Flawless Surrender (The Surrender Trilogy, #2)(27)
“I never pictured Parker Brooks cooing at a baby, but trust me, he does,” Tanner said, with a wry grin on his face.
“He’s not the only one,” Zoey said, and when Dalton and Clint looked at her in question she gestured to Tanner with her fork, “Your big brother is wrapped around that baby girl’s finger too, trust me, I’ve seen it in person.”
“Things sure have changed around here,” Clint said, shaking his head.
The conversation turned to less personal questions. Everyone seemed to avoid talking about the past and the future. Preferring to stay on fluff topics like town gossip and the tasks that had to be done over the next week on the ranch.
By the end of dinner the three brothers seemed to have made a silent agreement to ignore the past between them, and start fresh. Zoey was the only outsider.
As usual, she was the one with no links to the past, and no solid leads to her future. The three brothers continued their easy conversation and insisted on cleaning up the kitchen since she cooked, so she silently slipped away leaving them to it.
Her legs carried her outside and down the road a ways before she stopped and took a seat on a tree stump to stare up at the sky. Worries bounced in her brain making her stomach tight and her heart heavy.
She still had no idea where her mother was, or if she was okay. Eve’s cell phone number had been disconnected, so even if she wanted to leave a message she couldn’t. Tomorrow she had to return to work and admit that she was at the bottom of the dung heap, and she still had absolutely no idea where she was going to live permanently.
How had things spiraled out of control so quickly in her life? It seemed like just days ago she was graduating, celebrating the successful completion of her life’s goal, and planning a brilliant entry into the career world. The reality sure paled in comparison to the fantasy she’d had in her mind back then.
Staring up into the inky black sky, she searched instinctively for specific constellations. There was Orion, and the big dipper, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda. It was a soothing ritual she had when she needed to think, and she was thankful the night was clear and warm.
When movement drew her attention and she turned to find Dalton standing a few feet away, he held two beer bottles in his hand. “Are you alright?”
Forcing a smile she nodded, “Sure. Just enjoying the stars.”
He moved closer, handing her a beer and then taking a seat on the ground so his back rested against the stump she sat on and his shoulder pressed against her leg. “Enjoying the stars, or escaping the testosterone?”
She snorted, and then giggled, “Maybe a little of both.”
“I can’t believe Clint came back. I know he promised mom, but I was stunned to see him today.” Dalton’s words were quiet, and Zoey had to strain to hear him.
“You? I was the one he scared half to death. He’s lucky I had a bowl of icing and not the bread knife in my hands, or you would have been planning a funeral,” she said sarcastically. He turned to look up at her, his gorgeous smile lit by the moonlight, and she sighed with longing. Her hand itched to run through his blonde hair, loosening if from where his cowboy hat had pressed it down. Instead, she began picking at the sticker on her beer bottle.
“That’s just it, huh?”
“What do you mean?”
“The planning. We’re all at a stage where we’re supposed to be planning our futures. Laying out a course for ourselves, a flawless path to happiness if you will. We should be capable of overcoming the skeletons in our closets and forgiving all of the hurts from the past, so we can have a bright future. Instead, you and I are drinking beer in the moonlight in the middle of a Texas ranch, and neither of us knows what the fu-ck tomorrow will hold.”
“Amen,” she said, laughing just a little. They sat in silence for a while, enjoying the quiet and their own thoughts. “So what kind of plan have you come up with, Doctor?”
“Hmm…I still think my first step should be seducing you into my bed, because then it will be much easier to convince you to spend the rest of your life cooking your delicious food for me, and driving my brothers crazy that they don’t have you.” He responded to her glare of disapproval with a wink, and then shrugged, “Or, I can head back inside to obtain more beer and we can sit here until morning watching the moon move across the sky.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. He was as big of a flirt as the other two, but there seemed to be something deeper in him tonight. There was a missing piece to the puzzle that was Dalton Keegan, and she grew more intrigued every minute she spent with him.
“I could spend hours staring at the sky searching for answers and still have no idea what’s next.” She could hear the wistful sadness in her own voice, so she knew Dalton could too.
“What’s holding you back?” he asked, without moving a muscle to look away from the sky.
She sighed, “My past I suppose. Or maybe my fear of the past repeating itself. I wanted my degree so badly because I wanted to be able to help other kids. I need to make sure they know that it gets better, and that their circumstances when they are young don’t define them when they are adults.”
“A lofty goal. I know you and I haven’t spent a lot of time together, and we weren’t close before I left, but somehow I just know you can achieve that if you are determined to. Skeletons can be pretty motivating.”