Chapter Thirty – Arms of Fire #3
She relented, letting me help her slide out of the saddle.
Snow was clinging to her hair and dark lashes like a layer of icing on a delightful dessert.
Her cheeks were red from the cold, causing her smattering of freckles and the dark bruise to stand out sharply against her creamy skin.
The purple mark and her swollen eye had anger flickering back to life inside me, but I did my best to push past it. Mom was right—we all needed a break.
I tucked a piece of tangled hair behind her ear and grinned down at her. “I didn’t know you rode.”
Her smile faltered just a little. “Well, that’s because we hardly know each other at all.”
It was true. Many of the day-to-day things you learned about people over time were missing from our relationship, but I knew the essence of her.
I knew the heart that beat inside her was full of goodness and light.
That it had withstood the evil that had tried to drown her.
She was a flickering flame that couldn’t—wouldn’t—be snuffed.
I handed Luca the horse’s reins, and he and my mother trotted off toward the barn.
I picked Andie up by the waist and swung her up onto the rail before leaping up beside her.
We both hopped down at the same time and joined my dad as he plodded through the snowfall back to the house.
Inside, we left our wet boots in the mudroom, draped our coats over the drying rack, and headed for the warmth and enticing smells of the kitchen.
“I think this day calls for hot chocolate,” Dad said, rubbing his hands together. “What’s your preference, Andie? Dark or milk chocolate?”
“Doesn’t really matter. Chocolate is chocolate.”
Dad grinned at her. “Well, I usually make both because Cooper is a bit of a chocolate wuss. He can’t handle the dark stuff, and his mother is all about the bite that goes with the hint of sweet.”
Andie huffed out a laugh that she tried to hide, and the warmth blooming in my chest since seeing her riding with my family only grew.
“What’s the point of having chocolate if it isn’t going to be sweet?” I asked with a shrug.
This time, she didn’t even bother to hide the laugh, sending me a sparkling look along with it. “I tend to lean toward the dark like Lydia. I can handle a bite.”
And damn if I didn’t nearly go hard at my parents’ place all over again. At least, today, half the town wasn’t here to witness it.
“I’m just going to wash up real quick, if that’s okay?” Andie asked.
“Make yourself at home, darlin’,” Dad told her. “You know where the bathroom’s at.”
I couldn’t look away as she walked down the hall, the curve of her ass swaying delightfully with each stride.
I’d promised myself I’d go slow after all her revelations, but two days into this relationship, and all I could think about was how good she would look splayed out on my bed with me nipping at her.
When I turned back to help my father, he was grinning from ear to ear. “That woman has you wrapped around her finger.”
My smile dimmed. He’d said the same thing about Eden, and he hadn’t been wrong. Reading me like a book, he shook his head. “No. Not like that spiteful ex of yours. Speaking of which, Luca told me about her showing up at your house last night.”
I gave Dad the short version of the events from the last twenty-four hours, from the stabbing at the artists’ colony all the way to the Suttons and the passenger of the black truck who’d thrown cans at Andie and Luca.
He shook his head as he poured milk into two separate pots.
“Sutton. He’s never been good news. He and Randy have been troublemakers since they were in high school together.
And the wife is a drunk. Those kids have struggled for years, but it’s never been enough for CPS to get involved.
” He hesitated, shooting me a concerned look.
“Andie acted like she felt guilty. Like what happened today was her fault.”
I could play dumb and pretend I didn’t know what he meant, but it would just delay the inevitable.
“Today wasn’t on her. This was Randy Cleaver. I can only hope you’re right and that Josh is really the right person to help bring his brother to justice.”
“Josh will bring it to a close for you. There’s no love lost between him and Randy,” Dad said, handing me the wooden spoons to keep stirring the cream while he moved on to chopping chocolate bars. “When Fallon came home, and all hell broke out at her ranch, I had to dig into the employees there.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Andie was clean as a whistle,” he added. I nodded, meeting his gaze, already knowing where he was going. “Too clean.”
“Yeah.”
“Has she told you her story?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’re okay with it?”
I nodded.
“I don’t think that cut on her cheek today will add to her scars, inside or out. She’ll be okay.”
And I had to believe he was right about this too. I had to believe all of us would come out of this and be in a better place. One where Andie and I could have the kind of relationship my parents had. Where we’d be able to role-model for my son exactly what real love looked like.