Page 101 of Home Tears

“What’s Julia going to say?”

“Eh, she can moan or cry, but she knows I love her. She can’t get rid of me.” He pulled her in for a hug. “I gotta say, you looked good with that flamingo on your head tonight. You should wear it more often. Visit Kathryn with it. Give it to her as a gift.”

Dani touched the top of her head. She forgot about Fancy Nancy, but it wasn’t there. She frowned. She already missed it. “I wouldn’t force a Kathryn visit on any inanimate object.”

“Only inanimate objects?” Jake joked. “The animate objects are just fine?”

“Well, yeah. They’re animated. They can withstand the Kathryn Glower.”

“Because they’re animated?”

“They’re jaunty and they dance and they stand still enough to feel the full power of Kathryn’s Glower.” And it felt weird to be laughing with Jake again.

“Jaunty?”

“Jaunty.”

Jake looked thoughtful. “You know what else is jaunty?”

“What?” This was her old best friend. She didn’t remember the moment when they moved from best friend to more than that, but this was him again. She missed him. She missed this.

“The Chapel of Love.” He nudged her arm with his. “Right? Am I right?”

Dani laughed loudly, she couldn’t contain it. “I’ve forgotten. You broke the radio when that song came on. Remember? That stupid thing went off, and you got so mad, you threw a rock at it.”

“Well, yeah, because we were in the middle of being—” Intimate. Jake shut up. “Oh.”

Dani coughed. “Uh, Aiden’s probably looking for me.”

“Yeah.” Jake nodded.

Dani turned and left, but Jake caught her arm. “Maybe not now, but some day I’d like to be friends again. I mean that.”

“Me, too.” She went to look for Aiden, but she meant it. She hoped one day she and Jake could be friends again. Not best friends. That was too far again, but maybe family instead?

She joined Aiden and Bubba. Kate was there, too, glaring at Robbie, whose head was hanging down. Jonah came up at the same time. Everyone straightened to attention. He touched the small of Dani’s back, saying, “Everything’s ready. You guys can bunker down in my office. There should be cots in there, too.”

“What about you?” Aiden asked her brother.

He met Dani’s eyes. “Save me a place, but I’m going to be up for a while.”

The rest nodded and filtered off.

Dani touched his chest. “Is everything okay?”

Bags had formed under his eyes, and he raked a hand through his hair. “To be honest, there’s no good way for me to answer that so, get a good’s night sleep. For me.” He dropped a kiss on her lips, and before he would’ve moved away, she caught his face. She held him there, just a moment longer. She pressed against him, wanting him to know she cared. She was there for him. He hesitated, just a moment, then he answered back. His lips became hard over her, almost claiming and draining her at the same time. He pulled back, breathing a little heavy, and rested his forehead to hers. “I’m going to slip away tonight, but it’s not looking good.”

“You don’t want to tell me what’s wrong?”

He hesitated. “I do. I just can’t.” He brushed a kiss over her cheek, stepping back. “I mean it. Get a good night’s sleep, if you can. Don’t worry about me.”

But she would. He knew that, too. She watched him go. Trenton met him halfway, and their heads bent together. Hawk joined their group, and a deep frown formed over Jonah’s face. Something was going on. Something she was going to have to make Jonah tell her, but later. He wasn’t ready to break protocol yet.

Instead of heading to Jonah’s office, Dani grabbed a blanket. She went to a bathroom and tried to dry off as much as possible, then she wandered the back halls of Jonah’s headquarters. She wasn’t moving to a specific target, but she found herself at the freshwater tank. The tank ran the entire wall of the room. It circled around how the river wound along their town and their lands. It was an exact replica of Falls River. And Dani saw the black mussels she helped finance. There were a few real ones sitting in the water. One opened.

A grey pearl was nestled in the sand dirt.

“So this is what your boyfriend does.” Julia cleared her throat from the doorway, and Dani’s momentary amazement vanished. She looked around, her gaze falling on the tank and then zeroing in where Dani had been looking. Julia chewed at her lip. “Those are mussels?”

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