I sank down into the chair, my eyes wide and my heart pounding this frantic, beautiful rhythm, hardly able to process the activity happening in my kitchen. More than had been there in years.
The life. The joy. The faith and the hope and the love.
It didn’t matter if it felt like things were falling apart.
That I was sitting on a razor-sharp edge.
I could feel the fullness of the peace that climbed the walls and hovered in the air.
Richard moved over to Daisy, and he ran a hand down the back of her head before he leaned down to press a kiss to her crown. “You better watch out or Uncle Rhys is gonna get that soap after you.”
Daisy clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oops! There I go, breaking the rules. I guess I really am a Tomfoolery, right, Papa?”
My daddy laughed with soft affection. “Yup. You are nothin’ but mischief and tomfooleries.”
Affection lifted and soared. My spirit dancing out around me.
I felt the movement to my left, and I glanced that way to my mama spreading her hand out on the table toward me. I twined my fingers with hers. Squeezed tight.
Amor. Amor. Amor.
It banged and shivered and bound.
My daddy filled two plates, and Richard took them from him, crossed the kitchen, and set them in front of me and my mama. “There we go. Before Rhys can get his grubby hands on it.” He sent a grin to Mama and then shifted to give me a wink.
Love poured out, gushing from the dam where it was supposed to be contained.
And I thought it might have been the most wonderfully terrifying thing I’d ever felt.Most of the day gone, we were outside in the backyard. Richard had helped my mama out into the sun where she sat under a blanket in her wheelchair, and Maggie, Emily, Mel, and I had gathered around her.
The guys were playing with Daisy where she climbed the ladder to her slide what had to have been a thousand times, and the three of them took turns catching her at the bottom.
My daddy was napping, exhausted from the trauma from the night before.
Daisy whooped as she hopped onto the platform, rushed across it, and sat back down at the top of the slide. “Here I come! Imma bird, watch me fly!”
She threw her arms into the air and propelled herself into action.
This time it was Royce’s turn to catch her, that dark, intimidating man covered in tats with this stoic, fervent spirit. When she got to the bottom, he lifted her and tossed her into the sky, catching her, the little girl squealing and laughing, her joy palpable in the fall air.
Emily inhaled a sharp breath, and she rubbed her hand over the tiny bump on her belly.
Melanie swatted her arm. “Stop drooling over your man. It’s unbecoming.”
“Um…you’re gonna start blaming me now?” Emily tossed her a grin.
Mel laughed. “Okay, okay, fine. Maybe the rest of us are just jealous you snagged yourself one of the good ones. I mean, seriously, look at that fine ass man. Hot as Hades, he sings and plays, and then he goes around looking at you like that. How is that fair? And I know just because you walk around with that ridiculous grin on your face that the man has to be blowing your mind in bed. And I’m over here scrounging through the dregs.”
I laughed. “Well, Rhys doesn’t look so bad.”
“Nope. He sure doesn’t,” my mama said in her wry, playful way.
Okay.
I thought we could all agree the man was gorgeous in his over-the-top way.
Big and outrageous and full of life.
Melanie grinned, brows disappearing behind her bangs. “Tell me you don’t think Rhys and I are actually a thing?”
“Haven’t you always been? I mean…the tension between you two—”
“Is not close to bein’ sexual,” she cut me off. “He teases the crap out of me, and I give it right back. Honest, kissing that brute would be like kissin’ my brother. My role in his life is trying to keep that bad boy in line. Besides, I’ve seen him in action. Hard pass. Believe me, I was not exaggerating when I told Daisy that boy is nothing but dirt and filth.” Mel laughed when she said it.
“I bet there’s a whole lot more to him than that filthy exterior,” Maggie said, a shot of defensiveness breaking right through the timidity.
Melanie’s brown eyes grew wide with mock horror. “Oh, lord, don’t let that charm and that body and those dimples get to you. That ‘stallion…’”—Mel air-quoted it—“…has starred in far too many rodeos. You do not want to sign up for a ride.”
Emily laughed a light sound. “I’m with Maggie…he’s not that bad.”
Maggie shook her head. “It’s… it’s not like that…no…never mind.”
“Just watch yourself, unless what you’re looking for is a little fun. I’m sure he’d be all too happy to oblige. Just don’t let your brother know. We don’t want to set any fires we can’t put out.” Mel smirked.