Page 63 of Searching for her Heart
I notice Silver staring at her with wide eyes. “D-does she have short brown hair?” He motions above his shoulders. “And can she throw a dagger with precise accuracy?”
Penny gasps in shock. “Yes! You’ve seen her? Is she okay? Where is she?” She rushes over to him, gripping the front of his tunic, begging for more answers.
“You know the friend I mentioned? The one who wears pants and is mated to my friends? Well, that’s Ria.”
“She’s mated?! Is she okay?”
“She’s better than fine. She’s married to three pirate captains, they’re brothers. She met them when she pretended to be a cabin boy so she could sail on their ship,” he explains. Suddenly, Penny bursts into tears, pressing her face into his chest. He looks at me in alarm and I mimic hugging her, so he slowly wraps his arms around her. I give him a small nod and he seems to relax. I even hear him mutter a few words of reassurance to her.
“Penny? Come here,” Brax asks, and I see him reclined in a chair, motioning to her. When her red puffy eyes see him, she all but runs to him, jumping into his lap and curling up as he rocks her back and forth.
“It’s okay, Baby. Let it all out.”
“Why is she so upset?” Silver whispers, coming to stand beside me.
I shake my head. “She’s not upset, I think it’s relief. I think she sees Ria as a sister and was the only family she had left from her world. She went missing and I think she has been moreworried about her than she let on. Knowing she’s safe, she’s able to release all those pent up fears about her.”
When she finally calms down, Brax helps wipe her face before she turns in his lap to face the rest of us. “Sorry I got so emotional there. It’s just… you have no idea what it’s been like. Ria vanished into thin air, and nobody cared. We were all each other had after my parents…”
“After your parents what, Sweetheart?” Silver asks, my eyebrows rising at the use of the nickname.
She glances at Brax and Ryker before speaking. “I guess I haven’t told you about my parents yet.”
“You told us about your twin brother you lost, but nothing about your parents,” Ryker says, kneeling at her side as he runs a hand over her knee. She had a twin brother too? I wonder how she lost him, that must have been devastating.
“I told you I lost Charlie when we were sixteen. Two years later my parents died in a car accident… uhh… A car is a high-speed vehicle that you drive.” She glances at our slightly confused faces before adding, “It’s similar to a boat accident, I suppose.”
“Baby, you lost your whole family within two years?” Brax asks, sounding pained. She nods as she sniffles.
“Well, you have us now, and Ria.”
She looks up to Silver with hope in her eyes.
“You’re sure she’s okay? She’s happy?”
“I actually just saw her recently, when I met you I’d just returned from a visit to the east coast. She’s very happy, I promise. She lives on the ship, but I can take you to a town she will eventually visit, if you like?”
“You’d do that? You’d come with us?” she asks hopefully.
“Of course, if you want me to. But I can just give the others directions if you’d prefer.”
“No! I mean, if you don’t mind, I’d love you to come too, you can tell me stories about what she’s been doing here.” He nods,and she lets out a sigh of relief. “I can’t believe she’s here, and she’s okay. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”
“Well, that sounds like the perfect time to sneak you away for our date, Sugar,” I tell her with a smile.
She beams at me as she climbs out of Braxton’s lap and stands. “I’d love that.” She turns and kisses her mates, thanking the dressmaker and Silver, before taking my hand as I lead her out of the store.
The festival is in full bloom when we arrive, and I lead her straight to the dance floor. “I don’t know the steps, Indy,” she confesses.
“Just follow my lead and don’t worry about it, just relax and have fun, alright?”
“Yes, sir,” she says with a heated stare as she bites her lip. I pull her against me with my hand in hers, and the other on the small of her back. I start guiding her around the dance floor and she does an excellent job of letting me lead.
“You’re doing wonderful, Sugar.”
“You’re a great dancer, Indiana.”
“It’s all you,” I tell her honestly. We smile at each other as we dance from song to song, occasionally talking when the music is a slower beat. After a while, she asks for a break.
