CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The party lasted until almost midnight with the guests reluctant to leave the fun.
“Come on, guys. Let’s let the newlyweds go do what newlyweds do,” Joey yawned. She didn’t see the color drain out of Beckett and Jax’s faces, but Niko did, and it made him laugh. “I want to get out of this dress,” she complained to Jax.
“I’m happy to help you, Mrs. Pierce,” Jax teased.
Emma organized the cleanup and helped Cheryl pack up the portable bar.
Niko took a moment to flip through some of the pictures on his camera display. His pulse quickened. They were good. Really good. And there were more of them than he’d expected. Phoebe might just be getting herself a wedding portfolio after all.
It was all there. The laughter, the tears, the love, and the land. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned the camera off, repacking the flash and extra batteries in his bag.
“How do they look?” Emma asked.
“Uh-uh. Brides gets dibs on these,” he told her.
Emma pouted. “Are you sure the friend who strong-armed you into this doesn’t trump the bride?”
He ran his thumb over her lower lip and wished they were alone. “Pretty sure. But maybe you could try convincing me.” He watched her eyes go dark and wanted more than anything to move in and sample her.
“You guys ready to head out? Reva’s bringing the wagon back around to pick us up,” Joey said, jerking her chin toward the sound of hooves and the creak of the hay wagon.
“Yeah, let me just grab something quick,” Emma said, backing away from Niko.
She dashed over to the caterer and returned with two big bags.
Reva pulled the team up in front of them and climbed down. Wordlessly, she nodded at everyone and bundled her brother into his jacket. “Get up on the wagon, Cale,” she ordered.
“I’m tired, Ree,” the little boy yawned.
“I know, buddy. We’re going home now.”
“Reva, we’re divvying up leftovers. These are for you guys. Does your mom like chicken?” Emma asked, handing Reva the bags.
“Mom’s on vacation,” Caleb said sadly. “I miss her, but Reva doesn’t.”
“Okay, time to go,” Reva said quickly, shoving Caleb toward the wagon. Niko saw Emma and Donovan share a glance.
“Horses do okay for you?” Joey asked Reva, changing the subject.
“No problems,” the girl answered solemnly as she carefully packed the bags up on the seat next to her.
Niko took pleasure in lifting Emma onto the wagon. He climbed on behind her and pulled her into his side when they sat.
“Everybody on?” Reva called from the front.
“All clear,” Jax reported.
The wagon lurched forward, and Niko wondered if life could possibly get any better than this moment. A beautiful woman curled into his side, the night sky filled with stars, and a day of fun behind them.
He saw it, the quick flash of a shooting star across the midnight blue of the sky. He glanced around, but no one else had noticed it. There was only one thing to do with a shooting star. So he wished. He didn’t know the how or the why, but those didn’t seem to matter. All that did was the who.
Emma.
They returned to the brewery parking lot and unloaded. Jax and Carter unhooked the wagon and led the team back to the barn to untack.
Summer left to help Gia load up her car and search Aurora for contraband cake. “How many pieces of cake did you have?” Gia asked her daughter as they walked toward the parking lot.
“Thanks for the leftovers and for letting my brother come. Our neighbor couldn’t watch him tonight,” Reva said quietly to Joey. “We’re gonna go home.”
“Who’s here to pick you up?” Joey asked, fussing with the strap of her dress.
“Uh, our mom. She’s probably down by the road,” Reva said, putting her arm around Caleb.
“I don’t wanna walk, Ree,” the little boy yawned.
“Hush. It’s not that far,” she told him.
“It is, too. It’s a million miles.”
“How about I drive you down and meet your mom,” Donovan said. It wasn’t an offer. It was closer to an order.
“No, that’s okay,” Reva said quickly.
“Is Mom really here?” Caleb asked hopefully.
Niko could see the tension radiating off of Reva.
“Reva,” Beckett said quietly. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” she shook her head. “Nothing, we just gotta get home. It’s late.”
“I’ll drive you,” Donovan said again.
“You can’t,” Reva said flatly.
“Why can’t he drive you?” Joey asked frowning.
“Because it’ll ruin everything, okay?” Reva threw her arms up in the air.
“Don’t be mad, Ree. It’s okay.” Caleb patted his sister’s arm.
“It’s not okay. And you guys are going to ruin everything!”
“Where’s your mom, Reva?” Emma asked.
“She left. Okay? She left us three weeks ago.”
Joey let out a string of curse words that had Caleb’s mouth falling open. “Those are all bad words!”
