Page 67 of Stand

“Shhh! No—come on, Ty, you have to discipline your—oh, help!” Because the sounds coming from Ty were setting her off again. He hooted when he laughed. It was the most carefree sound she’d ever heard.

“Adults!” Alyssa said in a voice dripping with disgust and went back into her room.

In her absence, the two so-called adults began to calm down. Sam felt wrung out from the exertion. Ty’s legs were a lot closer to hers than before. Not that it was relevant. It was the tiny delight in seeing Ty truly happy for once that made her continue to smile at him, even though she knew any further connection between them was dangerous. Bad enough that he’d trusted her to see the one small thing he kept to himself, the thing he used to show his loved ones that he loved them.

He kept one hand to his chest as he said, “Damn, I needed that.” He was still smiling, and it encompassed her by accident, but Sam was grateful for it.

“Extra ice cream for Matt tomorrow, then,” she said.

“Yeah, guess so. Ah, the oldies are still the goodies.”

“Yeah. Kane did that to us more than once. Pig.”

“It’s in the boy code.”

“Alyssa should have locked her door.”

“She was probably keeping it open for you.”

“Yeah. She’s thoughtful that way, huh.”

His body language was different, relaxed and fluid in the chair that was too small for his frame. His shoulders weren’t hunched anymore. He wore dark jeans and flip-flops that somehow made him look vulnerable. Perhaps here in this motel in the middle of nowhere, he was finally able to relax.

Sam leaned her own head back and looked away from him, back up to the light pollution and the stars beyond. They sat quietly on, companionable and content.

Chapter 19

Perhaps it was the gunshot fart; perhaps Matt thought he’d paid Sam back sufficiently with the marriage gag, or perhaps they were all exhausted from being mad at each other, but the atmosphere the next morning was friendlier. Cairo even danced around them rather than hiding under the desk while they packed. Tammy had directed them to a premade breakfast next to the lobby, and a couple of muffins and some strong coffee made Sam feel ready to face the rest of this trip.

When they stopped in Kansas City for an early lunch, the kids even wanted to walk around a little and do the tourist thing of standing in two states at once. Alyssa read information out from Wikipedia, and Matt browsed a store full of weird and macabre tchotchkes. They looked like any regular family. When the waitress at their restaurant told them, “Your kids sure took after their father rather than their mother!” nodding to Sam’s dark hair, they just agreed. “Funny how those things go,” Sam said.

“If you guys are okay with it,” she said when they were walking back to their car, “I’d like to take a short detour. Since we’re here.”

“Are you sure?” Ty asked, which was kind of a weird thing to say.

“I get it if you just want to get on the road. But it’s not that far to our next stop, and you’ll likely never be here again.”

“I want to go!” Alyssa interrupted. “What is it?”

“How about I keep that part a surprise?” Sam said.

“Okay,” Alyssa agreed easily and hopped into her seat.

“I thought you didn’t like surprises,” Ty said to Sam.

She frowned. “What made you think that?” Yeah, how the hell had he known that? That was something she kept well under wraps. It wasn’t good for her fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants reputation.

“Just an impression I got.” He cocked his head as though assessing her. “Your very well-trained dog. The fact that you’ve been to all these places before, and if you haven’t, like Tammy’s place, you have to straighten your shoulders to go in.”

Sam clenched her jaw against the blush of warmth spreading through her. He’d been watching her. The way she watched him. And what was worse—or better—he’dseenher. In a way no other man had. A way no one in her family had. He knew her vulnerability, and he was still smiling at her. The truth hadn’t fucked up her relationship with a man.

She jerked out of her reverie and opened the car door. Tomorrow night, they’d be in Taos. Not a minute too soon. Because Sam was going to miss Ty and his kids more than she wanted to admit. Andthatwas a vulnerability she wasn’t about to share.

♦

They drove all morning along the flattest country Ty had ever seen. Only a farm building or a feedstore broke the monotony. Even the sky was dull and cloudy. Thank the gods and all the angels that his kids were in better moods, because even he had to fight a profound boredom. When Sam abruptly said, “It’s coming up here,” Ty jumped. He wasn’t sure if he remembered how to turn the steering wheel.

They took an exit that led to a road between a cornfield and a cemetery. A sign at the entrance read The Geographical Center of the United States.

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