Page 62 of Through the Fire
“Okay.” He blew out a breath, as if she’d asked him to do something painful. “A party. Fifi, here!” The dog cocked her head and then trotted toward him.
“Party time,” Kit reminded him under her breath.
“Good girl!” Sam fed her treats as she reached him.
“More fun. Ultimate party time,” she urged.
“Yay!” Sam’s voice got higher-pitched and more enthusiastic than she’d ever heard, and Fifi started dancing in excitement. “Good Fifi! You’re so smart! Such a good dog!”
Trying to hold back her laughter at both Sam’s and Fifi’s antics, she said, “Yes! Better! More treats, and then we’ll have Wes hold her on the other side of the yard until you call her.”
By the fifth recall, Fifi was galloping over immediately, and Sam was doling out happy praise and treats unrestrainedly. Kit had lost her fight to hold back her laughter, and she was doubled over at the sight of the hound and the teenager jumping up and down in excitement. Even Wes was chuckling.
Crouching down, Sam rubbed Fifi’s wriggling body as she enthusiastically licked his face. He turned his head and gave Kit a huge smile, so open and happy that it stunned her into silence.
“Thanks, Kit.”
He turned back to the dog as Kit watched them, wanting to rub her chest where it ached in a good way. Clearing her throat, she said, “Don’t thank me. This is all you and Fifi.”
Wes walked over to her side, and she leaned against him, the same gratitude from earlier hitting her again, even harder this time. She tipped her head back to look at the stars, since she knew she’d tear up if she kept watching Sam beaming so proudly at Fifi. “What a nice night,” she said.
Wes wrapped an arm around her shoulders, as if he knew that she needed that warm, comforting weight to ground her right now. “Yes. It is.”
* * *
Wes was proud of himself, and grateful for Kit. He’d survived dinner, and she’d been a huge help with that, staying close by his side and filling in any awkward silences. There’d been several pauses when he was pretty sure he was supposed to do something but didn’t know what, and Kit had been there every time, smoothing over the moment and saying exactly what needed to be said. Instead of being torturous, as the few social events he’d attended always seemed to be, the evening had actually been…quite tolerable.
Of course, being able to touch Kit—to hold her hand or brush arms at the table or put an arm around her shoulders—was a big part of what made the event enjoyable. That, and how she kept glancing at him, smiling in a way that meant she wasn’t bothered that being in a crowded space with a bunch of strangers and almost-strangers had reduced him to a silent lump.
“Wes?” Tio asked, hovering a few feet away from the arm of the couch. “Would you mind helping me with our drone?”
Only after Wes was on his feet and headed for the hallway did he remember that he’d left Kit behind. Glancing back sheepishly, he saw she was smiling at him.
“Go ahead.” She waved him off. “Just keep them from blowing up the house.”
“Please,” Jules added.
Giving them both a salute, Wes followed Tio up the stairs to a rabbit warren of a second floor. The doorway into the twins’ bedroom was low enough that he had to duck to get in. Eyeing the small chair next to the crowded desk holding the drone, Wes suggested, “Should we bring that to the kitchen table?”
To his relief, Tio agreed and led the way back downstairs. They’d just settled in at the kitchen table when Wes’s cell phone rang. He jumped, unaccustomed to the sound, before checking the screen.
“Excuse me, please,” he said to Tio. “It’s my sister.”
Tio nodded, his attention mostly focused on the drone. “You should take it, then.”
“Hang on a minute, Leila,” Wes said as he headed for the front door, pausing to put on his coat and boots. Once he was outside in the crisp chill of the night, he put the phone back to his ear. “Hello?”
“What’s going on?” she asked. “I expected to leave my usual ‘call me back’ message, but instead you answered, which you normally never do, and I hear talking and laughing and what sounds like a…party? Are you at a party?”
He smiled, satisfaction rolling through his chest at the thought of actually impressing his social sister. “Yes.”
Her excited shriek made his smile broaden, even as he held the phone away from his ear to protect his hearing. He started wandering around the perimeter of the house, retracing his and Kit’s steps from earlier that evening. “Is this a date?” He could almost hear Leila holding her breath as she waited for him to answer. He didn’t think it was possible for his grin to stretch any farther.
“Yes. With Kit.”
There was another scream, but Wes was prepared for it this time, and a part of him was screaming in excitement right along with his sister. “So you’re dating? You two are dating? You and Kit?”
He walked into the backyard and stopped abruptly before he ran into Elena, who was also speaking on the phone. Her back was to him, and her hushed, serious tone, so different from her normal, tentative way of speaking, made him go silent and listen to what she was saying. “…sure, Courtney. One of my police contacts ran Sebastian’s prints and confirmed that it’s him. The rest are here, too, including Juliet. You should come as soon as you can.”