“My wife has a spectacular vocabulary, buddy,” Jax said, reappearing with Waffles at his heels. He ruffled Caleb’s hair. “What’s going on?”
“Reva’s mad ‘cause mom left us to go on vacation, and she won’t let Mr. Sheriff drive us home even though I don’t wanna walk ‘cause it’s so far an’ I’m tired,” Caleb explained.
“Well, shit.”
“You can’t split us up,” Reva said to Donovan. “I won’t let you.”
“Reva, I don’t want to separate you from your brother.”
“But if you put us in foster care, that’s what’s going to happen. I’ll be eighteen in ten months. I can be Caleb’s guardian then.”
“But you can’t freaking raise yourselves until then,” Joey argued. “What the hell, Reva?”
“Okay, hang on. We need an adult pow-wow,” Emma said.
“Stay right there, and don’t even think about running away or I’ll have Waffles hunt you down,” Joey threatened Reva.
“Okay, here’s what happened,” Donovan began when they huddled up. “Reva’s mom asked you two to watch her kids while she went on vacation,” he said pointing at Joey and Jax.
“Us? We don’t know what to do with kids!” Joey complained.
“Please,” Jax snorted. “Reva is more mature than the two of us combined.”
“True. Continue.”
“We’re going to take them to their house, make sure the mom isn’t there, pack up some of their shit, and they’re going to stay with you two until I can figure out a way to make sure they don’t get split up,” Donovan decided.
“You heard the sheriff, Jojo,” Jax said. “We got ourselves a couple of house guests.”
“Good thing we put that addition on the house,” Joey muttered.
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Niko and Emma went with Donovan, Reva, and Caleb to the house to pack while Jax and Joey readied the guest rooms.
Reva stared sullenly out the window of Donovan’s SUV while Caleb fell asleep against Emma’s arm. Emma felt an ages-old rage roil inside her. How were mothers still abandoning their children? And in this case, there wasn’t a second parent ready and willing to step into the void. She and her sisters had been lucky. Franklin had been father and mother and therapist and friend to them all. But who did Reva have? And who did Caleb have besides Reva?
Emma understood Reva better than the girl could know. She knew the bitter taste of betrayal just as she knew the determination to keep the rest of her family intact. She just hoped the system wouldn’t damage them even more.
Without directions, Donovan pulled into the dirt driveway of a ramshackle ranch. Once a shade of white, the siding shown dingy gray in the headlights. Paint peeled from the shutters and front door. But the grass was neatly trimmed and the porch light glowed a sad welcome.
“Come on, Cale,” Reva whispered to her brother. “We’re home.”
Inside, Reva flipped on lights revealing a worn but spotless interior. The threadbare carpet was vacuumed. The shelves holding a handful of framed pictures of Reva and Caleb were dusted. The kitchen was immaculate and empty save for a box of peanut butter crackers and a bag of apples on the counter. There was no food in the cabinets or the refrigerator.
“I was going to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I got paid this weekend,” Reva said defensively as Donovan systematically opened and closed cabinets.
“Reva, there’s not a one of us that’s gonna say you did something wrong. So get that through your stubborn head,” Donovan said. “We’re here to help, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to keep you and your brother together. So if you’re gonna be pissed, be pissed at someone who deserves it.”
“You mean like my mother.”
Niko knelt down to Caleb’s level. “Hey, man. Want to show me your room? We can pack up some stuff for your sleepover at Jax and Joey’s.”
Caleb trotted down the ribbon of hallway tugging Niko behind him.
“Look, we’re not here to judge,” Donovan began.
“But you are,” Reva countered. “I come from a woman who loved pills and booze more than her own kids. That’s in me. She made me.”
Emma laid her hands on Reva’s shoulders. “You aren’t your parents any more than any of us are. My mom left, too. And I take great pleasure in not being her. It doesn’t matter who made you. It matters what you choose to be.”
“Do you know where she is, Reva?” Donovan asked quietly.
She shook her head. “Said she was going away for the weekend with her boyfriend. That was three weeks ago. She emptied the checking account.”
“Go pack whatever you need,” Donovan ordered quietly.
Emma gave her a minute and then wandered down the skinny hallway with its flattened, stained shag carpeting. She paused outside Caleb’s room and listened to Niko explain how to pack his Buzz Lightyear suitcase so he could fit his teddy bear in it.
“Wow!” Caleb said in wonder as Niko zipped the bag shut. “You pack good.”
