Chapter 28
[Trinity]
Apparently, I’m being kidnapped. Or rather, girlfriend-napped.
Dart doesn’t seem half as surprised as I am when he opens the door to Vale and Genie, both dressed for line dancing.
Wednesdays are Women’s Night at Shenanigans. The local place is an old barn converted into a country bar, complete with pine-paneled walls, hardwood floors for stomping, and lots of space for dancing.
“Girl, get your boots on,” Vale hollers, then quiets her voice, seeing Mirabelle in Dart’s arms. “Time for Mom’s Night Out.”
I laugh at the thought when it hits. I am a mom. I’m Mirabelle’s mom, and I smile at her tucked in the crook of Dart’s elbow.
“Did you know about this?” I ask him, curious why he isn’t reacting.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” His smile gives him away.
“You start work next week, so we wanted to sneak in a night out before your schedule gets all wonky,” Genie says.
My schedule will be hit or miss as I start back to work, and I glance at Mirabelle again, thinking I should stay home and suck up time with her. My time will be even more limited once I return to the hospital, and I know I’ll miss Mirabelle. And Dart. I want to spend time with them. As a family.
But I don’t have time to dwell on that final thought when Dart whispers, “Go.” He nods toward the staircase. “Change.”
I glance down at my loose sweatpants and cropped top.
“Are you sure?” I ask him. He hasn’t been alone with Mirabelle yet.
“Consider this a practice run,” he says, offering me a reassuring smile.
I rush up the staircase and fling open the closet, rustling through my clothes for a fun little dress and my cowboy boots. I’m giddy as I comb my fingers through my hair and put on makeup for the first time in weeks. A girl’s night out might be just what I need.
As I saunter down the stairs, the heels of my cowboy hit the treads. Dart is still standing at the base, holding Mirabelle, and he does a double-take while watching me descend.
His amber eyes are like a sunset. Burnt orange, dull yellow, almost eclipsing the soft brown. His gaze stays pinned on me, like I’m the most stunning thing he’s ever seen, even in an old dress and worn boots.
I hop off the second step, landing with a thud, which startles Mirabelle.
“All set.” I glance around Dart at the girls who are still standing in the entryway.
“Let’s go,” Genie hollers, swinging her hand like a lasso in the air.
“Time to get our country groove groovin’,” Vale teases, opening the front door after saying goodnight to Dart. She steps out onto the front porch.
“We’ll have her home before midnight, Dad,” Genie jokes with Dart, before swinging out the door herself.
My gaze pings to Dart.
“She didn’t mean . . .” I point toward Genie’s exit.
Half his mouth smiles. “She was kidding,” he confirms, but it makes me wonder once again if Dart still wants to be a dad. If he wants to be Mirabelle’s dad. We still need to talk about that, but right now isn’t the time.
For some reason, my gaze catches on the antique coat rack in my hallway.
The one where two baseball caps now hang.
One is for the days Dart plays ball with the guys.
The other says Velocity on the front. Dart likes the bill of his caps rounded, not flat, and that Velocity one looks well-worn.
And I marvel at how Dart has slowly started infiltrating the house again.
His boots by the door. His hat on that rack. His clothes mixed in with the laundry.
“I’m not certain I should let you out of the house like that.” His voice is all appreciation, and my head turns quickly, catching him running his gaze down my form. Taking in the short, flirty dress that hits above my knees. The height of my cowboy boots, which show off plenty of leg.
“Excuse me,” I counter. He can’t tell me what to wear, but he’s also looking at me like he’d like to take my clothes off.
“You look sexy, baby.” His eyes snap back to mine.
I tip up my shoulder and twist my hips, twirling the dress a little bit. “Thank you, darlin’.”
I step over to the coat rack, tug his hat off a hook, and settle it on my head.
I might have resented Velocity once upon a time. Been angry that the racing team took him away from me. But seeing him standing here, holding Mirabelle, waiting on me to go out with the girls, I can’t find that anger anymore.
He steps closer to me. “Then again.” He glances up at his cap on my head. “Go out looking sexy as that. Let everyone know you’re my girl.”
He tugs the bill of the cap downward, and I laugh.
“Dart Rivers, you are so ridiculous.”
“And you are so beautiful.” He leans even closer, then he glances at Mirabelle in his arms. “Don’t look, Mirabelle. I’m gonna kiss your momma.”
“Momma,” I whisper, still disbelieving it sometimes.
“Momma,” he quietly echoes, humming the word. “But how about that kiss, Forever?”
I cup his face and lean forward for a quick kiss, but Dart catches me around the waist, tugging me back to him.
His eyes light up. “Give me something to think about while you’re gone.”
I kiss him again. Taking his mouth and melting into it, while I hold his bristly jaw. The kiss lasts a little longer than it should and involves a little more tongue than I intended.
