CHAPTER 36
COLT
T heir tires kicked up a cloud of dust that hung in the air long after the SUV had vanished down the road. My whole body shook. Breaking that bastard’s nose wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough for what he and Blaire’s father had done.
Blood dripped between my fingers as I stared at the empty road, wishing my rage had disappeared with that black vehicle. I flexed my hand, watching the blood crack across my throbbing knuckles. I would do it all over again, a million times over just to watch that asshole crumble in front of her.
Blaire’s fingers brushed over my bloodied knuckles, tender where mine had been violent. I forced myself to meet her gaze, and the sight knocked the wind from my lungs.
It was just her, my Blaire, with those big brown eyes staring up at me and her curls framing her face. She scrunched her nose as she looked at my injured knuckles with her bare feet planted on my dirt, and I wanted to fall to my knees.
She was my home.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said so calmly, but my lips twitched thinking about Grant’s face as he climbed in the car.
“He had it coming.” I searched her eyes, looking for any signs of regret, any sign of what was going on in that beautiful head of hers.
“Does it hurt?” Her fingers were still tracing my hand, careful not to touch the injured parts.
“Not anymore. Not as long as I’ve got you.”
She stared at me head-on, and the laugh that broke from her was so sudden it startled me. It was a small, wild thing, but it meant everything. She took my hand gently, cradling the split knuckles as if willing the pain from my body into her own.
“Come on,” she said, tugging me by the wrist. “Let’s rinse this off before Ruby sees her daddy all bloodied up for me.”
I didn’t deserve her.
The porch creaked behind us, and I turned, bracing myself for Hunter or my father. But it was Ruby that stood in the doorway, clutching her bear tight against her chest.
She blinked at the two of us, at the blood on my hands and the way Blaire was holding me.
Ruby shuffled closer, bare feet padding softly over the porch as she moved to my dad’s side. “Daddy?” she said, and the word was so tentative it almost broke me in half.
“Hey, baby. You okay?” I asked as Blaire finally dropped my hand, both of us turning more fully to face the porch.
Ruby looked from her to me and back again. “Did you get hurt?” she asked.
I climbed up the stairs toward her, running my uninjured hand over her head. “Just a scratch, kiddo. Nothing to worry about.”
She frowned, unconvinced, and pointed a finger at my hand. “It looks gross.”
“That’s because your daddy’s tough,” I told her, forcing my lips into a smile as I flexed my hand and tried not to flinch.
The pain shot up my wrist, but the sight of Ruby’s lips curling at the corners made it worth it.
She tried to hide her smile behind the bear, but I caught it.
And a bit of the tension in my chest loosened.
Blaire stepped onto the porch behind me, and she slid that strawberry necklace over Ruby’s head before she wrapped her up in her arms. I watched them together, and I could hardly breathe.
Blaire kept one hand cupped gently around the back of Ruby’s head and looked up at me, her brown eyes warm and clear.
“He’ll be fine,” she promised. “We all will.”
Ruby shifted in her arms, peeking out from behind her bear. “Did you punch Blaire’s daddy?”
Hunter laughed, and my gaze finally met his. “No. But he landed a hell of a shiner on her boyfriend.”
Ruby scrunched up her nose, and her head whipped around to look at Blaire. “I thought Daddy’s your boyfriend?”
“He is now.” Hunter laughed, and Blaire blushed. “Blaire found a bigger boyfriend to beat her little boyfriend’s ass.”
Blaire immediately covered Ruby’s ears, and I smiled at the look she gave my brother. “Really, Hunter. I swear you really are the worst sometimes.”
Hunter shrugged and gave her the biggest grin. “No. You love me. You can’t deny it.”
My father hovered at the edge of the porch, hands stuffed deep in his pockets, gaze darting back and forth like he was tracking some invisible threat on the horizon.
I recognized the anxious energy in my old man, the kind that only surfaced when he didn’t have the words or tools to fix whatever was broken in one of his kids.
He hiked his finger over his shoulder as his eyes met mine. “I think me and your brother are going to get out of your hair. Want me to take our girl with me for a while? I could put Ruby to work.”
Blaire’s answer was so immediate it startled me. “No. Not today.” Blaire’s arms tightened around her. “I want her with us.”
My dad’s face softened. He nodded once, before he leaned forward and gave Ruby’s hair a quick ruffle. “She saved you this time, Ruby. Next time, I’m going to make you clean out the stalls with me.”
Ruby made a disgusted face and Blaire snorted.
Blaire shifted Ruby from hip to hip, eyes never quite leaving my father. “Thank you,” she said, quietly. “For everything.” Her gaze snagged on Hunter. “You too, Hunter. Thank you for being here when I needed you.”
My father cleared his throat as he looked at Blaire. “You’re family, Blaire. Always have been.”
Blaire’s eyes went glassy, and she started to reply, but Hunter swept in before she could gather her words. His usual wiseass grin was gone as he gathered her and Ruby both in a hug.
He pressed a kiss to the top of Blaire’s head, and squeezed Ruby so tight she squeaked and started giggling. Blaire pressed her face into Hunter’s shoulder, laughing even as she wiped her eyes. Ruby beamed, the bear mashed between her and my brother’s chest.
He let them go, stepped back, and my father cleared his throat again.
He reached out to squeeze my shoulder, then he and Hunter started for the truck, walking side by side.
I watched them go, Hunter’s arm flung over my dad’s shoulders, the pair of them silhouetted against the gravel drive. They didn’t look back, didn’t need to.
Blaire put Ruby back down on her feet before we all drifted back into the house. Ruby trailed close behind Blaire, dragging her bear by one battered paw, her eyes fixed to Blaire like she was afraid she might vanish if she looked away.
