother, Shaw,” Karissa said.
“Little brother?” He crossed his arms over his powerful chest, calling my attention to his tall, muscular body. His dark T-shirt hugged his biceps, which were covered in tattoos that ran down to his wrists.
She gave him a look I couldn’t read, and he turned to me and offered his hand. “Nice to meet you, Amelia.”
“It’s . . . nice to meet you too,” I managed.
Cole scoffed. When the three of us looked at him, he said, “She just yelled at me when I introduced myself.”
Karissa’s bubbly laugh filled the room. “She yelled at you? Oh, I love you already, Amelia.”
I didn’t know what to make of that, but Karissa was already sitting down at the table, patting the seat beside her. Dylan settled into the chair next to me while Karissa poured us tea from the kettle. “Do you want milk or juice, Dylan?”
Dylan didn’t answer. I was trying to get an answer from him when Cole set down two glasses next to his plate, a glass of apple juice and a glass of milk.
I glanced up at Cole, surprised to meet his dark eyes. The way he looked at me sent a sudden thrill through my body like rising on a roller coaster, but the next second, his gaze dropped.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.” He was already retreating to the end of the table, as if he was scared of me.
Karissa had made a big lunch. Dylan’s eyes went wide at the sight of fried chickenandmacaroni and cheese; when he tucked into the glazed carrots, Karissa smiled at him like it was a compliment, her eyes shiny.
Karissa’s gaze lifted to mine. I was confused by why she seemed so delighted—Dylan wasn’ttoopicky about vegetables—and her smile ebbed slightly.
“I feed people,” she explained. “It’s what I do. It makes me happy.”
I could feel Shaw and Cole watching me as I ate, and it made me uncomfortable. But no one said anything until Cole brought over another tub of toys from the attic and opened it with Dylan to discover it was full of Lego bricks. Then, apparently, he and Dylan became best friends—even if they weren’t speaking out loud. Instead, they set to work making a city together across the floor, somehow communicating without words.
“I’m sorry he didn’t answer you earlier,” I told Karissa, jumping in to help her and Shaw as they carried the dishes to the kitchen island. “He’s not usually . . . like that.”
“It’s been a long day for everyone,” Shaw said quietly.
“Speaking of making the days long and difficult,” Karissa said. “Where is Stone? And Liam?”
“Stone and Teresa are still dealing with the damage,” Cole said.
Karissa rolled her eyes. “Is he? Or is he hiding because he kidnapped Amelia and Dylan, and now he doesn’t know what to do next?”
