Page 60 of The Last Promise You Made

Addy was mine.

? ? ?

It took me longer than I’d planned to check on the build. Shawn and Ramon were hard at work when I walked into the newest cabin.

Shawn had grown up in Willow Creek. He was a brown-haired, blue-eyed cowboy who was popular down at my uncle’s bar with the locals and the tourists. He was a jack-of-all-trades on the ranch, and I trusted him as far as I trusted anyone but family.

Ramon had been in town for a year or so, moving out of Nashville after trying to make it as a country singer with his down-home, country-star looks and decent voice. He’d said the city life, the pace, the desperation had all been too much for him.

The two men paused their work to walk me through what they’d done over the last two days. Then, we hovered over the plans on a makeshift table built from two sawhorses and a piece of plywood. We talked through the tasks we had to get done before the next inspection, and I felt guilty for leaving them on their own again today.

Building the cabins wasn’t a two-man job. Hell, it wasn’t even a three-man job. We were already pushed to the limits, but I couldn’t leave Addy for long. Not yet. When I explained to them I had some personal stuff going on and hoped to be back at it full time in a day or two, they just brushed it off and told me to take care of whatever I needed to, and they’d be fine. And they would, but the truth was, I liked shaping what I’d designed into reality.

The temperature seemed to have dropped instead of risen as I stepped out of the cabin and headed for the barn again, where Gia was just parking next to my truck. She stepped out, pulling her leather jacket tighter over the lilac-colored flannel she’d had on this morning. It had been soft under my hands, but not nearly as soft as the skin at her waist. Or those silky lips. Those had turned to butter underneath mine.

My pulse picked up at the sight of her.

The second taste of her I’d gotten this morning only had me craving more.

She tucked her hair under a gray knit beanie and headed my way.

“Anything?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not yet, but we barely released the photo. My coworker, Rory, got a hit on a van she saw at the scene, and they followed that to a suburb of Denver. The local PD is going door-to-door, flashing the picture around to see if we get any leads that way.” She looked around. “Where’s Addy?”

I tilted my head toward the barn. “I was just heading back in.”

As we made our way over, our shoulders brushed, and my body prickled with awareness. There was plenty of space for me to move away, to break the contact, but I didn’t. What I really wanted was to grab her hand, push her up against the barn, and continue what we’d started. Instead, I tried to satisfy myself by barely grazing her arm with mine.

We stepped inside to find Sadie filling feed bags for the horses. She waved and then put her fingers to her lips. She pointed upward, and Gia and I stopped and listened.

Mila’s voice was the one I heard first, loud and talkative as always, but then, I heard Addy’s quiet response. Not just one word. Not even two stuttered ones, but an entire sentence. Several sentences. Shock filled me. I turned to Gia, and her face registered the same surprise.

I moved closer to the ladder, skipping the first creaky rung and pulling myself up until I could peek over the edge. Addy had the gray kitten in her hands again, stroking its fur, a soft smile on her face. She was mid-sentence as I focused on her words. “But the dragons can fly into space, and the unicorns can’t, which is why I like the dragons more. They can take you anywhere you need to go. Fly far, far away.”

“I don’t want to go far away. I would miss McKenna and Daddy and Nana and Papa and my aunts and uncles. Don’t you have family that you’d miss?”

“My mama died.” Her smile disappeared.

Mila scrabbled to put the kitten she was holding back into the crate and then sat down next to Addy, wrapping her arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry. You can share my family. You can read about them in the stories I’ve written. There’s one called The Day the Hatleys Saved Each Other and The Day the Hatleys Got Married. Except, my daddy and McKenna haven’t gotten married yet, but they will soon.” Mila’s head tilted sideways, then she asked, “Is that why you’re living with Uncle Ryder? Is he making you his family like my daddy made me his? Because Daddy says Uncle Ryder wouldn’t know a—”

“Mila,” I warned pulling myself up farther onto the loft. I hadn’t wanted to interrupt them. I’d wanted to hear another flurry of complete sentences spoken in Addy’s little voice. But who knew what my niece would have said if I’d let her keep going?

She looked at me sheepishly. “Hi, Uncle Ryder. Did you know that Addy’s mama died? Are you going to take care of her now? Is she going to live with you?” Her entire face went slack for a moment before joy took over, and she screamed, “Is she going to be my cousin?”

Well, hell. That had gone just swimmingly. When I looked over at Addy, her eyes were wide and curious, but there wasn’t any fear or sadness.

I swallowed hard, knowing I couldn’t lie. I didn’t want to. “Yes.”

Mila screamed, jumping up and dancing around. She pulled the gray kitten away from Addy, set it in the crate, and then dragged her up and started spinning the two of them around in a chaotic dance.

I slowed them down, hands to shoulders, and squatted before them.

“Mila. This has to be a secret for now. Our family knows, but no one else can.”

“But why?” Mila whined.

“Because of what happened to Addy’s mama. We need to make sure she’s safe.”

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