26. Boone
BOONE
We spend the rest of the day getting the Dodge back into shape and tightening the cabin’s defenses, until it feels less like a home and more like a position. I hate it, but it’s the only way.
In the evening, I find Wren in the kitchen standing at the sink washing potatoes.
I come up beside her and get out a knife and the cutting board. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Do what? Make dinner?”
“Act like you’re calm.”
She looks over at me. “I’m not.” When I respond with a curious look, she says, “I’m concerned, and I’m angry, but I’m not falling apart.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
She turns off the water, finished with the last potato. “No, but you were making the face.”
“What face?”
“The one where you’re about to wrap a blanket around me and tell me I don’t need to worry my pretty little head.”
I bump her gently with my hip. “I never once mentioned your pretty head.”
“No, you’re more subtle than that.”
“I’m really not.”
That makes her smile, and I take it like a gift.
We fall into our usual rhythm in the kitchen, while Rhett and Cade take advantage of the last hour of daylight.
As Wren peels carrots, she watches my brothers through the window. “Do you always get like this?” she asks.
I pause my stirring. “Devastatingly handsome?”
She gives me a look. “Unified. When something happens, the three of you barely have to discuss it before you respond.”
“One organism,” I say. When she looks over at me, I explain, “That’s what one of the guys in Regiment used to call us. Triplets are already weird, but under enough pressure, we got worse.”
“What do you mean by worse?”
“Closer.”
She frowns. “Closer doesn’t sound worse.”
“It can be. When one of us takes a hit, the others feel it before the blood even shows. We learned each other like a reflex,” I say. “When things got bad, Rhett turned fear into order, Cade found the person trying to kill us, and I found the soldier bleeding the fastest.”
“And you saved them?”
“Or I made them feel less alone. After that, I moved on to whoever still had a chance.”
For a moment, there’s only the sound of onions sizzling in the pan.
“I used to think my smile was for them,” I say.
“And the jokes I’d tell while I was doing something that hurt them but might keep them alive.
Later, I figured out the smile and jokes were for me, too.
If I could make them believe we were still people and not just bodies in a bad place, then maybe I could believe it. ”
“I saw what was under your smile this morning,” she says.
I flinch because I tried to hide it, but Wren notices that, too.
“After you saw the slashed tires, I saw the soldier underneath.” She reaches over and lays her hand on my arm. “It was terrifying and reassuring all at the same time.”
I look over at her and realize I’m at a loss for words.
“It makes more sense now,” she says.
My chest pulls tight as she looks out at my brothers, then back at me. “What does?”
“The way your protectiveness doesn’t feel like a cage. I’m used to pushing against men who think they have authority over me, but with you three, even when you’re bossy and impossible, it feels different.”
“Different how?”
“It’s not like you’re trying to control me. It’s like you’re trying to stand between me and the thing that would take my choices away.”
My throat is thick when I say, “We are, Wren.”
Her voice is husky when she says, “You make protection feel like love, not ownership.”
I stand there with a wooden spoon in one hand and Wren’s hand on my arm, and realize Harlan Turner has no idea what he’s threatening.
Before she came here, this cabin was shelter. Now, it holds a woman who’s brave enough to say the thing we haven’t yet.
Love.
I slide my hand under Wren’s and capture her fingers. “You keep talking like that, and dinner’s going to burn.”
Her eyes shine, but there are no tears. “Then stir the onions, Boone.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
After dinner, I get out the cards, and Wren arches a brow.
“Poker?”
“Seems like the night for it.”
Rhett takes the seat at the head of the table, and Cade sits with a sightline to the front window even though the curtains are closed. I sit across from Wren, because I like watching her think.
“What are we playing for?” she asks.
Rhett answers automatically. “Chips.”
“Boo. Boring,” I say.
“Boone.” Cade says my name like a warning.
“What?” I shuffle the cards. “We survived a threat, reinforced the cabin, and ate root vegetables for dinner like responsible adults. I think we’ve earned some better stakes tonight.”
“Define better.” Wren leans back in her chair and crosses her arms beneath her breasts, which only makes my idea about a hundred times more appealing.
“Nothing scandalous.” I start to deal. “Just some strip poker.”
“Only if Wren wants,” Rhett says.
A variety of glances are exchanged around the table. Dubious, challenging, wary, and hot.
“And if I do want?” Wren asks.
“Then we set rules,” Cade says.
I deal the last card. “Always the romantic.”
“Rules keep everybody honest,” he says.
“Rules also make it more fun,” Wren says.
Lord help us.
Rhett sits back, all quiet authority. “No pressure, refuse whatever you want, no pushing past a no.”
“I trust that you won’t ever push past a no,” she says. “Let’s play.”