Chapter Fifteen
Brady
The drive back to Basin Ridge was quiet.
The engine hummed steadily beneath us, the road stretching ahead in long, dark ribbons.
Wind slipped in at the edges of the windows, soft and constant.
Every few minutes Elise shifted beside me.
The quiet glide of fabric against leather reminded me she was still there.
Not that there was any chance I’d forget.
I glanced over.
Her head rested against the window, eyes half-closed as the desert blurred past outside.
She looked like she might nap, but she didn’t.
Her hair was still tangled from the lake, dried wild by wind and sun.
A faint smear of chocolate frosting marked the collar of her shirt, right where Sam had launched himself at her.
She probably had no idea it was there and I wondered how bothered she would be by it. I’d spent most of my life around people who treated things like that as problems to solve. Fix it. Clean it. Control it.
Sometimes it’s okay to let a little chocolate just sit there.
Mabel’s voice drifted through my memory. Give a person time to be themselves before you try to help them.
Was being with me helping Elise? I felt like it was.
A few days ago, she’d told me flat-out she didn’t want to date me. Yet here we were. After helping a farmer free a cow, playing illegal quarter poker with seniors, and attending a chaotic birthday party together, she looked happy.
Relaxed.
I wasn’t about to spook her by asking questions she wasn’t ready to answer so I decided to keep things light. “You’re quiet over there,” I said, keeping my tone easy. “Recovering from the sugar high?”
A soft laugh slipped out of her. “I think my brain is actually offline,” she said. “Sarah Steele might have hugged the stress right out of me.”
I smiled. “She has that effect.”
“It . . . it was nice.”
“It was,” I said. I eased my hand off the wheel and let it rest between us, palm up against the console, giving her the choice instead of asking for it.
Her gaze dropped to it.
She didn’t move at first. I could see the discipline there, the instinct to remain contained. Her fingers flexed once against her thigh.
A breath in.
Another.
Then she exhaled and moved.
Her hand slid into mine carefully, as if she might still reconsider. I closed my fingers around hers. Her skin was cool from the air conditioning, but it warmed quickly against mine. I shifted our joined hands onto my thigh so I could feel the weight of her there.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Her pulse beat faintly against my palm. Every small adjustment of her fingers registered like a current running straight through me. There was nothing dramatic about it. That was what made it feel real.
I found myself thinking about what she’d said earlier. Her mother had divorced all of them. I wanted to ask what that had looked like, how it still lived under her skin. But I held back. My own family was complicated enough. When she wanted me to know more, she’d tell me.
For now, I only wondered whether today had been hard for her or had been healing as it had for me.
I’d come out here looking for the real Thomas Steele because I thought mending fences might help Evan and Nora start their marriage without old shadows hanging over them.
Watching the Wrong Steeles today with their easy laughter, Grandma Laura’s demand for sunblock, the way they pulled Elise in without hesitation made it impossible for me to see them as a waste of time.
After a minute, I lifted our joined hands slightly. Slow enough that she had time to pull away if she wanted to.
She didn’t.
I hesitated long enough to be sure I wasn’t imagining something, then pressed a careful kiss to the back of her knuckles.
Her breath caught hard enough that I felt it.
When I lowered our hands again, she didn’t withdraw. Instead, her fingers tightened around mine. Her thumb began tracing slow, absent circles against my skin.
It was a small thing.
It felt enormous.
I glanced over once more. The dashboard light skimmed her face just enough to see it clearly.
Suddenly she looked nervous.
Like she was waiting for the moment to disappear.
That hit harder than the jet ski.
She didn’t trust me or this yet.
If I wanted any real chance with her, I’d have to take things really slowly.