Page 18 of Into the Fire
June gave her dada quick squeeze around his neck and a kiss on the cheek before scampering back inside, Emery following after her.
Levi watched her go, letting his eyes linger just a second too long.
Jess didn't miss his brother’s gaze.
“Don’t even start,” Levi warned, meeting his smirk.
Jess held up both hands again. “I didn’t say a damn thing.”
“You didn’t need to,” Levi muttered, narrowing his eyes at him. “I’m your brother. I can read you like a damn book.”
Jess just grinned behind his bottle; eyes still fixed on the doorway where Emery had disappeared. “Then you already know what chapter this is, and it ain't mine to star in.”
Levi let out a sigh. “Shit, even if it was like that, I couldn't let it go anywhere. She's only here temporarily, no way I'm getting attached and letting June get even more attached to someone who’s justultimately planning on leaving.”
“I'm not saying I know everything, but maybe if you weren't so damn uptight and asked her pretty please, she might consider staying around.” Jess stood, his beer in hand, making his way to the gravel driveway that continued out back past Levi's house toward his cabin, whistling low to himself and leaving Levi alone on the porch with only the swish of wind through the tall grass for company.
With June to bed and Emery now gone, Levi was back on the porch, sitting at the top of the steps again as if it had become a necessary part of his nightly ritual. He hadn’t watched her drive off.
Not on purpose, anyway.
He took another long pull from his last beer for the night, the condensation and the cold bottle smooth against his calloused fingers. He leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees, staring at the flowers she and June had planted like they were some kind of invasion.
Pinks and purples and things he couldn’tname—except maybe petunias, but only because June had told him while he was tucking her into bed. They looked delicate and bright and… wrong. Not necessarily in a bad way, but… different.
They didn’t belong on his porch.
Or maybe they didn’t use to.
Levi rubbed a hand over his stubbled jaw, agitated without knowing why. The damn things smelled good, too. Every time the wind shifted at all, that floral scent drifted up and tangled with the dust from the paddock and hay from the barn. It reminded him of her. Of the soft way she tucked hair behind June’s ears. Of how her laugh came so easily, like she was letting herself settle in.
And maybe that’s what had him so on edge.
Because he wasn’t supposed to be noticing any of that.
Emery wasn’t his.
Hell, she wasn't even permanent. And yet…
The way she looked while shehelped June with her homework at the dinner table, or holding her hand as they'd go for a walk to see the horses in the barn. The way she stood tonight in the doorway, the setting sun catching the warm coppery strands in her hair…
It felt like she belonged.
And that scared the ever-loving hell out of him.
He let out a slow breath and looked up at the stars starting to show themselves in the darkening sky.
This wasn’t in the plan. He wasn’t supposed to be getting soft. Wasn’t supposed to be sitting here wondering what she wore to bed or what her favorite color was.
But damn if she didn’t make the place feel warmer.
He scratched at the back of his neck, unsettled.
She's just the nanny, he told himself again.
But the words didn’t land quite as firmly as they had before.
Especially not when the porch smelled like flowers. And her.
