“Hey. What happened?” She gave her head a violent shake, and buried her face in my chest. “Shannon?” I said in between her sniffles. “Aw, don’t cry. It’s gonna be all right.”
I glanced beyond her, to Amber, who descended the stairs, knapsack slung over her shoulder, car keys in hand. Shannon frowned at the sound and stared up at me. A question floated in her eyes when she looked from me to the woman who stood frozen in the middle of the staircase.
Shannon swallowed convulsively, her gaze darting from Amber to me. Red flamed her cheeks as her eyes canvassed my body, seeing it as if for the first time. Before I could explain, she’d slammed out of the house.
SHANNON
____________________________
I flew off the porch. Couldn’t get away fast enough. Couldn’t see for the blinding tears. Shoving my hair from my face, I stumbled down the sidewalk fighting delirium. Where the hell had I parked? East or west? North or south? Which block? Which side of the street? The synapses in my brain fired all over the place.
I was completely disoriented.
Turning a corner, I dug into my purse and snatched my keys from a side pocket. I stabbed the black remote in every direction and listened for my car’s answering chime, then searched the darkness for the familiar flash of gold and red lights. None came.
Had I gone the wrong way? I stopped in my tracks. Cold keys dangled against my temple like icy fingers when I propped my wrists atop my head and scanned the block in a frantic haze.
Car. Where was the car?
Tears poured out of me as I trudged on blindly. I was so damn tired of crying! The image of Trace and that woman floated before my eyes. Dr. Rosen. Rainbows. Mrs. Campbell. Mother. Uncle, Auntie, and the sheriff plotting. Darien and Kate screwing each other.
Trace shower damp. Trace darn near naked, wrapped in a towel—that beautiful woman with the stylish black hair, violet eyes, and sultry mouth.
The same leggy woman I’d seen him with at Home Depot, but this time, she was in his house, descending the stairs, having just left his bedroom, no doubt—the bedroom where they’d obviously done God knows—
“Shannon!”
Trace’s voice jolted me as his hand gave my elbow a sharp tug. I crashed into what felt like a bus, but it was him—all six-feet-three-inches of hard-bodied man. His misty breath sawed in and out. Water beaded off his skin, his hair. He looked cold, breathless, and mad as hell.
Mad at me.
He was still dressed in a towel, but he’d had the sense to throw his wool peacoat on. No shoes though. His bare chest pumped up and down while he struggled for words.
“You…didn’t give me…a chance…to explain,” he breathed. “It’s not…what you think.”
The blood was pounding so hard in my head, I could barely concentrate. “What am I thinking, Trace?”
“That I was doin’ stuff.”
“Well, weren’t you?”
“No!” he roared over a sudden chorus of dog barks.
“You badgered me about breaking up with Darien. Made me feel absolutely horrible. But you’re still seeing her even though you told me it was over! I have had it up to here—” I jerked my hand level with my chin. “—with everybody. Darien. My family. You. You’re all liars!”
“Hey, shut that noise up!” someone screamed from a window.
“What am I lying about?” he yelled. “She just came by to get her things.”
“Things? What ‘things’?”
He gestured. “Do we have to get into this out here? I’m freezing my ass off.”
Bark. Bark. Bark.
“Yes, we do. Remember when you said that if Darien wasn’t getting it from me, he was getting it from somewhere? Well, you were right. He was. This whole time! And it looks like the same holds true for you!”
Veins bulged in his neck. “I am not fucking her!”
Bark. Bark. Bark. Ruff. Ruff. Yip!
I poked him in the chest. “Then what was she doing upstairs, and why are you….” I raked my eyes from his bare feet to his head. “Naked!”
Trace scowled. “For the love of—she let herself in when I was taking a shower. I didn’t even know she was there ‘til—”
“Wonderful. She has a key.” I rolled my eyes. “Why did it take you so long to answer the door?”
“Are you hard of hearin’? I said, I—was—in—the—shower.”
Ruff. Ruff. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark! Yip!
“So why didn’t she answer it?”
“‘Cause she didn’t want a scene.”
“Scene? What was she afraid of?”
Bark! Ruff! Ruff! Grrrrrr! Ruff! Yip! Yip!
“This! This right here!” He flung his arms out and his coat flew open. “You going batshit!” He dug a hand through his wet locks. “Damn it, she broke it off weeks ago!”
“So what am I, the booby prize?” I spun away, fists clenched, keys jingling, only to have him yank me back. I slammed into his chest. “Let go!”
Ruff! Bark! Ruff! Ruff! Ruff! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! Ruff! Yip! Yip! Yip
“Not until you hear me out.”
“There’s nothing more to say.” Tears dangled from my chin. “All these years…all these years I worked my ass off to distance myself from my mother—to be blameless. To be perfect! All the weeks I denied my feelings for you, knowing how hard I was falling…knowing it was inevitable! But I still fought to stay true to a man I wasn’t in love with—a man who didn’t deserve me! And as usual it wasn’t enough. Not for my family. Not for Darien and not for you. I wasn’t enough and I never will be!”
“What are you talking about? You’re more than enough for me. Can’t you see that?”
“Just leave me alone.” I twisted to break free. “I mean it. Let go!”
Trace wrestled me still. “Ask me why she ended it.”
Bark! Bark! Yip! Bark! Bark! Ruff! Grrrrrrrrrr! Yip!
“I don’t care!” I said, struggling.
“Damn it, ask me why!”
“Why!?”
He grasped my face. “‘Cause she knew my heart was yours even before I did!”
Over the maelstrom of anger, over the roar of blood in my ears, over all the madness and barking, relief hummed like a song in my heart, like a warm breeze in the dead of winter.
Trace’s eyes burned into me, displacing the cold. He kissed my nose and said, “Do you hear me, Shannon? You’re all the woman I’ll ever need.”
He crushed my mouth with his in a kiss so feral and possessive, it stole my breath. Our hearts slammed into each other as he leaned back, gripped my bottom, and lifted me as if I were penny-light. My feet hovered inches from the ground. I lay flush against his body, my arms tied around his neck, our mouths linked as intimately as our pelvises.
“Y’all need to take that shit inside!” someone yelled.
Trace set me down, squeezed me tight, and gazed up at the starlit sky. “Oh, baby,” he said. “I can’t breathe without you in my world. Don’t you get that yet?” He squeezed me once more. “You scared me to death. Please. Don’t ever run away from me again.”
Bark! Bark! Bark! Yip!
“I won’t.” I closed my eyes. “I swear it.”
He kissed my forehead. “Good, ‘cause we’ve wasted too much time apart. Twelve years is long enough.”
I buried my face in his chest and wrapped my arms within his jacket, around his naked waist. “My God. You’re so cold.”
“Naw, try frozen,” he said, teeth chattering.
“Then let’s get you home.”
Yip! Ruff! Bark!