“Don’t let me interrupt,” Genie giggles. “But I’m on a time limit.”
Turning my head, I catch her pointing at her breasts.
“On it,” I laugh, before Dart softly pats my backside.
“Have fun,” he says.
I glance back at him, staring at his lips, still wet from our kiss. “Did I give you enough to think about?”
“Plenty,” he teases.
“Same,” I whisper, before turning for the door and heading out with the girls.
The second I enter Vale’s SUV, I’m bombarded with questions.
“So, I take it you and Dart are back together,” Genie says, twisting in the front seat to look at me in the back.
“How is that going?” Vale asks me through the rearview mirror before reversing out of the driveway.
I glance at the house. “It’s going.”
“Is that wistfulness or frustration?” Genie asks next.
“Maybe a little of both,” I admit, looking at them as the house disappears from view.
“What’s going on?” Vale asks.
“We’ve been talking a lot. And flirting a little.” I sigh.
“Have you had sex yet?” Genie asks, concern in her voice.
“Maybe.” I shrug, but stare toward the front seat like that’s the wrong answer.
Vale quickly glances at me over her shoulder. “How do you feel about that?”
“I think we needed to get it out of our system. We’ve been circling each other for weeks. Close proximity and all that.” I huff, knowing my romance-reading girlfriends understand.
“Don’t I know it,” Genie admits, as she spent time living with Judd before their friendship-turned-fake-engagement turned into more.
“I’m the one who initiated it,” I admit.
“Good for you,” Vale says, tipping up her head to look at me again in the rearview mirror.
“So how was it?” Genie wiggles her brows.
“It was . . . hot.” A little giggle escapes before I run my fingers over my lips, thinking about the kiss we just shared.
We haven’t been kissing. We haven’t been intimate again, but we have been sharing my bed. And all the little touches feel so intense.
His hand on my hip. My palm against his chest. Sometimes, I wonder what he’s waiting for. Why haven’t we done more again?
“Based on the kiss I just saw, I bet.” Genie fans her face.
Vale smiles, but then her lips slowly drop. “How you doing with all this and Mirabelle?”
“Mirabelle is amazing,” I say with pride. “And Dart is amazing with her.”
“He’s going to manny, or do we call it danny . . . Daddy nanny?” Genie laughs at her own joke.
“Yes, he’s agreed to watch Mirabelle while I transition back to work. Until he finds a job.” I turn my head toward the window, because there’s still a twinge of fear that Dart will leave. The track will call him. Or Velocity will.
I tug at the hat on my head, torn between tearing it off my head and keeping it on.
Let everyone know you’re my girl. While it might have sounded possessive, it was also said with pride. He’d be happy to call me his again.
I glance down at my naked fingers, wondering if I should have slipped my wedding bands on again. Wondering what he’d think if I did.
“You okay with letting Dart get close to Mirabelle?” Vale’s question is asked cautiously. She had to think about her son when she got closer to my brother. But Hudson was also eleven when that happened.
“She’s just a baby,” I state as if that changes things. As if Mirabelle doesn’t already love Dart in her infant way.
I’m certain Dart loves her. Could he leave her? Would he?
“Think Dart will stick this time?” Vale asks.
I shrug, squinting out the window once more. Because this is my only fear. I don’t doubt Dart loves me. Or that he loves Mirabelle. I worry that he isn’t fulfilled, doesn’t have his purpose without racing. And what if racing wants him back?
“Do you want him to?” Genie adds.
I turn toward my friends. One straining against the seatbelt to glance at me over her shoulder. The other flipping her gaze from the road to the rearview mirror, assessing me.
“Is it wrong if I say yes?”
Vale chuckles. “I don’t think there’s ever a right or wrong when it comes to love, honey.”
“You love who you love.” Genie backs up Vale’s statement.
“Yes, but is it wrong to want to love him when he hurt me so much?”
“If you can forgive him, and work it out together, then there’s no wrong answer there either,” Vale offers. She smiles softly, knowing she had to forgive Cort before she could give in to him again.
A story I know more details about than I care to admit.
I slowly smile at her. Do I forgive Dart? Have I forgiven him? Do I forgive myself for my part in our separation? Because I can’t point the finger at him alone.
“I’d say we are a work in progress, but one that’s progressing, and working for us.”
Genie smiles. “I like that.”
“Me too,” I say, before adding. “And I’d definitely like to have sex with him again. Does that count for something?”
Vale glances at Genie, who only laughs. “Well, that’s one way of working things out. Together.”
I laugh, settling in my seat, telling myself to stop thinking so much.
“Okay, enough about me. This is Mom’s Night Out.”
“That’s right, girl,” Genie leans toward the backseat to give me a high-five. “Welcome to the club.”
A new club with old friends.
I’m going to like it here.