Page 120 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck
His gaze met mine. “The odds of you modeling this for me tonight are?”
“Higher than zero,” I replied.
“I’ll take it,” he said, stealing a chaste kiss before he helped ease me into the Falcon. He shut the door and tapped the window, winking at me as he did.
As silly as it sounded, a slight moment of panic came over me at the idea he’d leave my area long enough to walk around the front of the vehicle and get in. I knew it was irrational, but I was also painfully aware of what it was like to be without him in my vicinity for thirty-six years.
I didn’t want to go back to that.
Ever.
Drest got in and started up the car. He used the turnaround in the drive and then headed out, giving a nod to Elis, who was walking the edge of the property. Drest cranked his window down. “Everything good?”
Elis grinned. “Yep. Maria, she’s the head of the council here in town and a damn powerful witch, showed with her coven about twenty minutes ago. They worked their magik and cleared the mess in the blink of an eye. They shored up the wards out here too and said they’d be back in the morning to do some additional ones. Maria doesn’t seem to think there is anything to worry about at least for tonight. Still, Bram thought it best we keep an eye on the property, just in case.”
“Thank you,” I said quickly.
Drest nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” said Elis. “It’s what we do for each other here. Guess you could say Grimm Cove is kind of one big family. But don’t tell Jeffrey I said that.”
I laughed.
Elis waved and continued patrolling as we drove away.
We were pulling into town before Drest spoke, breaking the silence. “Can you tell me anything about Demi? Doesn’t matter what.”
I smiled and reached over, my hand finding his thigh. “Her first word was dog.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Yep. She was obsessed with Torid’s dog form. He’d curl up by her while in it, letting her nap against him while Arch watched over the room or the house, always looking out for trouble back then.” I smiled and laughed softly. “When she was three, I found her under the kitchen table of the house we were renting. She had taken red finger paint and covered a red knit, winder stocking cap with it and then put some on her forehead and nose. When I asked her what she was doing, she peeked out and pointed toward Arch, letting me know she was being like him.”
Drest laughed more.
“I’d take the girls to libraries in whatever town we were calling home at the time,” I said, thinking back to it all. “There are so many great resources at them for free. Anyway, they’d bring home books, games, and movies even. Demi would sleep with whatever books she brought home, falling in love with each and every one to the point she didn’t want to be separated from it—until it was time to go check out new ones.”
Drest chuckled. “Really?”
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t know how it was she managed to sleep with sharp corners poking at her, but she did and she never once so much as bent a page in a book while doing it. That girl loves to read and learn. Right before she was going to graduate from high school, she told me how excited she was to start university in the fall. Not so she could have freedom to drink and party. Nope. She was looking forward to learning.”
Drest laughed so hard he snorted. It faded quickly. “She didn’t get to go to school in the fall, did she?”
I lowered my gaze and clutched the gift bag on my lap. “No. The big attack happened, and Robin came back into my life then. We headed here, to Grimm Cove, to get to Astria but she was missing. That’s when I made up my mind.”
“About?” he asked.
“That I was done being a victim and that I’d never let anyone else be one if I could stop it,” I said. “I worked with Arch and Robin, learning how to defend myself. And I decided to put my skills as an investigative journalist to good use. I looked for clues about Astria’s disappearance and that of the girls who had been living with her. I also started helping others. People who couldn’t get help from normal human outlets. I’ve been doing as much for nearly eighteen years now with Robin by my side. Demi did it for a chunk of time too. She’s great at research. Not so great at the fighting part but that’s fine, I didn’t want her doing that anyway.”
“She told me that you looked for Astria,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. His unspoken “but not me” was there, hanging in the air between us.
“Drest,” I said, taking a moment to collect myself before going on. “You shut me out after the wine cellar night. You kept me shut out until months after Nile’s trial. You put up wall after wall between us. I know we reconciled, but that hurt, that pain was still raw for me when Henry did what he did at the manor. It was a fresh wound that hadn’t had time to heal over all the way.”
He said nothing as he looked forward, driving through downtown Grimm Cove. After a couple of minutes and two stop signs, he nodded. “I get it. You woke up in the hospital and I was nowhere to be found. And I never showed after that. With what I’d done at the start of our relationship, you came to a reasonable conclusion that I was shutting you out again. Bet it didn’t help any how I reacted the first few minutes after you told me you were pregnant.”
I clutched the gift bag tighter. “No. That didn’t help much at all. But I should have had faith in you—in us. I should have trusted you. That you wouldn’t abandon us.”
Reaching out, he took my hand and held it as he drove. “I don’t blame you, Rachael. And I love you too much to waste another second of our lives. I want forever with you.”