Blaire moved around the kitchen as I turned on the sink and let the cold water run over my bloodied knuckles. She poured a glass of water and grabbed some pain relievers before setting them both in front of me.
“Take those,” she ordered, and I smiled.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ruby looked up at us, gaze bouncing from my face to Blaire’s, her little brow furrowed in concentration. There was a question brewing in her, but she chewed her lip before letting it out in the kind of earnest, no-nonsense voice only a child could muster.
“But Daddy really is your boyfriend, right?” my daughter asked, holding her bear close and blinking at me with that same unfiltered curiosity I’d seen on her face so many times before. “Even if he didn’t beat up your other boyfriend?”
I snorted, laughter rumbling in my chest, but Blaire ignored me.
She looked at Ruby with a steady gentleness that made me wonder how the hell I’d ever let her go. “Are you okay with it if he is?” she asked. “I don’t know about your daddy, but I’d like that. I’d like to be more than that. I want us to be a family.”
Ruby’s eyes widened, and hell, so did mine.
“Like a mom?” Ruby whispered, and my gaze slammed into Blaire.
This wasn’t something we’d talked about yet, and fuck, she’d only told me she was staying a couple days ago. I didn’t want this to freak her out.
But Blaire held Ruby’s gaze, calm and honest, and I’d never loved anyone the way I loved the two of them.
I watched them, my daughter and the woman I loved, and I saw the shape of a future that I’d always been too scared to dream of.
“If that’s what you want,” Blaire said, and her voice was so gentle it was almost a whisper. “But I can just be your friend, too. It’s completely up to you.”
Ruby’s mouth made a perfect ‘O’, and she looked from Blaire to me and back again, as if she was measuring us, weighing our promise against all the things she’d lost and learned in her short little life.
There was a hush then, the instant before lightning strikes, and I realized I was gripping the edge of the kitchen counter, my knuckles white and raw from the fight but numb to everything except this.
Blaire’s hand slid over Ruby’s, small fingers tangled with bigger ones, and Ruby studied their hands as their pinkies wrapped together. Their pinkies stayed locked, a single bridge between them that linked them together, and Ruby blinked up at Blaire with her eyes full of hope.
“Yeah,” she said, and her voice was so sure it almost broke me. “That’s what I want.”
Then she launched herself at Blaire, arms flung wide, and Blaire caught her, laughter bursting out of her. She spun Ruby around in a circle, and they both giggled, the high-pitched sound ricocheting off the kitchen cabinets and filling up all the empty places in the house.
Ruby buried her face in Blaire’s neck and Blaire hugged her so tight I thought they’d fuse together.
I wanted to memorize every detail—the way Blaire rocked her side to side, the way Ruby’s little hand clung to Blaire’s shirt, the way the sun shined gold through the windows against their skin and made it look like they’d been carved from the same streak of fire.
After a long minute, Ruby pulled back, her cheeks pink and eyes shining brightly. “We should paint each other’s nails.”
“Absolutely!” Blaire said, and Ruby took off running toward her room, her giggle trailing off as she vanished around the corner.
I caught Blaire before she could follow, arms finding their way around her waist, pulling her up against me so her back was pressed to my chest. She landed with a little “oof” and laughed, and her hair tickled my jaw as I buried my face in her neck.
She was warm and relaxed under my hands, and I let out a shuddering breath at the feel of her in my arms.
“What just happened?” I said, voice shaky, not sure if I was asking Blaire or myself.
I felt the tremor in her too. Her breath caught in her chest like we both needed a second to process that this was real.
And goddamn it, I wanted it to be real.
Blaire leaned back into me, hands covering mine where they splayed over her stomach, and she laughed again. “I think I just got promoted,” she whispered as she twisted in my arms, enough to look up at me. “You in?”
I couldn’t help it. I pressed my mouth against hers, kissing her with every bit of happiness that was pulsing through me.
“I’m in,” I murmured, awed by the simple truth of it. “I want this.” My voice cracked a little. “I’ve always wanted you.”
“If you keep kissing me like that, I might have to call dibs on you, Calloway.”
She was trying to play it cool, but I could see the way her eyes glistened, the hope and fear and everything else we’d been carrying around for years all crashing together.
“I think you just did,” I said, my voice rough.
She didn’t argue. She let her head fall back to my chest, trusting me to hold her up, as Ruby’s voice called from down the hallway.
“Blaire! I can’t find the blue one!”
Blaire laughed, disentangling from me with a gentle pat to my hand. “I’m coming!” She lingered a second longer, her fingers brushing over my cheek, her gaze searching mine.
“You’re not mad at me, Strawberry?” I asked, and my stomach ached as I waited for her answer. “A lot of shit has happened over the last few days.”
“Oh, I’m plenty mad at you.” She nodded and narrowed her eyes. “But I can think of a few ways for you to make it up to me.”
She smiled, quick and dazzling, then slipped from my hold and hurried after Ruby.
I watched her go, and I leaned my weight against the counter, my busted hand throbbing in time with my heartbeat. I looked around my house that had belonged to Ruby and me alone for so long, and already, there were so many signs of Blaire everywhere I looked.
She was in Ruby’s drawings that covered the fridge.
Her sweatshirt, the one Ruby had claimed as her own, hung off one of the kitchen chairs where she tossed it.
By the sink, that chipped blue mug I’d always reached for first, now belonged to her.
Even the air felt different, carrying the hint of summer strawberries that hit me like a memory I’d craved half my life.
“You coming, or are you too scared to get your nails painted?” Blaire’s voice floated back to me, and I glanced up to see her leaning around the hall, staring straight at me.
“Do I have a choice?” I laughed.
Blaire shook her head and crooked her finger for me to follow her. “No. I think you’re stuck with us both, cowboy.”
And damn if that didn’t sound like the best thing I’d ever heard.