I reach down, grabbing a blanket off the floor. The hammock swings and Sierra leans back to balance us out, keeping us from falling to the ground. The wind howls and mist blows through the screen on Sierra’s back porch.

The storm knocked the power out. Sierra signed the paperwork in the dark inside the bookstore—her store—using the flashlights on our phones to read the fine print. We came back to her house to dry off. We’re together, and I’d love nothing more than to put this all behind us and move on, but I know we can’t.

There’s a lot unspoken between us, and the scab needs to be scraped off and scrubbed out so the wound can heal properly this time.

“Where did you go?” Sierra asks, hooking her leg over me. I tuck the blanket around us, keeping the mist from getting on us. “You were gone for more than a day. Josh didn’t even know where you went.”

“Jackson. For a job.”

Sierra, whose head is resting on my chest, looks at me. “Why?”

A smile plays on my lips. “I guess you could call it fate. Jax texted me about it. Seventy-five-thousand-dollar payout. And that was the amount Mrs. Williams needed to sell the store.”

Sierra closes her eyes and puts her head back down. I wrap her tighter in my arms. Thunder rumbles in the distance, reverberating off the trees.

“What was the job?”

“A politician’s mistress took off with his wife’s horse. He needed the horse back before his wife found out…about the horse and the mistress. Contacting the police would have blown his cover, and he paid extra for discretion.”

Sierra pushes up again, eyes meeting mine. “You never cease to amaze me, Chase.”

I laugh. “You wouldn’t think so if you saw me trying to get that horse into the trailer.”

“It’s a bit of an art form for some horses.”

“I get that now. I’m not the equestrian I like to pretend I am.”

Sierra laughs. “I can take you to the barn. I used to ride all the time. But I just kind of…I lost interest in almost everything I used to enjoy.” Her breath leaves her in a shaky sigh. “You said you fell in love with me from my messages,” she says slowly. “How is that possible? I was a shell of a person. There was nothing to fall in love with.”

“There was. Your words…the pain…it was so raw. So real. It hurt to listen to yet it was beautiful. I haven’t lost anyone like you did, but I related to your words more than I realized. I’d been living in denial for a long time, and hearing your messages made me realize it…that I wanted more in life. The love you had…I wanted to find someone to love me like that, and I wanted to love that person back just as hard. It’s fucked up and doesn’t make sense, I know.”

Sierra doesn’t speak. I gently move so I can see her face. Tears are in her eyes and my heart sinks. Did I say the wrong thing? Was the brutal honesty too much?

“It does,” she whispers. “It does make sense.” She blinks and tears fall from the side of her eyes, dripping down into her hair. She reaches up, hand landing on my cheek. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“I found more.”

* * *

The rain continued to fall the rest of the afternoon. Sierra fell asleep, nestled in my arms. Exhaustion tugged at me, and I fought it as long as I could, wanting to soak up every second of this.

The sun is setting when I wake up. Tinkerbell is on my chest, purring and kneading the blanket with her paws. Dolly is sitting on the table next to the screen, laying in between a collection of colorful lanterns. Humidity clings to the day, and the setting sun takes away the heat.

I brush Sierra’s hair out of her face and kiss her cheek. Her eyes flutter open and she smiles as soon as she sees me.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s okay,” she yawns. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I, uh, haven’t been sleeping well.”

“I haven’t either. We both needed to nap.”

She looks at the setting sun. “Yeah, I guess we did.”

“Are you still in pain?” I ask carefully.

“Not really. It feels like a normal period now. What about you? You should not have worked a job like you did.”

“I know,” I agree. “I felt it the next day.”

The hammock sways as Sierra sits up enough to look at my wound. “It looks bruised, Chase.”

“It feels like it is. I’ll take it easy now.”

“You better.”

“Can Sexy Nurse Sierra—sorry.”

“What’s wrong?” Sierra tips her head.

I run my up her arm. “I’m not sure how to handle having sex again after everything.”

“I don’t either,” Sierra tells me, and brings her arms in around herself. This is a hard topic to discuss. “We’re both on sex restrictions right now. For another week at least.”

“I’ll wait. However long it takes, I’ll wait.”

She smiles. “I know.”

“Are you hungry?”

“Starving.”

“Good. Me too. I can attempt to cook for you again.”

“I’d like that.”

We stand and stretch. Sierra picks up Tinkerbell, and Dolly trots along, weaving in and out of our feet.

“I have to ask one thing,” I tell Sierra and reach down to scoop up the calico cat. “What’s with the cat shelf?”

Sierra turns, and in the millisecond it takes her to respond my heart races. Then she smiles. “They like to climb on things and be up high. You know they’d love it if we put up a system of shelves around the house.”

I’m smiling right back. “I did help Josh put up floating shelves in Dakota’s room. I can see the cats hanging out up there.”

“I know, right?”

“Where do you want to put them?”

Sierra looks at Dolly in my arms, and her smile turns into a grin. “I’ve sketched the whole thing out. Let me show you.”

I follow her to the stairs. We make it up when someone knocks on the door. I set Dolly on the ground and jog down the stairs to see who’s here. Sierra is behind me, still cuddling Tink.

Lisa stands on the porch, holding a bag of food and a bottle of wine. Her eyes go from me to Sierra, and her shoulders are timidly pulled in. It makes sense things are tense between the two of them.

“I brought tacos,” she says, holding out the bag. “I hear we have reason to celebrate tonight.”

Sierra takes the bag and steps aside, welcoming Lisa in. “We do.”

Relief washes over Lisa’s face. Sierra takes the wine and tacos into the kitchen, and Lisa grabs my arm.

“Chase,” she starts, looking at the ground.

“It’s okay,” I say, surprising myself. “We want to move past everything.”

“Right, and okay. Good idea.” Then she looks up with a smile. “And about the bookstore…Sierra told me what you did. Thank you.”