Page 34 of Secret Heart
She rolls her eyes and huffs, but she does settle back against my side, letting me cover the bite.
Only a few minutes later, a gray SUV comes down the service road.
“What’s your Dad need that he didn’t call about first?” I ask.
But then the truck turns onto the drive, and I realize it’s not Scott at all, though it’s his vehicle. Emily freezes, and her vanilla snaps out around us, faster and stronger than before.
He stops the SUV long before it gets anywhere near where Penny plays and slowly gets out of it. Bootcut jeans and a plain t-shirt sculpted to a broad chest and lean, sculpted arms shouldn’t be able to make my heart race. It’s what most of the people in Creek Falls wear. Hell, I see the other ranch hands dressed in the exact same style of Levis every single day. And yet my heart beats faster and attraction warms my chest and limbs.
He stares at Emily, not Penny, as he shoves his hands in his pockets and hooks one thumb in a belt loop. There’s a wealth of emotion in his blue-green eyes, enough I can’t hope to name all the individual aspects of it. Desperation and guilt are there, but that fragility isn’t. He doesn’t look like he’s prey among predators, one sudden move away from bolting. Emily all but vibrates beside me. I tighten my hold on her, twisting my hand into her shirt to force her still.
Damn, it’s not often I wish I could tell the subtle pheromone differences in scents. Most of the time I’m relieved to not be influenced by them at all. But right now, with thirty feet and eighteen months of no contact between us, I would give just about anything to know what’s lacing Emily’s vanilla scent, to know if her tensing is in preparation for running away from him or running to him.
It’s then that Penny notices him. She squeals and races toward him, the bubbles abandoned entirely. My heart climbs my throat and pulses in my ears as he scoops her up before shecan slam into his legs. She throws her arms around his neck, her dog plushie hitting the side of his face.
“Hi,” he says, just loud enough it carries to us. “Happy birthday.”
She babbles for a minute, holding up her dog and then pointing at the bubbles. Triston’s smile is small as he responds to her, quiet this time so the words are just a hum of noise by the time they reach us. After a few minutes, he kisses the top of her head.
“I have a present for you,” he says, though his eyes are on Emily again. “Do you want to see it?”
He doesn’t actually wait for Penny to answer. He backs up a few steps and opens the door of the SUV, reaching into the backseat. He hands Penny a small, dark blue bag that shines in the sunlight with silver tissue paper peeking out the top.
“Can you take that to your mom?” he asks.
Penny giggles and then wiggles against him in silent demand. The moment her feet touch the concrete, she’s racing back toward us, the bag scraping on the ground every few steps. My gaze catches on Triston slowly following behind her, carrying a much larger, rainbow decorated bag and a small bouquet of daisies.
Emily’s hands tremble as she takes the bag from Penny.
“Thank you, love bug,” she says. That shakiness is in her voice, too, enough that Penny frowns.
She taps Emily’s knee. “Mama.”
“She’s all right,” I murmur, though it’s a complete load of shit.
I release my hold on Emily’s shirt so she can sit up just as Triston reaches us. He drops into a crouch, completely silent, behind Penny. The present sits beside him, his elbows resting on his knees and the bouquet hanging limp in his hands. A smallbruise on the inside of his wrist catches my attention, and I frown.
My life on the line, I’d swear it’s a hickey. It’s nearly the same shade and size as the ones I left on Emily’s shoulder last night. She must notice them, too, because her vanilla scent gets stronger again, and her entire body locks down like she’s preparing to run. Triston’s face pales, and his Adam’s apple moves with a sudden swallow. I tuck my hand under Emily’s shirt and grab hold of the waistband of her leggings, tracing a few of her stretch marks with my thumb to try and hold her steady.
Penny taps Emily’s knee again, hard enough the smack of it cuts through all the tension brewing. Emily flinches and then drops her eyes from Triston. Penny points at the bag she’d brought over and smacks Emily’s knee a third time. I quietly grab her wrist to keep her from doing it a fourth time.
“Why don’t you open yours first, love bug?” I ask in as calm a voice I can manage. “It’s rainbows, just like your favorite blanket.”
She climbs onto Triston’s leg without invitation. He sets the flowers next to Emily, tilting them so the petals don’t get damaged. Then he holds the large bag in front of Penny. Her cheeks puff out as she reaches into the depths of it. She pulls out a cream blanket with a bunny attached at one corner. The inside of the ears and the trim around the blanket are a pink floral. On the corner opposite the bunny, her nickname is embroidered in sweeping letters.
She presses it to her face and collapses into Triston the exact way she does with me when I’m settling her in for bed at night. She babbles a bit and then holds out her dog plushie. Without a word, Triston offers his palm, and she drops the plushie into it so she can wrap both arms around the new blanket.
Damn. Not even Brielle’s managed to find one that gets this much approval.
“You like it?” Triston asks.
Penny nods and kicks her feet.
He blows out a heavy sigh and then focuses on me. “There’s another gift in there, but it probably won’t get the same reaction as the blanket. You can open it later for her if you want.”
His voice has Penny looking back at us. She holds out her hand, pointing at the small blue bag. “Mama,” she says. “Mama.”
“All right, all right,” Emily says, a bit more of her normal humor in her voice. “I’ll open it, love bug. Do you want to pull the paper?”
