“That’s really cool. Where did Delphine go?”
“Oh, let’s see… We got postcards from Oregon, Arizona, D.C., a small town in Michigan, and Virginia. She had a bit of a wandering soul. After three more marriages and divorces, she came back home when I was a teenager.”
We crest the top of the hill and find a flat spot in the emerald-green grass. Reno sets down the cooler before taking the blanket from me, shaking it out, and spreading it on the ground. “Did she have more kids?”
I sink down onto the blanket, and Reno sits beside me with his legs bent, elbows on his knees. My fingers itch to touch that swirl of hair over his forehead, but I manage to control my urge.
“Not with any of the other husbands, but apparently, she and my dad hooked up and she ended up pregnant. Again. So he married her. Again.”
“This is like a damn soap opera,” he says with a chuckle.
“No shit. So shortly after I turned fourteen, Xander was born and two years after that, they had Jordan.”
“And did Delphine stick around?”
My lips roll in between my teeth, and I shake my head before lying back on the multicolored blanket. “Why don’t we look at the clouds now?”
Because in the words of Forrest Gump…
That’s all I have to say about that.
Chapter 9
Hump me like a ladybug
Reno’seyesstayonmy face for a long moment, but he doesn’t ask me any more questions. Instead, he stretches out on his back beside me and sweetly links his fingers with mine.
“Enthrall me with your cloud acumen, Juliette McNamara,” he says.
With the vastness of the sky above me and a hulking hockey player beside me, I relax. “The fluffiest clouds are called cumulus, and they’re the best for finding shapes. Like those over there,” I say, pointing up at a collection of bright white clouds against the brilliant blue of the sky.
“What kinds of shapes?”
“Anything.” I swivel my head toward him, and he does the same. “You’ve really never found shapes in the clouds before?”
“No, and now I feel wholly inadequate,” he says wryly.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you,” I tell him, and his eyes soften on mine, glistening like pale emeralds, andis he closer than he was a few seconds ago?Dragging my gaze away, I point to a long cloud on the right side of the grouping. “What do you think that one looks like?”
“Ummm, a white blob?”
I laugh. “No, use your imagination, silly.”
“Why don’t you help me out with the first one since I’m a newbie?”
I study the pale fluff. “Hmm, I think that one looks like a sexy bunny.”
A laugh bursts from Reno’s mouth, and it’s deep and seductive. “A sexy bunny?”
“Yeah. You can see the ears there.” I trace them with my index finger in the air. “And he’s lying on his side like this.”
Releasing his hand, I turn on my side and strike a pose, resting my jaw on my fist. “It’s like he’s saying, ‘Hey, ladies.’” I wiggle my eyebrows for effect.
Reno mirrors my position and, in his best Joey Tribbiani voice, says, “I’m Sexy Bunny. How you doin’?”
That makes me giggle. “Exactly. It’s like a whole new world opens up in the sky when you set your mind free to imagine.”
His lips crook up into a devastating smile. “You really are a dreamer, aren’t you?”
