Dotted Lines

by Devney Perry

  A warrior who’d spend his entire life looking out for his mother.

  From now on, he’d have company on the battlefield.

  “I’d like to be your dad. If that’s okay with you.”

  He looked to the sand beneath his bare feet. He squished some between his toes, then he looked over to where Clara was seated on a large blanket.

  She caught his gaze and waved with one hand while the other held her phone to an ear. When we’d gotten to the beach, I’d taken August to the water while she’d called to check in with Aria.

  Clara looked magnificent under the sun and on the sand. She was wearing a simple teal bikini, sexy and tempting as hell. When she’d walked out of the bedroom this morning wearing it and a sheer coverup, I’d almost lost my damn head.

  It had been two days since Temecula, and I’d done exactly as I’d promised.

  I hadn’t gone slow.

  I hadn’t held back.

  We’d returned to Elyria and there’d been no hotel. I’d brought Clara to my home and set her and August up in the guest bedroom.

  She snuck into my room after he fell asleep each night and we spent the midnight hours exploring each other’s bodies. With her by my side, I’d slept better than I had in years. So much so that when my alarm had gone off at five this morning, I’d been totally dead to the world.

  If she thought I was sleeping without her again, she was dreaming.

  During the day and when August was in the room, I pulled Clara in for a hug. For a kiss. Gus had been watching. Closely. Clara had sat him down for a one-on-one, but it hadn’t erased all of the wariness in his gaze.

  We just needed time. Thankfully, we had it.

  Clara had called Aria on the way back to Elyria and told her about us. There hadn’t been a lot of surprise in Aria’s voice. Just a smile as she’d talked to us both on speaker.

  I wondered about you two back then.

  Then Aria had laughed and handed the phone to Brody.

  The great thing about a boss slash brother-in-law who owned a private plane was that Clara had no pressure to rush home to Arizona. Which was good because we had some details to figure out first.

  “I don’t have a dad,” August whispered.

  There was such longing in his voice I nearly toppled over on my ass. Kids his age started to know what made them different. For August, it was that other kids had two parents. Clara was the best mother in the world, but her days of walking alone were over.

  “You do now.” I put my hand on his shoulder and the smile that played on his mouth stole my heart. “I’m going to need your help.”

  “With what?”

  I winked. “We need to find two sticks.”

  The light in his eyes was so much like Clara’s that when I stood, I couldn’t help but drop a kiss to the top of his head.

  When I glanced over, Clara was watching with a hand pressed to her heart.

  I waved and mouthed, “I love you.”

  She blew me a kiss and went back to her call.

  Then August and I went exploring for our sticks. By the time we were done with our job, I went to Clara, leaving Gus to splash on the surf with his promise not to go past his knees.

  “Hi.” I collapsed on the blanket beside her and kissed her shoulder.

  “Hi.” She leaned into me. “What were you guys doing?”

  “Just playing,” I lied. “How’s Aria?”

  “Good. She asked me if I was moving here.”

  “Do you want to move here?” I took her hand and laced our fingers together.

  “I don’t know.” She sighed. “I love Welcome. But I like it here too and your job is here.”

  “My job is flexible, baby. How’s the real estate market in Welcome?”

  “Probably not as exciting as it is in California.” She ran her fingers through my hair. “You’d move? Really?”

  “I got an email from that developer in Temecula this morning.”

  She sat up straighter. “And?”

  “Sold. Half a million bucks, which is more than the land is worth, but he thinks there’s value in the parts. So I figure that sale plus the equity I have in my house here should be plenty to set us up wherever you want to live.”

  “I have a house but it’s on Brody and Aria’s property. I love them both, but I want our own space.”

  “Same here.” I wanted a home we chose together, where we could raise Gus and any other kids who came along.

  “Do I have to decide today?”

  “Yes.”

  She looked at me, startled for a moment, until she realized I was teasing and burst out laughing.

  My God, she was beautiful when she laughed. I lunged for her, tackling her to the towel and pinning her down with a leg. Then I took her hands, raising them above her head so she was completely at my mercy. “I love you.”

  “I have an idea.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Let’s go to your place. Give August his Nintendo and we can take a shower.”

  I swelled instantly, pressing the bulge against her hip. “Good idea.”

  She lifted her head, her lips seeking mine, but as fast as I’d pinned her, I was on my feet, bringing her with me.

  “Can’t leave yet.”

  “Why?”

  I put two fingers to my lips and whistled.

  August heard it, his head snapping up from where he’d been beside the water. Then he tore off, running for the spot where we’d prepared our surprise.

  “Come on.” I took Clara’s hand, threading our fingers together, and willed my heart not to explode.

  We caught up to August, who stood proudly by our creation.

  “What’s—” Clara’s breath hitched when she saw the words we’d written in the sand. From the towel, she had been too far away to read them, but not so far that others on the beach might have ruined them.

  I stepped in front of her and dropped to a knee. Then I fished the ring Lou had given me out of my shorts pocket and slid it onto her finger. “Marry me.”

  The words etched in the sand said the same.

  Clara wouldn’t have been the woman she was if her gaze hadn’t shifted away from mine to August.

