Page 71 of Revival

We didn’t talk much for the remainder of the flight last night. What was left to be said? Once we collected our luggage, I mentioned getting home to rest before today’s get-together, and he said he was driving off to North Dakota.

What if he changed his mind?

What the fuck am I going to do if he changed his mind and is standing behind that door?

Jude reaches the door first and swings it open. I brace, waiting for the raised voices sure to come.

“Hey,” Jude greets in that low, unhurried tone of his, swinging the door wide.

Hey?

Two fully uniformed officers step over the threshold, and I deflate like an overinflated balloon.

Sutton and Silas Stone. Spencer’s brothers. The similarities between the three siblings pulses a wave of longing through me.

Sutton and Spencer have the same eyes, whereas all three share the same hair. What Silas holds over the other two in height, Spencer and Sutton carry in bulk. Not that the other two are lacking at six-foot-one.

Silas curiously browses the room. His gaze trips over my face, gliding right over me before skittering back.

“Cortney!” he booms, crossing to me in three long strides. “How the hell are you?”

We embrace in a hug that lingers a touch too long. “I’m good, Silas. How are you?”

Pulling back, he skims me over in that observant way of his. It’s what makes him a good cop, but being blasted with the full weight of his scrutiny is unnerving.

Does he know?

Spencer and I both said we hadn’t told our siblings, but what if that changed over our second week there? What if Spencer slipped up between getting off the plane and now?

I plaster on a tranquil smile. Something ordinary and innocent.

“Good, good. It’s been business as usual here.”

Sutton grunts at Silas’s back. “Easy for you to say. You had desk duty all last week.”

“Why?” I glance between the two brothers, trying to ignore their shared features with Spencer.

“Pulled my shoulder.” Silas shrugs, circling the arm as if testing the joint. “I’m fine now.”

Sutton crosses his arms over his police vest. “Tell themhowyou pulled your shoulder.”

Silas scowls at his older brother. “Maddie escaped from the assisted living. Apparently, she and Lonnie are a thing now. They went out on a date to the rodeo and had a little too much to drink.”

“And then?” Sutton grins.

Silas cuts his gaze to Mom before glaring at his brother. “If I wasn’t in the presence of such a saintly woman, I’d have a few choice words to give to you right now.”

“Oh, don’t mind me.” Mom waves a hand, amusement coloring her tone.

“Go on,” Sutton says with a gleeful smirk.

“And then, Maddie decided she didn’t want to leave with me, so she tried to get away, and I pulled my shoulder in an attempt to detain her.”

“You had trouble detaining a ninety-pound grandmother?” Jack asks, sipping a beer as he holds his infant son, Soren, tucked close to his chest.

Sutton snorts. “She decided Silas looked like much more fun than those bull riders and tried to take him for a spin.”

“Wefell,” Silas clips, rubbing his temples with his thumb and middle finger. “Rather than crush her, I had to break her fall.”

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