“Lots of practice, kid.”
“Niko?”
“Yeah, bud?”
“Do you think Jax and Joey will have Marshmallow Munchies at their house?”
“What are Marshmallow Munchies?”
The little boy moved in and leaned his tired head against Niko’s arm. “It’s my favorite cereal. I had it one time at a sleepover.”
Niko cleared his throat, and his voice was gravelly when he spoke again. “Yeah, buddy. I think they’ll have Marshmallow Munchies.”
Her throat thick with emotion, Emma moved on to the room Reva had entered and knocked lightly. “Need a hand?”
Reva was sitting on the bed, silent tears tracking down her face. “I’m not sad,” she said quickly, wiping a hand under each eye.
“You’re pissed, and you have every right to be,” Emma said, sitting down next to her. “Be mad at her. It’ll fuel you better than sad ever will. But don’t forget that you still have a life to live, and it’s going to be good. Really good.”
“You think so?” Reva sniffed.
“This is Blue Freaking Moon, Reva. We take care of our own whether you want us to or not. Now, shove your crap in a bag and let’s get your brother home to bed.”
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It was another hour before they had Reva and Caleb settled in at Jax and Joey’s. Waffles was beside himself with excitement over the house guests and couldn’t decide who he wanted to sleep with.
“I can’t believe they’ve been on their own for almost a month,” Niko shook his head as they walked back to Emma’s car in the brewery parking lot.
“That is one determined girl,” Emma agreed, wrapping her arms around herself to keep warm. Noticing, Niko pulled her up against his side, and the heat pumping off of him warmed her immediately.
“Is there an all-night grocery store around here?” he asked.
“In Cleary, about thirty minutes west,” Emma told him. “Why? Are you hungry?”
“I’m gonna go pick up a couple of boxes of Marshmallow Munchies.”
And just like that, she broke. Hard and fast and without any hope of ever recovering her sanity.
“Damn it, Niko!”
She grabbed him by the shirtfront and dragged him down to meet her mouth. Her body, it seemed, had been waiting for this exact moment forever. The heat and pressure of his lips against hers sent magic zinging up her spine as every cell in her body flamed to life.
He caught up quickly, spinning her and pressing her against the door of her SUV. Cold metal at her back and the hot, hard lines of Niko’s body at her front. She felt him harden against her and welcomed it when he leaned into her, grinding hips against hips.
She whimpered against his lips, and he used it to gain access to her mouth. His tongue swept into her like an army invading, and Emma could see the stars brighten behind her closed lids. Closer. She needed to be closer to him. His belt bit into her belly, but it only excited her more.
He skimmed his hands over her shoulders, down her arms to her waist and hips, the silk of her dress begging to be ripped away.
She shoved her fingers into his hair, keeping him on her, and gave up all need for oxygen as she poured herself into the kiss. Swept away. As if her common sense and her carefully laid plans were caught in the unceasing current of a river.
It’s what he was doing to her, what she was allowing to happen.
Her lips bruised themselves against his, finding the pain worth it now that the wait was finally over. She belonged right here, right now, devouring and being devoured under the night spring sky. Nothing but now mattered.
“Baby,” Niko whispered, his breath ragged. “We’ve got to stop, or I’m going to take you right here on the hood of your car.”
“There are worse places,” Emma said, nibbling on his lower lip.
He growled darkly. “You deserve better, Emmaline. And I’m going to give it to you.”
She lost her breath again at that promise. “My house. Tomorrow night. Tonight,” she corrected looking up at the night sky. “Dinner. I’ll cook for you and then after—”
“I’ll make you very, very happy,” he promised. He pulled back slightly and stared up at the sky, swore. “Are you sure, Emma? I know you want to be friends, and I’ve got to admit, I’ve become pretty dependent on having you as a friend.”
“Niko, you’re driving an hour round-trip to buy a little boy you just met cereal that he had one time and loved. This after spending hours documenting the happiest day of my father’s life, all because I asked you to do it. You’re not just gorgeous on the outside. You’re beautiful on the inside, too, and I’d be an idiot to not take advantage of whatever time we have together.”
“Jesus, Emma. You gut me,” he said, resting his forehead on hers.
“Nikolai, you’re going to feel a lot more than gutted when I’m done with you.”
His erection flexed hard as steel against her belly at her words. “I’m worried I won’t survive you,” he admitted.
“There’s only one way to find out. Seven. Don’t be late. And you might want to catch a nap this afternoon so you’re rested up.”