  Behind me, August had a beaming smile on his face as he nodded.

  “Yes.” She crashed to her knees and framed my face with her hands.

  I kissed her, lingering long enough to elicit an eww from August. Then I tackled Clara to the sand, getting her good and dirty as she laughed, before carrying her into the ocean and dunking us both in the water.

  Needed to justify that shower.

  Later that night, after we’d celebrated and decided that I had yet another move to make—we were starting our next chapter in Welcome—I found Clara at the living room window, staring at the Cadillac in the driveway.

  “I’ll always be grateful for that car,” she whispered, then raised her hand to look at the ring. “This was his wife’s, right?”

  “Yeah. That was Hope’s ring.”

  “Hope.” She leaned into my chest as I wrapped her in my arms. “I like that name.”

  When our daughter was born nine months later, we named her Hope.

  Two years after that, we named our son Lou.

  It didn’t take me long to realize that no amount of exploring the world would ever be as thrilling as the adventure of living life by Clara’s side.

  She was the soul on earth I was made to find.

  Epilogue

  Clara

  Twenty-three years later . . .

  “Have you ever seen so many stars?” I whispered.

  It was like someone had shattered a diamond on a blanket of the deepest blue velvet. The white whisps and swirls of the Milky Way streaked between them like dust.

  This wasn’t our first trip to Montana, but the clear mountain nights never failed to take my breath away.

  Karson circled his arms around me, pulling me closer as I snuggled on his lap with my eyes to the sky. “It’s something, isn’
t it?”

  “Maybe we should move to Montana.”

  Aria laughed from her camp chair beside ours and shared a smirk with Brody at her side. “You wouldn’t make it one winter.”

  “True.” I laughed with her, tearing my eyes from the heavens.

  We were circled around a bonfire, the light from the flames flickering over familiar faces.

  Londyn and Brooks.

  Gemma and Easton.

  Katherine and Cash.

  Aria and Brody.

  Me and Karson.

  My friends. My family.

  “When we were in high school, we’d come out here to party,” Cash said, tossing another log on the bonfire before he settled into his chair beside Katherine’s. “Sneak beer and girls onto the ranch.”

  “Ugly girls, right?” Kat asked.

  “Friends. Just friends.” Cash leaned over to brush a kiss to her mouth.

  “And I’m sure our parents knew we were out here, just like we knew every time the kids thought they were fooling us.” Easton chuckled. “Jake built a fire so big one time his senior year we could see it from the house miles away.”

  Gemma smiled from her husband’s lap, because like me, I’d opted for a warm embrace instead of a chair of my own. “When I told him we were coming to his party spot tonight, you should have seen the look on his face. Even though he’s an adult, it’s fun to remind him every now and then that his mother wasn’t oblivious during his teenage years.”

  Their son was the spitting image of Easton. Jake had grown into a tall, strong man much like his father. Their daughter, on the other hand, looked a lot like Gemma. Hailey was beautiful, elegant and witty.

  Lou had a massive crush on her, something he tried so hard to hide. But my youngest son hadn’t yet realized that his mother wasn’t oblivious either.

  “Ellie’s boyfriend seems nice,” I told Londyn.

  Brooks grumbled. “He’s too nice. I don’t trust him.”

  Londyn rolled her eyes. “Someone is having a hard time accepting that his three children are no longer children.”

  “Grandpa Brooks,” Gemma teased. “Wyatt’s twins sure are growing up fast. It feels like just yesterday they were three and we were giving them pony rides around the arena.”

  “It was yesterday.” He chuckled. “Where is time going? When did we get old?”

  “You’re not the only one struggling,” Brody said, sharing a look with Aria. “Trace told us on the trip up that he was offered a job in Dublin and is thinking of taking it.”

  “Dublin.” I pressed a hand to my heart and looked to my sister. “That’s an ocean away.”

  She shrugged, but the worry line between her eyebrows deepened. “Good thing we own an airplane.”

  And I doubted Millie would ever stray far from her parents, especially now that she’d graduated from college and taken a job with Brody’s company. After he’d inherited Carmichael Communications from his family, he’d sold it and made a fortune. Then he’d turned around and started another mega-successful company with Millie under his wing. She was Aria’s best friend and worshiped her dad.

  “Who needs another beer?” Katherine asked. Her chair was closest to the cooler we’d brought out. When hands lifted, she popped up and hurried to deliver frosty bottles. Cash put his hand on her thigh when she returned to her seat, drawing circles on her jeans with his thumb to show her his love. And to trap her in the chair.

  I’d give it five minutes before she was up again, finding something else to busy herself with. Katherine was coping with her emotions through perpetual motion.

  “Good thing we snagged that cooler when we did,” Easton said. “All the kids were congregating at the lodge and I saw the beginning of a party starting.”

  That was typical. Years ago, the parties had been sleeping bags and hot cocoa and popcorn from the floor while they watched a movie projected onto a white wall. Then later, the parties had been games and teenage jokes until three in the morning. Maybe a kiss snuck here and there.

  Our kids had grown up together. We lived in our own worlds and different towns, but at least once a year for the past twenty-three years, we’d come to Montana and spent a week at the Greer Ranch and Mountain Resort.

