“Scarlet,” Quinn starts, looking at me from across the table. “Would you guys want to go to the farmers’ market with us on Tuesday? It’s supposed to be nice out and we can walk from Wes’s place.”
“Sure,” I say, looking at Jackson, who nods excitedly. “I’ve never been to a farmers’ market. Are they like the ones in movies?”
“This one isn’t as big. Especially now that it’s fall. I need some mums for our porch.”
I don’t know what a mum is, but I smile and nod anyway.
“And there’s a local winery that sells the best sweet red wine and blueberry cider. Now that Emma is eating solid food I can half like an ounce of wine at night once she goes down.”
“You had me at sweet red wine.” I scrape the last bit of icing off my plate and wonder if it would look bad if I picked it up and licked it. This stuff is like crack. We stay for a bit longer after that, and I hang out with Jackson in the living room while Wes talks about the campaign with his dad and brothers.
It’s dark when we go to leave, and I stop short in the driveway.
“You okay?” Wes asks, unlocking his Jeep.
My head is turned up to the sky. “I’ve never seen this many stars before.” I exhale, and my breath clouds around me. “It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah,” Wes agrees, and I can feel his eyes on me. “Beautiful.”
“I could see them from my house, but not like this. It’s…it’s incredible. It makes me feel so…so…”
“Small?”
“No.” I shake my head, unable to tear my eyes away from the heavens above. “Connected. It makes me feel so connected and grounded at the same time. It doesn’t make sense, I know.” I shake my head and shiver. I didn’t put my coat on, not thinking I’d need it for the quick walk from the house to the Jeep. “Forget it,” I say with a laugh. “It’s stupid.”
“I don’t think it’s stupid.” Wes steps close next to me. Jackson’s opening the back of the Jeep and climbing in. “When I was deployed, I’d look up at the sky and take comfort knowing I was under the same blanket of stars as the people I loved. The people I missed. So I get what you mean about having it make you feel connected.”
I tip my head down, eyes meeting his. My lips part, and another chill goes right through me. Ignoring the fact that I’m dumbly holding my coat in my hands, Weston takes off his jacket and drapes it around my shoulders.
Dammit, Wes, stop being such a nice guy.
A nice guy who loves his son more than anything, has a family I wish could adopt me, and who may or may not be making me feel things I didn’t think I was capable of feeling.
I’m in over my head here, and it won’t be long before the waves crash against the shore and pull me out with the undertow. But being washed out into dark waters isn’t scary.
It’s that I want it to happen.
Chapter Fifteen
Weston
I push Jackson’s hair back, feeling bad that I forgot to take him for a haircut—again. It’s hard juggling everything, but now it should be easier. Scarlet is here to help with housework, make dinner, and most of all, to care for the single most important person in my life.
“Love you,” I whisper and kiss his forehead before quietly slipping out of his room. Light pours into the dark hall, coming from Scarlet’s room. She’s sitting on her bed, with one hand pressed to her forehead and the other holding her phone. I can tell right away she’s upset.
“Yes, I’m fully aware he needs that medication, but insurance denied it. I’ve been working on it and will pay out of pocket if I have to.” She pauses, listening to whoever is on the phone. “Sure. If the doctor thinks he needs it, then yeah.” Another pause. I should go and not listen to her conversation, but I’m fighting hard against myself and the urge to go comfort her. “How many falls does that make this month? Fuck—sorry. It’s just…I didn’t realize he’d fallen so many times.”
She exhales, and I turn away, giving her privacy. I head into the bathroom to shower and then put on sweatpants and a T-shirt. Mom packed a plate of leftovers, and it’s calling my name. The light is off in Scarlet’s room when I step back into the hall, but her door is open, leading me to believe she’s downstairs.
But she’s not.
She’s nowhere to be found, and I actually go back up and peek in her room—she’s not there—and she’s not in Jackson’s room, either.
“Scarlet?” I call quietly when I get to the bottom of the stairs. I’m starting to get concerned when I see her sitting on the back porch, arms wrapped tightly around herself and her head tipped up to the sky. She’s not wearing a coat and has to be cold.
Grabbing a blanket from the living room, I put on my jacket and step onto the porch.
“Hey,” she says, flicking her eyes to me for a nanosecond before looking away.
“It’s freezing out here.”
“I know.” Her breath leaves in silver wisps, hanging in the air. “I didn’t mean to stay out here for so long.”
I go to the steps and sit next to her. “Here.”
“Thanks,” she says and takes the blanket from me. She wraps it around herself and looks back up at the sky.
“Do you believe in aliens?”
“Kind of,” I admit. “I think there has to be other life forces out there, and I do enjoy the Ancient Aliens show on the History Channel.”
“Nerd.” She bumps me with her elbow and smiles.
“What about you?”
“Not in the traditional sense. I don’t think little green Martians are going to come abduct us and probe our butts, but I agree that we can’t be the only life in the universe.”
I laugh. “Not probing butts is a good thing.”
She turns her head down and meets my eyes. “Well, sometimes it can be a good thing.”
Dammit, Scarlet. Leave it to her to turn a tender moment borderline erotic. Though she could read the phone book and I’d get turned on.
“It’s so quiet here,” she says and rests her head on my shoulder. I clench my fists, trying to keep my hands to myself.
I know how good her lips feel against mine.
If I touch her, I’m going to kiss her again, and there’s a good chance we’ll make love right here on the stairs.
“It is.”
“I thought downtown would be a little louder than this.”
I chuckle. “Main Street is, and we’re three blocks away. Though everything shuts down around ten or eleven. There are a fair amount of festivals in the summer, though, and we have one twenty-four-hour diner. And, of course, Getaway, my brothers’ bar is open until two or three. Friday and Saturday nights are a different story, though once the weather starts to turn, it does quiet down a lot.”
“Do you like it here?”
“I do. I was born and raised here, so maybe I’m biased. But it’s a good town with good people and it’s a safe place to raise a kid.”
She nods and gently touches a scar on the back of my hand. “What is this from?”