Page 32 of Love Me Fierce

She’s admitting that I’m right? I drink this in.

Beyond the lawn, the land has been left wild, the dry sage and bitterbrush mixed with clusters of aspens and spruce that slopes toward Grouse Creek. Further up the gulch, bordered by a narrow gravel road, are the pastures. Two of our horses stand at the fence as if watching us, their long tails swishing in the breeze.

“Now it is,” I say with a laugh. “Not so growing up.”

“I’ll bet. Four siblings.” She nibbles the tip of her watermelon slice.

I try not to get hung up on the way her lips wrap around the fruit or the way she slurps the juice.

“That must have been busy,” she says.

“And noisy.”

She arches her brow in acknowledgement. “Were you all adopted at the same time?”

“Linden’s my biological brother, so we were a package deal. A year after us, Sepp came along. Then Cam a few years after that.”

“Where does Edie fit in?”

“She’sthe baby.”

Her storm-gray eyes turn thoughtful. “A baby in the house with four older brothers. What wasthatlike?”

“She was the miracle that bonded us together.”

She closes her eyes for an instant, then smiles. “That’s really sweet.”

“She thinks we’re a pain in her ass now, though. Wemightbe a little protective.” I crunch the last of my first slice down to the rind. “Do you have family?”

“A sister. McKenna.”

Down in the grass, Sepp helps Mateo get Chip to drop the tennis ball. They’re both laughing when Mateo yells “fetch!” and tosses the ball into the sage.

The dogs take off, tails wagging.

“Are you close with her?” I ask.

“Yes, but she’s a musician, so we don’t see each other very much.”

It’s easy to read the warmth in her expression and the way talking about her sister lights her up. “How about your folks?”

She gives a little shake of her head. “Mom passed away when I was fifteen. Our dad’s not really in the picture.”

I wince. That she’s lost her mother’s jewelry box, likely forever, tugs at my gut. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Mom!” Mateo points to the trampoline. “Can I?”

“Wait for me,” she replies, setting down her watermelon rind on the edge of the platter and rushing down to the grass.

Down below, Sepp uses the spigot to wash his hands, then bounds up the deck. “Watermelon, yum,” he says, plucking a slice from the platter before joining me at the railing. I pick up another one as he zeroes in on Vivian and Mateo climbing into the trampoline.

“Any idea why someone would break into her place?” He takes two huge bites of watermelon.

The way everything was torn up inside the trailer indicates that the intruder was after something specific. They also knew she’d be gone all day—ransacking that trailer so thoroughly wasn’t a quickjob. The missing jewelry box could be what they were looking for, or it could have been opportunistic. I won’t know until I can put together a few more pieces of the puzzle.

“Is someone at work harassing her?” I ask.

He gives me a wary glance. “No. Why?”

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