She exhaled and the scent that caught in my senses was delicious. “You, sugar. I need you.”
And right there on the studio floor, I touched Aly King because she asked me to. I kissed her bare stomach, those tempting, beautiful nipples because they belonged to me. And she let me kiss her skin because she said she’d missed how it felt. “This is like coming home,” she said when I pushed my hands under her back.
Nothing could have been clearer to me then, that from here on out, Aly would mean home. I would no longer be adrift. I would no longer have to hide between my shame and my guilt simply to have something to hold on to. Aly was my safety net. She would not only save me, but she also would bring me home. To her. To us. To the potential we could find in each other.
And when I slipped inside of her, I did it slow, watching her face, loving the feel of her sharp features and soft, flawless skin. “Home,” I agreed. She opened to me, took everything I gave her like she knew everything I had was hers.
It always would be.
25
“Makana means ‘gift,’ right?”
Ransom had explained his baby sister’s name once we’d left the studio two days ago. But when we hadn’t come up for air until the next night, Kona’s pervy radar was on high alert. He kept hinting and remarking about the way we walked, and how relaxed we were with each other. Asking questions about his new baby was about the only way I had to distract him.
“That’s right,” he said, bringing the baby to me. “Beautiful, just like her mama.” Kona winked at Keira who watched me closely as I sat down with the baby. Kona lingered, just a little, couldn’t seem to stop kissing her forehead or rolling around that single curl that twisted at the top of her dark, thick hair.
“She is,” I agreed.
“Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on,” he whispered, but kept his attention on his daughter as he spoke. Then, Kona smirked. “You come in here looking like you haven’t slept in days, just like Ransom did this morning, and yet you’re both smiling like you have the most wonderful secret. I’m not blind.”
“But you are nosy,” Keira said, pretending to be distracted by the quick click of the television as she pointed the remote at it. “Get over here and let her enjoy the baby.”
He laughed as he obeyed, maneuvering his massive body next to his wife’s. I couldn’t hear what they were saying in those low whispers, and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know, so I kept my attention on the tiny baby in my arms.
Her skin was precisely the color of Ransom’s and her mouth was Kona’s, thick bottom lip and pronounced dip in the cupid’s bow. But her eyes were not narrow like any of the Hale men. Like Koa’s eyes, Makana’s was rounded and I suspected both she and her older brother would have lighter eyes, eyes more like Keira’s.
“Have you guys brought Koa in to see her?” I asked, adjusting that sleeping bundle to my chest.
“Yeah,” Keira answered, nudging Kona when he stole the remote from her. “Leann brought him in yesterday.” She gave me fake frown. “He wanted to know where you were and was completely disinterested in his little sister.”
“Sorry. I’ll go by and see him today, maybe take him for some ice cream when Ransom gets back.”
“He’d like that.” Keira said, snuggling against Kona’s chest. She didn’t look directly at me, but still smiled like her thoughts were distant. I wondered what she thought seeing me hold her daughter and hoped there wasn’t some weird ideas forming in her head about the future and more babies sleeping against my chest. Me zanmi, non! I was only nineteen.
“Where is Ransom?” Kona asked, his focus supposedly on whatever football game happened to be showing on the hospital TV at the moment. “I figured he wouldn’t let you out of his sight after all that time…ow, Wildcat, easy with the elbows.”
I ignored their bickering and Kona’s prying and rocked the baby when she started to fuss. “He said he had to take care of something on St. Charles and he…” The clatter of the remote on the floor stopped me cold. Kona jumped up from the bed, and stared straight at me. “What?”
I’d seen that fear in Kona’s eyes only once before, and that was three days ago when we had no idea what would happen to Keira. “What did he say exactly?”
“He said there was someone he had to talk to.” I shifted the baby when she started to whine. “I asked who and he said it didn’t matter that it wouldn’t take him long to get to St. Charles and back, then he’d meet me here.”
Keira rested against her bed, frowning as Kona slumped next to her.
“Modi, Kona, what the hell is going on?” The baby was fully awake and I gave her to Keira when the woman stretched out her arms.
“How long ago?” Kona asked.
“Just about fifteen minutes before I got here.”
His jaw tightened, but he nodded and I swore I could almost make out him working through whatever plans ticked around in his head. “Wildcat…” he told Keira, holding her face still to kiss her.
They looked at each other for a few seconds, holding each other’s gazes like they spoke a language with small twitches on their mouth and slow blinks.
“He has to do this,” Keira said, holding Kona’s wrist.
“What if he…” Kona’s voice cracked and he dismissed the slip in his composure with his hands over his face.
“Warren is mean, but he isn’t stupid. No matter how much he hates Ransom, he would never be careless.” When Kona continued to frown, Keira pulled his face back up, holding his chin. “He has to do this,” she repeated, moving her fingers over her husband’s face.
“Okay,” Kona said, but he didn’t sound convinced. He sounded, in fact, a little lost.
“Hey, come on now,” I said, wanting to break the tension in the room. I had no other ideas how to fix this, or what the hell Ransom was up to. “Whatever it is…”
“He’s gone off to see Emily’s father.” Keira’s voice was low and she leaned back against the mattress with her baby on her chest and her eyes closed.
“What?”
She shook her head, like she also wasn’t convinced that Ransom should be left on his own as he sought whatever forgiveness Emily’s father might give him. “He told us, before he went to you that he wanted to apologize. He said it was a bridge that needed to stop burning.” Keira winced when Kona grunted, when the big man gripped the edge of the mattress like it was the only thing keeping him in the room. “Kona didn’t want him going on his own.”
“Maybe it won’t be…” but I didn’t finish that thought. I’d seen that man’s eyes the day we were in Tremé. He’d stared at Ransom like he wanted to rip him limb from limb. There had been a cold, angry hatred flashing in that man’s eyes. “Kona…” I started, suddenly petrified that what I’d finally found might soon be taken from me. “You aren’t going to stop him?”
“No, Aly Cat,” he said through an exhale that seemed forced. “No. There are some battles you have to let your children fight on their own.” He looked down at the baby nestled against Keira’s chest. “Even if it scares the hell out of you.”
The house reminded me of something MTV would rent for Real World. It was sick rich, with ridiculous things like two ballrooms and a media room with a screen nearly the same width of the wall that lifted and lowered beneath the floor with the push of a button. The house itself was similar to the one Dad owned for years before he made the final move to the lake house—Greek Revival with large, secured wrought iron fencing around the entire acre lot and massive columns running along the front porch. There were two balconies off the back of the house and a pool with slick, blue tile along the bottom.