“Yes,” Lynn countered. She ran her fingers over the cover and found herself smiling despite herself. Maybe he did do it just to be nice. With Flint, you never knew. “Anyway!” She turned her attention back to Dani after making a mental note to catch up with Flint later. “I talked to Kate.” And Dean and Cody. “And so did you. Did it go well?”
Yes. Dani shrugged.
“You’ll be having that talk again when you get your words back?”
Dani confirmed that too. Then she tapped her index finger rapidly, urging Lynn on.
Lynn took a deep breath. “She… invited me to stay. At the Homestead.”
The tapping stopped. Dani’s eyes widened for a moment, then she deliberately tapped her index finger again, just once. The question was clear in her eyes: “Did you say yes?”
“Yeah, I said ‘yes,’ at least to a trial period.” She scanned Dani’s features to see how that landed.
A spark appeared in Dani’s eyes, bringing them fully to life for the first time since before the bear attack. She tapped her index finger excitedly.
“So, good idea?” Lynn smiled, insides fluttering again at the thought of a trial period not just with Dani but with the Homesteaders as well.
Dani’s eyes watered. “Yes.” She rasped the word, but it was perfectly clear. She tapped her index finger too. “Stay.”
Lynn inspected her face, trying to read every nuance. She was getting very good at it because of the limitations in their communication. “Dani, if… if I stay…” Her heart thumped in her chest. She held Dani’s gaze with difficulty. Heat returned to her cheeks. “If I stay, I’d stay to be with you.”
Dani tapped her hand.
Before she allowed herself to breathe in relief, Lynn made sure it was her index finger, a “yes.”
“You. Me. Together.” Dani strained for every word, and the last caused her chest to heave as she ran out of breath.
“Are you sure you want that?”
Yes. Dani’s gaze was intense as she all but tried to push her thoughts directly into Lynn’s skull.
Lynn took Dani’s hand into both of hers and lifted it to her lips for a kiss. The fear was still there, swirling in her gut, reminding her of the scars she carried over people she’d lost, but when Dani smiled at her, it faded. “All right, that’s settled, then, I guess. You and I can figure out how to do this… together thing.”
Dani rolled her eyes. “Relationship.”
The word made Lynn a little dizzy, but in a good way. She held Dani’s hand up so Dani could see it and tapped “yes.”
EPILOGUE
THE SUN BORE DOWN HEAVILY on Lynn’s back as she traversed the broad New York City streets.
Skeever went from rubble pile to rubble pile, sniffing eagerly. He’d found a stick to drag along and did so proudly. The splint was still on his paw, but if Skeever mourned the loss of function in it, it didn’t show; he moved as agilely as he had always done.
Lynn kept an eye on him as she followed a now-familiar path through one of New York’s many destroyed neighborhoods. “This way, Skeeve.” She pointed her tomahawk in the right direction and waited for him to move past her. As she did, she looked around and smiled. It was amazing how quickly she’d become familiar with the city’s streets. She was starting to get a grip on its patterns—when the lions hunted, where they rested, where the deer trails were, and where the rabbits had their holes. She knew where to get water and in which of the large ponds alligators lurked under the surface.
The streets of New York City had not lost their dangers, but they were dangers she now knew to expect. Above all, she had a mental map of the many shelters and safe spots strewn about the city blocks. She hadn’t been forced to stay out overnight yet, but no matter where she went, she knew she was never more than an hour’s walk away from a safe place to sleep and that it would have all the materials she’d need to make a fire in a hurry.
Tonight wouldn’t be the first night she’d spend outside; it was midday, and she was closing in on the Homestead. She had two more traps to check, and even if they were empty, she’d go home with enough food to feed every member of her newly found home. Two large hares and a capuchin monkey had been lured into her snares, and today’s main target, the fish traps she’d built in an offshoot of the Flushing Bay, had yielded three weakfish and a few menhaden.
She felt good about her haul. Not only was she still proving herself an asset to the Homesteaders, she was also picking up the slack while Dani was recovering and couldn’t pull her weight.
Lynn checked the position of the sun and quickened her step. She was running late, and Dani hated it when she was late.
“You’re late.” Dani smiled and hoisted herself up from the ground by the gate. Her newly repaired spear served as a crutch as she slowly straightened out. Her motions were getting smoother, and it was good to see a healthy glow on her cheeks.
“Sorry, good haul, so a lot of traps to reset.” Lynn followed her inside and out of Flint’s view as he stood guard on the window washer’s rig. She resisted the urge to cup Dani’s cheek as she leaned in to kiss her. She’d wiped her hands, but blood and fish guts tended to linger.
Dani hummed and wrapped her arms around her neck. She pressed close and ran her fingers through Lynn’s hair in the way that always gave Lynn goose bumps. Dani’s tongue running over her lips intensified the feeling, and now Lynn really had to fight to keep her hands off her.
“Mean…” But she claimed another kiss and slipped a little tongue of her own.
This time it was Dani who shuddered. “Mmmm… go clean up, Wilder, we have a date to get to.”
Lynn grinned. A date. If anyone had told her prior to meeting Dani she’d ever go out into the Wilds for anything other than sheer survival, she would have laughed in their face. Now she ran up five flights of stairs with a wicker basket bouncing on her back and Skeever squirming in her arms just so she would be on time for it.
Ren looked up, startled, as Lynn skidded to a halt in the kitchen.
“I’ll take care of these when we get back.” She put Skeever down and dropped the basket just inside the door. Her lungs burned much more than she liked from the short run, but she was gaining strength every day. She had time to pace herself now, just not when she was trying to be on time for “date afternoon.”
Skeever shook himself out and instantly stuck his nose into the basket.
Lynn hurried to snatch the wicker up and put it on the barrels in the corner instead.
“Good catch?” Ren halted with a brush in one hand and a potato in the other.
“Great catch! Feel free to have a look. Fish for dinner tonight.” Lynn made sure to keep her dirty hands away from walls and furniture.
Ren’s entire face lit up. Of all the people in the Homestead, she liked fish more than almost everyone else, right after her husband. “I’ll tell Cody.” Nothing had endeared Lynn to Cody more than the first time she’d brought home a striped bass.
“Tell him to leave some for the rest of us.” Lynn had already backed out of the room. “We’ll be back. Please watch Skeever.”
“Have fun!” Ren shook her head, but the smile that appeared on her features was genuine.
Lynn took the stairs down with equal speed only a few minutes later. This time when Dani appeared in her field of vision, she wrapped her up for a genuine kiss, clean hands traversing her back. She was still careful with Dani’s slowly healing wounds, but Ren had taken the stitches out a week ago and Dani had already regained most of the weight she’d lost during her recovery.