Page 32 of Finding the One (River Rain #7)

Fellow Captives

Blake

“ B abe, c’mere,” Dair called from the bedroom.

I stopped brushing on eye shadow and left the bathroom to see Dair in nothing but dark blue, drawstring pajama bottoms lounged in my bed.

I’d always loved my room at Treverton. The muted, light green walls.

The ivory bedclothes with contrasting light green elements mingled with a subtle floral in ivory, green and pink.

That floral also covering the padded headboard and draped as curtains that framed the head of the bed around a panel of ruched green silk.

The glossy, dark wood bureaus and nightstands with brass accents.

It was very pretty.

And very English.

But Dair lazing in that big bed, one long leg straight, the other bent, his back to the flowered headboard, his broad, furred chest on display, his hair tousled with sleep.

He was hot.

He was handsome.

He was beautiful.

He was mine.

I was emotional, obviously, considering the circumstances, but the wave of emotion that overwhelmed me at seeing this man in my bed in this house didn’t have anything to do with that.

I knew I was falling for him before we heard the news about Mum.

But how many men—when they’ve just started something with a woman, her visit turns into a fuck-a-thon, but this gets interrupted by some of the worst news you’ll ever receive in your life—drops everything to be there for her?

I heard him on the phone yesterday telling the network he wasn’t going to be able to call an upcoming match.

And I was a mess, and he took pains to be subtle about it, but I still didn’t miss how busy he was sending texts and emails, probably bowing out of meetings and rescheduling things.

Though, I said “probably” because he didn’t mention a word to me about having to do any of that.

He took care of the plane tickets, the rental car, Sorcha.

I’d helped with my stuff in a kind of automaton way, but for the most part, he’d packed us both.

And now he was lazed in my bed on my iPad.

He was not on the phone blatantly dealing with work, giving the subtle hint of how much he was sacrificing for me and that I should appreciate it.

He took care of all of that yesterday, subtly, without that first indication he was making a production of it so I didn’t miss it, thus I would be appropriately grateful when the time came for him to use the brownie points he’d racked up.

So…yes.

I’d already been falling for him.

I was falling faster now.

I moved to the bed, asking, “What?”

“Take a look at these,” he bid.

I entered the bed to rest on my stomach, and he turned the iPad my way.

I stared at what I saw.

“Which one ye like?” he asked. “I’ll order it and have it expressed.”

“I…you…” I stammered then tore my gaze from the screen to look up at him. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Buying you riding clothes.”

“I can see that, Dair, but?—”

“Christine says your mum has two horses in the stables. They need exercise.”

“I can ride a horse in jeans, regular boots and a sweater.” I flipped a hand at the iPad screen. “I don’t need a formal riding habit.”

His huge grin made an appearance, and he teased, “Lady Norton doesn’t wear jeans riding, lassie.”

I screwed my eyes up at him. “Is this some kind of kink?”

That grin turned roguish, and he answered, “Wasn’t, until I thought of your ass in these jodhpurs.”

I slapped him on the stomach. He grunted, but I sensed it was just for show.

I then pushed off the bed and headed back to the bathroom with Dair calling behind me, “I packed ye and ye don’t have any jeans.”

“I have riding clothes here,” I called back, picking up my makeup brush again. “I ride when I’m at Treverton, Dair, because, as I’ve said before, I love horses, and I’ll add, I love riding.”

“We’ll ride this afternoon then,” he said.

Riding with Dair on my mother’s estate.

Strike that.

My estate.

Yesterday sucked.

I would never in my life forget seeing Mum in that awful room I could tell they tried to make soothing, but they were doomed to fail. Seeing her lying under a blanket without her signature rosy-pink lipstick on.

Eyes closed.

Lifeless.

No spite.

No snide words forming from her mouth.

No disappointment, emotional manipulation or passive aggressiveness.

Just…

Peace.

To my shock, I didn’t like it.

And I would never in my life forget knowing the day she died—having lived her life the way she had, the last thing one daughter felt compelled to share with her was a vicious slap (and I still winced thinking about that), while the last thing the other daughter experienced from her was the need to be protected from her shenanigans—that a two-year-old little girl had died not even getting a chance to make a life.

No, I would never forget any of that.

But today was…better.

Not great. I wouldn’t be settled until I saw Alex.

But it was better.

And riding with Dair later would make it even more so.

So I wasn’t bouncing with joy with the thought of taking on the day.

But I was no longer a zombie either.

Progress.

I’d take it.

