Page 56 of Strawberry Moon

I grinned at him. “Want to go see the chicks first? The last of ’em just hatched this morning.”

Curiosity lit his eyes, and I wondered if he’d ever seen how things worked out at a farm, seen baby animals outside of some kind of petting zoo. Maybe he’d had ponies at a birthday party.

I took his hand and led him out to the barn. We’d put the chicks up in a cage, just to be safe, a heat lamp overhead to make sure they stayed plenty warm, even as they cuddled together on some old blankets.

When I shut the barn door behind us, they perked up, thinking they were about to get fed again. Chirping, they danced around the cage, blinking glassy black eyes our way.

“Holy crap, they’re so cute,” Archer whispered, like he was afraid of disturbing them even as they bounced around.

“You wanna hold one?” It didn’t take long to get a fresh rag, wrap up a little ball of fluff, and settle it in his arms. With one careful finger, he stroked the chick’s head while she blinked, sleepy all over again while he kept her warm.

For a while, he was quiet. I liked that. Gave me a second to think, and, well, to appreciate how sweet he looked, making moon eyes down at the little thing.

But then he swallowed again, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

Archer kept his eyes on the chick as he whispered, “Would you tell me something about her—your wife?”

I didn’t let myself flinch. The last thing I wanted was for him to feel like this was a competition, that he had anything to prove to me or anybody else. But I didn’t talk about Lily often. For so long, it’d hurt too much.

Still, if she was a part of me—and she was—he deserved to know her too. At least as well as I could show him.

I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, bending at the elbow so I could comb my fingers through his copper hair.

“Lily. Her name was Lily Hill. Well, Lily McKesson by the end of it, but I fell for her when she was Lily Hill.” As I started to talk, a little smile turned up my lips. I set my cheek against the top of his head. “She loved the animals out here. I just needed a job when I was in high school, you know? I thought, well, I could do this. Work at the farm. I wasn’t smart like you. Not good for much of anything back then.”

Archer huffed, and I felt his weight settle against me, hard enough that I got the point. He was none too pleased by me talking down on myself.

“But she was right pretty. Long brown hair. Blue eyes, a little like yours. Too bright and clever for me from the start. Damn if I didn’t want to impress her though. So I figured it out—the goats and the horses and the chickens. I looked after them real careful, and she... well, I think she liked when I went all soft with them.

“We got married right out of high school. Had a few good years. Great years, really. But, well, then the Condition hit. And she got pregnant, and—”

“Shit, Ford,” Archer whispered. He pulled back to look up at me, and I rubbed the stinging from the corners of my eyes before I met his gaze.

“I know. It was hard and horrible. But I’m okay. I’m working toward being okay.”

He’d pulled away, opened the top of that little cage and deposited the chick gently inside. And my fear spiked. What was he doing? Was he about to tell me that was too much? Walk away for good?

A muscle in my jaw was flexing against the impulse to grab him up and beg him to wait, to apologize for talking about it and making him sad.

Archer closed the cage back tight, turned toward me, and—

And he wrapped his arms around my middle. Hard.

He hugged me close, burying his face against my front so hard his nose must’ve flattened out. “I’m so sorry, Ford.”

I felt his tears wet the front of my button-up shirt. Those tears were for me. All that heartache, just because I’d been hurt.

I hugged him tight, pressed my lips to the top of his head and squeezed my eyes shut tight. “You don’t have a damn thing in the world to be sorry for,” I whispered into his hair.

He sniffled, and I wasn’t sure he believed me. Not yet.

“Archer, I—I know my heart’s been broken, and I’m still working on mending it. But if you want it, it’s yours. Losing Lily was real hard, and I know you and I have a heck of a lot to work out. But I want to. I want to try, with you. ’Cause she would’ve liked you a lot, just not half as much as I do.”

He turned his face up, his cheeks splotchy and his full lips quivering. I couldn’t have that, couldn’t leave him crying, so I leaned in and kissed him real slow. With my tongue, I worked between his lips. He opened with a soft gasp, and I cradled the back of his head, pressed my fingers into the small of his back and dragged him closer.

Anything he wanted, I’d give him. I’d do whatever it took to prove I meant this for serious. Both feet in.

“Ford,” he moaned as I dragged a kiss across the corner of his mouth, down along his sharp jaw and to his neck. The wolf growled, ready to mark him and make him mine. Only, neither one of us were quite ready for that. One day, I hoped we’d get there.

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