  Now that our kids were out of the house, Karson and I came to Montana every few months. Arizona was home base, where we worked and lived, but the travel bug—Karson’s love of exploring—had infected us both.

  We went to Elyria a few times a year. We loved Hawaii and New York and London and Melbourne. Though most of our trips were to see the kids.

  Hope had moved to Phoenix after graduating from college to work as a trainer for the Arizona Cardinals football franchise. Lou still had a year left at Stanford and then he was planning on law school. He’d mentioned a few schools on the East Coast, and I’d bitten my tongue before I could protest.

  Like Aria had said, they owned a plane, one that they insisted Karson and I use often.

  That plane had taken numerous trips to Montana, and not just for the annual summer reunion.

  August had decided to go to Montana State for college, and I’d known his freshman year we’d lost him to the mountains.

  Then we’d lost him to Delilah.

  Not that I was complaining, because I loved her too. I’d loved her since she was a baby.

  This year’s trip to Montana wasn’t just the yearly get-together. This year’s trip was special.

  In two days, August was marrying Cash and Katherine’s oldest daughter.

  It would be a wonderful spectacle compared to the courthouse ceremony Karson and I’d had at the Welcome courthouse, when I’d been a month pregnant with Hope.

  August and Delilah’s wedding promised to be a fancy affair. Hundreds of guests. A white gown. Five tiers of cake and a live band for the reception after the three-course meal.

  Since we’d arrived earlier in the week, it had been nothing but wedding madness. August and Delilah were getting married in a meadow on the ranch. Cash and Easton had been working hard to get the field mowed and free of cowpies. Katherine, Gemma and the entire Greer family had spent months planning and preparing for the reception in the lodge.

  It was all coming together but there had been plenty of work to do this week, leading up to the big day.

  Tonight was the first time since we’d arrived that there hadn’t been a planned function. It was the first time we’d gathered, just us. The runaways and our loves.

  “Let’s ask them now,” I whispered into my husband’s ear.

  “Okay.” He kissed my cheek.

  I took a fortifying breath, then looked around our circle. “We wanted to run something by you guys.”

  “For the wedding?” Kat asked, sitting straighter.

  “Sort of.” I laced my fingers through Karson’s, silently telling him to take over.

  Like Katherine, I was a bundle of emotion this week. While she buried hers in activity, I’d resorted to what seemed like an endless stream of near-tear moments.

  I was so happy for Gus. I was so proud of the man he’d become. And he loved Delilah with every cell in his body, treating her with such adoration and respect. I’d told him as much in another mess of tears a few days ago. Gus had hugged me and said he’d learned that from watching Karson. His dad.

  But happy and proud, I still felt like I was losing my baby boy. So I’d been leaning on my husband, like tonight, to speak up for me when I couldn’t get the words past the lump in my throat.

  “We drove the Cadillac up here,” Karson said. “As you know.”

  The day we’d pulled into the lodge’s parking lot, everyone else had already been here. They’d descended on the car, greeting it like an old friend. This wasn’t the first trip to Montana that we’d brought the car, and like past times, having it here gave everyone the chance to drive it again.

  Gemma and Katherine had taken it to town on grocery store runs. Londyn and Brooks had spent a few hours getting lost on the Montana highways. Then Aria and Brod
y had done the same.

  “We want to give it to August and Delilah,” Karson said. “As a wedding present. But we wanted to check with you guys first.”

  The crackle of the fire was the only sound.

  Then Londyn nodded and the smile that stretched across her face was brighter than the flames. “Yes. Absolutely.”

  “Best idea ever.” Gemma nodded.

  Cash shook his head in disbelief. “Are you sure?”

  “It’s time for that car to go to the next generation,” Karson answered. “Your daughter. My son. I can’t think of a better pair. And maybe someday, they’ll continue the tradition. Send it down the road with someone else who needs it.”

  Katherine buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Cash stood and scooped her up, settling her on his lap. She took a moment, then sniffled and looked up, drying her eyes. “Sorry. I’m a wreck this week. Who needs another beer?”

  Cash trapped her before she could stand. “No one needs another beer, sweetheart.”

  “Let’s have a toast.” Aria raised her beer bottle into the air. “To the original Lou.”

  I smiled. She’d deemed one Lou the original and the other Lou—my son—the famous Lou. “To the original Lou.”

  The circle cheered.

  Lou usually got a toast at these functions. He’d stuck with us all, decades later, especially since every woman in the circle was wearing a piece of his jewelry. Lou had gifted Hope’s jewelry to us all, along with our own respective letters.

  Well, except for me.

  Over the years, we’d shared the contents of those letters with each other. Mostly, Lou had written about his wife. Combined, those letters had given us a glimpse of his love for Hope, and wearing something of hers was an honor.

  To Londyn, he’d gifted a gold locket. To Gemma, an opal pendant necklace. To Katherine, a pair of ruby stud earrings. To Aria, a ring adorned with tiny gold roses. I wore Hope’s wedding rings as my own. And Karson wore Lou’s wedding band, the piece Lou had gifted to me.

  It was almost like he’d known that the man it was destined for was Karson. I liked to think so.