Dair, Dad and Nora following, I flew out the door straight to Alex.

I didn’t have to navigate the gravel in heels on the run for long, she raced to me.

We collided in the middle, wrapped our arms around each other and held on.

I’d seen I had more surprises upon her arrival. Rix wasn’t the only one who came with Alex.

Hale and Elsa were there, and obviously, they’d brought their baby boy, Laird.

Chloe, with JT, and Mika were with them.

I had good friends, and I was overwhelmed by their kindness.

But I could only hold on to my little sister.

“This sucks,” she said in my ear.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“You okay?”

“No. Are you?”

“No.”

We kept holding on.

Eventually, I pulled my head away to look at her.

She looked tan and healthy…

And sad.

Which made me mad.

She was just married. Just home from her honeymoon. Pregnant with the love of her life’s baby.

And now…

This.

It wasn’t Mum’s fault, but no matter how irrational it was, I still blamed her.

“I’m glad you’re here,” I said.

She gave me small smile. “I’m glad I am too. I feel better, seeing you.”

It meant everything she felt the same.

“Me too,” I replied.

“And I brought reinforcements,” she noted.

I took my cue and let her go, saying, “I see.”

Rix gave me a super tight hug that I couldn’t breathe through, but it felt crazy good.

I got much the same from Chloe, Mika and Elsa, they just weren’t as strong as Rix so I could breathe.

Hale’s hug lingered, as did his gaze. We were close. But he was a very busy man.

And he was here for me.

“Means the world you’re here,” I said quietly.

“Where else would I be?” he asked casually.

A million other places.

I didn’t share that because it might make me cry.

Instead, I pulled Laird out of Elsa’s hold, kissed his beautiful head, and then invited, “Come see the house.”

When I turned, I caught Dair’s attention on me, and I nearly tripped at the expression on his face.

He was taking me with Laird in, and I didn’t know if he wanted to wrest the child from me and hand it off before he carried me to our bedroom or if he wanted to shove me and Laird in a car so we could kidnap him.

He visibly jerked himself out of whatever thoughts he was having and winked cheekily at me.

I wasn’t fooled by that wink.

We hadn’t gotten anywhere near talking about kids, but now I knew that conversation would be perfunctory.

I wanted them (two, hopefully both girls).

And I knew he wanted them as well (hopefully also two, but likely he wanted boys).

I bounced Laird on my hip and sashayed into the house, talking gibberish to him.

And again, the weight of Mum dying hadn’t lifted.

But I was feeling even better.

Alex had the wardrobe open and was touching the clothes.

I was sitting at the vanity and touching the bottles of perfume.

“I know it’s soon, but just saying, when we get there, we can auction these off for charity,” Alex said gently.

We were in Mum’s room.

“Yes,” I agreed, picking up one of the bottles, taking off the stopper and smelling it.

Bad idea.

It obviously smelled of her. And because it did, memories crashed and clashed, unbidden, through my brain.

Not one of them good.

I stoppered the perfume and put it down.

“Five things.”

I twisted on the vanity stool to look at my sister, who was now sitting on the side of Mum’s bed.

“Five things?” I asked.

“We need to find five good memories of Mum. Memories with nothing bad attached.”

She might as well ask me to go with her to Mars to plant a garden.

“Alex—”

“We don’t have to do it now, just…can we make a date, before I leave, to have some sister time and compare notes?”

I could do that, seeing as she was staying a week and a half, and it’d probably take us that long to find five good memories of Mum, so I nodded.

“I wasn’t…” I couldn’t find the word, so I decided, “ right until you were here,” I confessed. “It’s not like I’m right now, I just feel better that you’re here.”

She tipped her head to the side and whispered, “Same.”

I shook my head and continued my confession, “I was such a shit sis?—”

Alex corrected her head with a snap. “Stop it, Blake.”

She got up and walked to me, then sank cross-legged on the floor in front of me.

There was something so Alex about that, but I was not this Blake at the vanity table, not anymore.

Thus, I got up, pushed the chair aside and sank down on the floor with her so our knees were brushing.

Her gaze warmed at my actions, and she reached for my hands.

We both took hold.

“We were like…fellow captives,” she said.

Oh God.

That was the perfect way to describe it.

We so were.

“You did what you could to survive,” she went on. “And so did I.”

“I wish I’d snapped out of it a lot sooner,” I remarked.

She shook our hands. “Who cares when you did? You did. And I carry guilt because I left you to it.”

That stunned me. “You left me to what?”