Page 64 of The Way Back Home

We’d had families drop by, looky-loos, Mayor Winkler had come with a reporter from the town paper and had a photo opp, and we even had two adoptions on our books, so I’d call that a success.

My absolute favorite part of the day, though, had been when Kathy Abernathy was forced to eat her words. Ellie had been an absolute rock star. She was sweet and charming in that doe-eyed, unsuspecting way of hers, laughing and chatting with Satan’s hellhounds when she’d called Nuke over to her. You couldn’t not love Nuke. He has the sweetest temperament of any dog I’ve ever met, and he is a sucker for a pretty lady who gives belly rubs. Kathy had even gone so far as to call him adorable and let him lick her face, then Ellie had dropped the bomb that Nuke had been a stray that I’d rescued from being euthanatized and that my program had also saved her husband’s life. Truth be told, Ellie deserved all the credit there, but I did train Nuke, and I was not about to correct her in front of Kathy. Not today, Satan. Not today.

I head back inside and close the door, leaning against it with a sigh.

“Congratulations,” August says. He leans against the counter, Zora sits by his feet. They both appear calm and relaxed.A new look for them.

“Well, I couldn’t have done it without any of you.” I walk toward him, stopping only when the tips of my boots reach the ends of his. “Of course, I’ll have to come up with a suitable way to say thank you, because I know how much you hate those two little words.”

He shakes his head and grins. “I think I have a few suggestions for you.”

“You do?”

The door to the yard bursts open and Bettina tears in clutching Betty under her arm. The two of them are squealing as Beau chases after them—terrorizing the poor girls. Josiah follows them through the door holding Xena’s lead. He takes off her vest and loves her up accordingly.He’s good with her.

I smile up at August and take a step back, turning to assess the animals in my new shelter. I don’t know how I came to have a piglet, a little girl and two teenage punks following me around as if I was their mamma. I don’t really know how any of it happened other than to say that’s life in small-town Alabama. It happenstoyou, rather than you controlling it. One day you’re the new girl in town, and the next, you have friends, a support system, a family, and one hell of a hot Marine who you sometimes loathe as much as you love.

Lord help me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Olivia

IHEAD OUT INTO THEearly morning sun, a coffee in each hand, and a smile on my face. August sits on the front porch stairs, working on a greasy metal part that he nearly drops when I approach. He looks me up and down, and I should have the good grace to be embarrassed because my hair is mussed from sleep and I’m dressed only in a robe and a silk chemise with matching tiny little shorts. The sash on my bathrobe has come loose so as I bend to hand him his mug, I’m essentially giving him an eyeful. His fingers brush mine as he takes his cup, but he doesn’t bring it to his lips. He just watches me, his gaze skimming down my body in a way that forces my heart to beat double.

Josiah is likely still sound asleep upstairs. Beau, too, since he can be found wherever his best friend is. Bettina is inside, watchingFrozenand singing loudly along with Anna, and it’s this reminder, and only this reminder, that stops me from climbing into her big brother’s lap and easing some of this sexual tension between us.

August clears his throat and I sit down beside him, pulling my robe closed once my hands are free. He goes back to the part he’s working on, and I glance out over the yard with its oak-lined drive. It’s warm already, and I have this urge to remove my robe altogether, but I don’t. It slips off one shoulder anyway, pulled by the weight of my ass sitting on it. I lean forward, resting my chin on my knees. I feel August’s gaze on me, and a beat later he reaches out and his greasy fingertips brush across my skin in a feather-light touch that I never thought a man as large as him was capable of.

The air leaves my lungs in a rush, and my nipples form hard peaks that would be impossible to hide beneath the silk of my pajamas. Warm fingers slide the strap from my skin, and I close my eyes and bite my lip hard, and then Zora barks so loudly it about takes my ear off as she tears down the stairs and around the side of the house. August’s touch is gone, and I might have believed it never happened at all except for the dark smudge of grease on my shoulder and strap.

“Zora, come!” August climbs to his feet, almost knocking over our coffee, and Betty starts barking the way she does when she gets excited. A beat later, Dalton rounds the side of the house, and I barely have enough time to get my robe tied before I’m face to face with the man.Good Lord. It’s not even eight a.m.

“Dalton. Are you okay?” Before I’ve even said the words, I know he’s not, but he nods anyway. We missed him yesterday, but I know how he gets around crowds. August and Jake aren’t comfortable in them either, but they both have a dog to take the edge off.

“Thought I’d come by and s-s-see if you need me to be at the s-s-shelter today?” The stutter is new. I’ve never heard him do that before, and it’s alarming.

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