“Miles died in a car wreck, several years before the others were reunited.”
“Oh.” She imagined how heartbroken they must have all been to hear that. “That’s very sad.”
“It was a blow for all of them,” he agreed. “A few years later, though, they found out that he’d left a daughter behind. Brynn. She sort of stumbled into the family by accident, but that’s a different story. Now she’s a D’Alessandro as well as a Walker. She married Tony’s younger brother Joe.”
Natalie shook her head. “How do you keep up with all of this?”
He shrugged. “It’s my family history. We’ve all heard the stories a million times.”
“And Molly is…whose daughter?”
“Jared’s. The oldest. He has a son, Shane, from a previous marriage.”
“Families can certainly get complicated, can’t they?” she mused, thinking of her own.
“You could say that.” He glanced back toward the way they had come. “Ready to go back?”
She gave one last lingering glance to the light-bejeweled river and sighed lightly. “I suppose so.”
He leaned over to steal a kiss before they started walking again. She offered her mouth freely, even eagerly. How could she resist in such a blatantly romantic setting?
Slipping an arm around her shoulders, he matched his steps to hers as they retraced their path. Mentally blaming it on the chill in the air, even though that had little to do with it, she nestled more closely into him.
Casey parked in front of Natalie’s cabin, then turned to face her before opening the driver’s door of his truck. Though it was fully dark outside, enough light filtered in from the security lamps for her to see that he was smiling as he looked at her in the shadows. “I had a great time.”“So did I.”
“What are you going to do tomorrow?”
She gave a little shrug. “Read, maybe. Catch up on e-mail. Drive into town and pick up a few supplies.”
“Are you sure you won’t come with us?”
He had asked her during the drive back if she would like to join Molly and him the next day when they took Olivia to the amusement park. She had politely declined then, and she did so again now. “Thank you again, but I’m still going to pass. I think Olivia will enjoy having your complete attention, along with Molly’s.”
He looked as though he might argue a little more, but to her relief, he let it go. “I’ll miss having you with us” was all he said.
“That’s very nice of you.”
“I wasn’t being nice,” he muttered, leaning toward her. “I mean it. I’ll miss seeing you tomorrow.”
Her gaze captured by his, she rested a hand on his chest. “I’ll miss you, too. And I can’t help being a little worried about that.”
His mouth quirked upward into a wry smile. “Let me try to reassure you,” he murmured, then kissed her before she could roll her eyes.
She slid her hand around his neck and returned the kiss. He gathered her closer, and she thought fleetingly that this would have been much more difficult in her car with a console between them. The bench seat of the truck gave them unimpeded access to each other—and Casey took full advantage of the opportunity. He shifted so that she would have had to sit in his lap to be any closer—and that was becoming a definite temptation as the kiss lingered and deepened.
He tilted his head to a new angle and kissed her again, his tongue teasing her, his teeth nipping lightly at her lower lip. As the kisses heated, so did the embrace. Hands wandered, explored, caressed. Their breathing grew rapid and ragged, and Natalie wondered if the heartbeat she heard thundering in her ears was hers, his, or a duet of both.
He finally pulled away with a low groan, shifting his weight on the plush seat as if he had suddenly become very uncomfortable. “It’s been awhile since I’ve made out in a car,” he muttered ruefully. “I won’t lie, it’s still fun…but maybe a bit more awkward than it used to be.”
He could always make her smile, she thought as she had before—even when she shouldn’t. Her hand wasn’t quite steady when she brushed a tangle of hair away from her flushed-feeling face.
“Maybe we should go inside,” she suggested after only a momentary hesitation.
His eyes flared in the dim light, and she knew he was fully aware of what she meant. She had suddenly realized that she wasn’t eager to go into that empty cabin alone, to spend another night tossing and turning and obsessing about her problems. Casey would definitely take her mind off anything else but him. And he didn’t seem to mind being a pleasant distraction…
“I can’t,” he said with a sigh.
She blinked. “Um…you can’t?”