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I nod. “I know. You wouldn’t. You’re too good.”
“Not as good as you,” he whispers. “If I’d found out you were fucking one of my best friends two weeks after you left, I would have wanted to tear his liver out and burn down the world.”
My lips hook up. “Yeah, well, it was different.Iwas the one who left. And all your best friends are also your relatives. It would be gross if I’d shacked up with one of your cousins.”
“Right. The story of my life.” He rolls his eyes. “I actually had a little thing for a woman not long ago. Sweet, funny girl. I thought we were hitting it off, but then she ended up falling for my cousin Christian.”
I wrinkle my nose. “I would say I’m sorry, but I’m not. I’m really glad you’re single.”
He grunts. “So am I. And it was just a crush, anyway. Nothing like this.”
“Like what?” I shift onto my knees, reaching out to brace my hands on his crossed knees. “What isthis, Theo McGuire?”
His eyes darken. “This is the reason I’m here, Macy Mallard.”
Somehow, I know he means more than here in the cabin or out in the middle of a natural disaster. Somehow, I know he means the big “here.”
Here on earth, here in this human body, here in this life filled with so much hardship and pain, but also light and love and hope.
When I look at him, all I feel is hope.
I couldn’t stop myself from kissing him if I tried.
I lean in, lids sliding closed as my mouth drifts closer to his. We’re seconds away from our first kiss in fifteen years, when a moist snout suddenly shoves into the air between us.
Theo breaks into a deep belly laugh that has Pippa Jane oinking happily as she glances between us.
“Don’t laugh,” I tell him, fighting a smile. “She’ll think she did something good and do it again. She loves making people laugh.”
“I’m sorry,” Theo says, still laughing as Pippa climbs into his lap, rubbing his cheek with her snout. He wraps his arms around her, patting her back. “She’s just so damned smart. It’s hysterical. Nothing’s getting by you, is it, Pippa?”
“Even an average pig is smarter than a three-year-old,” I say, scratching my mischievous pig between her happily twitching ears. “And Pippa’s way above average. She watches me play video games sometimes, and I swear she understands what’s going on. She always gets excited when I’m about to beat a new level. And she can count to ten and always puts her own toys away when she’s done playing at a campsite.”
“Amazing.” Theo shakes his head, marveling at my clever girl in a way she clearly appreciates if the way she’s grinning ear to ear is any indication.
“Okay, stop it, already,” I say, tugging her happily wagging tail. “I’m starting to get jealous.”
Pippa Jane lets out a soft squeal that sounds so much like laughter, Theo and I both lose it. We end up rolling onto the quilt I spread on the ground with Pippa between us, rubbing her belly and giggling like a bunch of kids.
We’re causing such a ruckus; I don’t hear the tree falling outside.
Who knows, maybe it didn’t make any noise on the way down, but it certainly makes its presence known as it comes crashing down on the opposite side of the cabin, splintering the wall, and shattering the sliding glass door.
ChapterSeven
THEO
As a giant tree demolishes the other side of the cabin like a wrecking ball, I grab Macy around the waist with one arm and Pippa with the other, dragging them backward as shattered glass skitters across the cabin floor.
When the crash is over and the tree is lying still—half in, half out of the rushing river—I ask, “Everybody okay?”
“Oh my God,” Macy says, her breath coming fast. “Is the whole cabin going to come down now? Should we find something to tie around Pippa as a flotation device in case we’re all swept downstream? We can climb a tree if we have to and hold on until someone comes to get us. She can’t.”
I hug her closer, only wincing slightly as Pippa crowds onto my lap, too, gouging my thigh with her hoof as she oinks in distress.
After a few moments with no apparent shift in the stability of the rest of the structure, I shake my head. “No, I think we’re okay. But see if you can get Pippa upstairs to the bedroom. If another tree falls, we’ll be out of the line of fire up there. It’s too close to the tree line to be in serious danger. I’ll put out the fire, gather our things, and meet you up there in a few minutes. I just want to do a quick look around at the rest of the cabin, see how things are holding up after the impact and all the water.”
“Okay, but hurry.” Macy squeezes my arm. “If we’re going to die tonight, I want us to all die together. Is that morbid?”
