Page 78 of Born in the Spring

That furrow still marks Jasper’s brows, but they give a subtle lift at his mom’s checking in, as if to make sure I see that she doesn’t blame me, either.

Knowing that eases me a little, and I wrap an arm around her, shifting and removing half her hold on me, and manage a smile. “I’m okay. I’m just gonna call it a night,” I rush to add, avoiding Jasper’s gaze.

Amie’s hold slides to my hand as I continue my steps backward, of course not looking convinced. “I’ll let you off with that because you do need to rest.” She gives my hand a squeeze before letting me go, then addresses Jasper as I turn for the door. “And you. No. Violence. You cannot get hurt—”

I’m back outside, the cold wind whistling in my ears as I clutch my jacket close to my neck, hurrying toward Shepherd’slodge, like I’m in a race to beat the sound of following footsteps.

Thirty-Two

Jasper

After assuring Mom of something else thatwon’thappen again, I make a mad dash to catch up to Elara. She’s fleeing again, and I’m going to find out why, and we’re not leaving my lodge until she’s not running from us anymore.

Until I don’t feel like I’m on this constant verge of losing her.

We’re figuring this out. We’re figuring it all out.

I pace my steps once I have her in sight, following her stalk to our lodges, the sound of her boots echoing enough to muffle my pursuit, as everything else stills in my waiting to see if she’ll make the choice to keep straight. If hercall it a nightwas another cue for me to meet her higher up the hill. Knowing I’m wrong before she even makes the left toward Shepherd’s lodge.

Clouds of my breath come rapid as I push back into a dash, reaching her side right at the porch steps.

“No,” I say as I secure her hand in mine and guide her towardmylodge. Guide, with not much tug, because her stepsfollow mine willingly, her protest only in her mouth.

“Jasper,” she sighs out, tired, and with a trace of need I’m completely attuned to.

“No,” I repeat, with that same tiredness and need in my voice. “Tonight, afterthat, you’re staying with me.” And we’re going to talk. There’s more, and my gut is telling me I’m part of that too.

She keeps her hand in mine the entire way to my door, then we loosen and release our grips at the same time as she walks through first. I close us in and flick on the lights, a brief pause in my movements as I take in Elara right in front of me, with a twitch in my lips, as she’s looking at me head-on. She stands stubborn as hell with her pinched and puckered face in a slight tilt, hands now in the pockets of her jacket.

I’d hate that jacket if we both didn’t enjoy the way I take it off her.

I allow my smile as I sigh back against the door, bringing her with me by this damn jacket. My tug draws a gasp from her throat and shallows each breath after. Her fingers wrap around my wrists as I undo the buttons, our hands moving down her body together with held gazes.

“There’s more,” I prod her, a shudder through the words, as I fan open her jacket, my fingers grazing her stomach through her top.

She squeezes my wrists as her eyes grow watery, then she’s blinking at the wet, now stubborn against her tears as she shoves away from me, and over to the couch.

And I wait.

When she turns to me, the jacket is still on, and she makes no move to take it off. Because we both know it’ll be me who tosses it down, with every other layer she has on. Becausethat’s how this night’s going to end. There’s nothing she could tell me that would make me not want her with me.

But she’s going to try.

Her cheeks are pinkened, but dry, as she stands resolved in whatever she’s about to tell me. Another choice she’s made. A standing I recognize as now something to do more with her than with me. And she’s not laying down arms.

But neither am I.

“You’re old enough to give me what I need. . .” She says the paraphrase of my words as almost an afterthought, before she asks, “Am I young enough to give you what you need?”

“Tell me what you think I need and I’ll remind you it’s you.”

Elara’s lips part, a softOaround the briefest pause, before she continues as if I didn’t just steal her words. “I had a pregnancy scare.”

My spine straightens, a slow tightening up, black creeping into my side vision as I’m hit with how close she was to having a baby with my brother.

My eyes fall to her stomach, the place I just touched, right at the waistband of her leggings, a motion she shakes her head at.

“It was a fluke of the test,” she adds as an assurance, though I figured that much, but it still eases me back against the door. “That can happen sometimes.” She licks her lips and bites down. “But having that moment where I thought I was pregnant was…terrifying,” she breathes, tears in her voice. “And when I found out I wasn’t, I was so relieved.”

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