Page 71 of Rolling Thunder

She hadn’t answered, or maybe she’d muttered something carefully neutral and noncommittal. As if on cue, Abbey appeared, looking from one of them to the next. She went to Evan and nudged him with her nose, pressing her head into his hand. He looked down at her and decided she was the perfect excuse.

“I better get her home before she decides she really lives here,” he said, scanning the house for anything he needed to bring back to his place.

“Evan—” she said, but he clipped a leash on the unruly dog and headed for the door.

“Evan!” she said again, but this time, her voice was more desperate and choked with emotion.

He stopped on her porch with the dog straining at the leash to go run amok. He looked back at her.

“I love you,” she said. Amber had said that too. After all this, how could he doubt her now? He didn’t know, but there it was, just like a scent on the wind making the dog want to run.

“I love you too,” he answered.

“I’ve never met anyone’s parents before,” she blurted. “I’m not…”

I’m not that kind of girl was what he thought she meant to say, but stopped herself.

“I practically didn’t have parents. Nothing was normal for me. I don’t know how to do normal things.”

He went back to her, and she met him with a desperate hug, her fingers grabbing his shirt in unmistakable honesty. She drew back, looking him in the eye. “I’m really not trying to screw this up. Please don’t leave mad. I wish I was the kind of girl you deserve.”

“I wish you wouldn’t say stuff like that. What makes you think I’m so different from you? I never met a girl’s parents before either. Except your mom, and under the circumstances, I don’t think that counts. I was fighting for my life in prison most of the years I should have been doing stuff like that. I’m pretty new to adulting too. We’re a pair.”

A rough, impromptu giggle erupted from her. “Well, when you put it like that.”

“They’re only here for the weekend. I know it isn’t much notice.”

“Crash-course in adulting.”

“I have faith in you.”

“That makes one of us,” she said with a wry smile.

Kayla was quiet on the drive to Fort Myers. She’d changed clothes four or five times before they could leave. She still didn’t feel comfortable in the jeans and simple buttoned western shirt she had chosen.

“They’ll love you, you know,” Evan commented.

She shot him a quick, tense smile. “I’m just…not the kind of girl you bring home.”

“Good thing we’re going to a restaurant, then.”

She laughed a little despite herself. “You know what I mean.”

He pulled into a parking spot and turned to her. He reached out to touch her chin and raised it deliberately.

“Don’t do that to yourself,” he said softly. “You made your choice, and you fought for it. That’s who you are, not the sum of the choices other people made that you suffered the consequences of. For what it’s worth, I don’t even feel that comfortable just hanging out with my parents yet, either. But as long as they’re in town, I can’t let them leave without meeting you.”

Seeming fortified, she got out of his truck, smoothing her outfit.

This time, Bev and Hank Flint were waiting on the bench outside the restaurant. They stood up when they saw Kayla and Evan approaching. She sensed Evan watching her out of the corner of his eye. Kayla flashed her “tourist” smile—the one she used to introduce herself to her trail ride guests.

“Mom, Dad. This is Kayla.”

Bev was once again the icebreaker as she stepped forward immediately to hug Kayla. It was a genuine embrace, and Kayla felt an unexpected sense of belonging and affection.

Kayla shook Hank’s hand. They seemed like ordinary, salt-of-the-earth people. Kayla could tell in the first five minutes that Bev Flint was a steady woman who hadn’t gone into fits of drunken rage as her sons grew up. She had one sensible glass of wine at dinner and held her husband’s hand. Kayla both longed to be a part of it and knew that she didn’t fit in at the same time.

Dinner was easier than she could have hoped. Emboldened by the success, Evan suggested they take a ride over to see a house he and Dan had just finished. The houses around it still suffered significant damage, and it was a stark contrast with its clean yard and tidy exterior. Evan explained the process by which he and Dan salvaged the hurricane-damaged houses. The network had even put a small billboard on the front lawn showing a “before” picture with Evan and Dan.

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