She fiddled with a strand of hair. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer, but crowds of people I don’t know make me nervous.”

“Will your friend still be in town?”

“Ginny? Yeah.”

“Cool. You can bring her too. Worst case scenario, you hate it and you go home. Best case, you have fun and make some new friends.” I flashed her another grin. “Besides, you’ll have me.”

She took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll come.”

“Great.”

Princess Squeaker batted at a little piece of dust drifting in the air. She chased it across the bed, coming close to the edge.

“I’ll get her.” Skylar stood and moved to scoop her up into her hands. “Silly kitten. You don’t want to fall off the bed.”

I stood, leaning on my crutches. “You can just stick her in my hood. She’ll be fine there.”

Skylar brought her around to my side of the bed and stepped close. I leaned down and she reached around to open my hood, then deposited Squeaker inside.

Still standing just inches from me, she adjusted the fabric so Squeaker was secure. Her arms were around my neck, her face so close. I took a deep breath, inhaling her. God, she smelled good.

Just a taste. What would that hurt?

I licked my lips and the movement seemed to catch her attention. She froze, her eyes resting on my mouth. Slowly, her thick lashes lifted, bringing her gaze to mine.

If I’d ever been faced with a girl who really wanted to be kissed, it was now.

Her chin lifted slightly. My heart beat harder, thumping in my chest. Only a second passed, but it felt like time had slowed. I could already taste her. Feel her soft lips pressing against mine.

A knock on her bedroom door jolted me back to reality. Skylar gasped and took a step away.

“Hey, Skylar?” Chief said through the door. “Can I come in?”

She moved closer to her desk. “Yeah, what’s up?”

Chief opened the door. His eyes landed on me, but he didn’t look surprised to see me. He’d probably seen my truck out front. “What happened to the kitchen?”

“That was Mom. She’s reorganizing?”

Chief groaned. “Of course she is. Hey, Gav. How’s the leg?”

“Getting better”

“Good.” His eyes darted between me and Skylar, and I really wondered what he was thinking. “I guess I’ll go wait for Caroline.”

“She’s just trying to help, Dad.”

He grumbled something that sounded like infernal woman and shut the door.

Skylar sighed.

I thought about asking if she needed an excuse to get out of the house. She could come over to my place. My brothers were on duty until Saturday morning.

But after how close I’d just come to kissing her, I decided not to. Forcing myself to resist temptation was one thing, but I wasn’t a total masochist.

Plus, Chief’s brief appearance had been like jumping in the freezing cold river.

Resisting her wasn’t just a game I was playing to amuse myself while I was laid up. I had reasons. Good ones.

And those reasons weren’t going to change.

17

Gavin

The air in Gram’s backyard was chilly, but propane heaters pumped out warmth, as did the bonfire Levi and Logan had built. Grace had strung lights around the porch and tied helium balloons to the railings at the bottom of the porch stairs. Despite Asher’s insistence that we didn’t need to make a big deal out of his birthday, she’d insisted on throwing him a party.

Personally, I was a big believer in birthday parties. In parties of all kinds, really. Life needed to be celebrated. Plus, any excuse for cake was a good thing.

Family and friends congregated in the kitchen, or in the warm spots outside. It was a beautiful night, aside from the early October cold. Sparks rose from the fire when Logan tossed another piece of wood on the growing blaze. Grace, Gram, and Fiona had set out enough food for twice as many people as were actually here, which was how we rolled when it came to these things. Gram liked to say she never wanted anyone to leave her house hungry, and always kept that promise.

I balanced on my crutches near one of the heaters, a beer in my hand. It had been almost three weeks since I’d broken my leg, and I was starting to get edgy.

Okay, maybe not starting to get edgy. I’d been that way from day one. But it was definitely getting worse.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been doing back flips over the bonfire, or I’d have gone climbing this morning, or… something. Anything but what I actually did, which was mostly nothing. I’d played with Princess Squeaker, which was fun in its own way. But the energy building inside me needed an outlet, and I had several weeks left before I’d be free of the damn cast.

It was driving me up the wall.

As if to add insult to injury, my leg started to itch.

Skylar had texted me earlier to say she and her friend were coming, but they’d be a little late. I’d seen her several times in the last week. Mostly I just hung out while she wrote. I’d been reading her books and they were really fucking good. She had a twisted mind inside that pretty head of hers. I liked it.

I took a sip of my beer, keeping an eye on the back door for her. Maybe this party would get more fun once she got here.

Gram sat on the porch in her rocking chair wrapped in a thick sweater. Someone had fixed her a plate of food, and she watched the growing party with a contented smile. Fiona and Evan sat next to her, and Fiona might as well have been on Evan’s lap, they were so close. They were getting married soon and it sounded like they’d decided to have it here.

Asher came out of the house and down the porch steps. He walked up behind Grace, kissed her neck, and slipped an arm around her waist so he could rest his hand on her belly.

A Bailey baby. That was some crazy shit. Of course, if Asher hadn’t gone to prison, they probably would have had kids years ago.

The restlessness I felt reminded me of when Asher had first been sent away. I’d been just a kid. September had rolled around again and I’d had to go back to school. Sit there in a classroom as if my oldest brother hadn’t been forcibly ripped from our lives. Like everything was normal.

It hadn’t gone well.

But I just hadn’t seen the point in being there.

Looking back, I was pretty sure I’d only graduated because a few of my teachers had felt sorry for me and figured it would be better to just pass me and get me out of there. That, and Levi. He’d started picking me up himself and driving me to school to make sure I’d actually go.

Thank fuck that was over.

Cara wandered over to stand next to me with a wine tumbler in her hand. “Do you know how to bake muffins?”

“Yeah. Why? Did your YouTube chef fail you again?”

“Catastrophically. The first batch tasted like cardboard. The second were so hard I thought about searching for Harvey Johnston to see if he’d let me use his fucking pickax to break them open.”

I laughed. “That bad, huh?”

“At this point, I should probably throw in the towel and find a different hobby. But I bought so much kitchen stuff, it would be nice to actually use it.”

“You want me to come over and show you how to bake muffins?”