Hold Me (Fool's Gold #16)(28)

“What did Grandma Nell think of your major?”

An interesting question. The older woman had in fact reminded Destiny that running from something wasn’t the same as running to something.

“She always supported me,” Destiny said, bending the truth. “I could count on her, no matter what.”

“That’s nice. I wish I had someone like her in my family. Where is she now?”

“She passed a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks. Me, too.”

Destiny pushed away the inevitable sadness and pointed to the sign up ahead. “We’re here.” She followed the other cars into a large parking lot.

Registration was quick. Starr was given a color-coded wristband, and then it was time for Destiny to leave.

Starr drew in a breath. “Okay, I’ll see you later. You remember that lady, Felicia, is driving me home, right?”

“I do.” Destiny touched her sister’s arm. “You’re going to do great.”

“I hope so. It sucks being the new girl. I know how to do it, but I never like it. I can’t imagine doing what you do. Not just, like, working with computers and stuff, but always going from place to place. Don’t you ever want to settle somewhere?”

“Eventually, sure.”

Starr looked like she was going to say something else but changed her mind. She shifted her backpack to her other shoulder. “See you later.”

“Have fun.”

Destiny thought about giving her a hug, but before she could reach out, Starr had turned and walked away.

She let her go and returned to her car. Progress had been made, she thought. She would enjoy that and continue to take baby steps.

She drove back to town and parked at home before walking to Brew-haha. She was meeting Kipling for an update before heading out in the helicopter to oversee more tracking. Miles was making good progress. It wasn’t that he needed her along, but she preferred to make random flights to confirm it was all going well.

She crossed the street and walked toward Brew-haha. When she realized she was moving faster and faster, she deliberately slowed. She was not excited about seeing Kipling again. She wasn’t anything. She was going to have a meeting with a colleague. Nothing more.

As she forced herself to keep to a slower pace, she thought about all the women who gave in so easily to sex. She supposed a case could be made that their way was better. If you simply reacted to attraction, then maybe, over time, it had no power. Maybe it was like an itch that once scratched, didn’t return.

Only that hadn’t been her experience with her parents. They went from itch to itch, creating havoc in their respective wakes. Maybe the actual problem was she hadn’t been looking hard enough for her sensible, reliable mate. There were plenty of single men right here in town. Why not check them out?

There were the Mitchell brothers. Aidan and Nick were both attractive. Although from what she’d heard, Nick was an artist at heart. If he really was denying his gift, then there was a disaster looming, and she didn’t want that. Aidan ran an adventure tour company. Not exactly the job description of her ideal calm, staid mate.

There had been talk at the volunteer meeting about a rancher named Zane. He had sounded age appropriate, and a man who made his living off the land was certainly going to understand about being responsible and patient. She should find a way to meet him.

But all plans of casually running into rancher Zane fled the second she walked into Brew-haha and saw Kipling was already at one of the tables. He’d ordered two lattes and had a plate of pastries in front of him.

She hesitated for a second. Her body seemed to go into some kind of cellular happy dance. Her breathing hitched, her heart raced and somewhere deep in her belly she felt a distinct kind of twisting. Probably the beginning of stomach flu, she told herself uneasily.

She refused to show weakness and walked toward him.

“Hey,” he said when she took the seat opposite his. “I got you a latte. Hope that’s all right.”

“It is. Thank you.” She clutched the coffee mug in both hands.

“You get Starr off okay? Didn’t she start summer camp today?”

“Uh-huh. I hope she likes it.”

“Yeah, it’s never easy being the new kid.”

“That’s what she said. Did you move around a lot as a kid? Because of the skiing?”

“Sure, but I had my coach and my team. I wasn’t on my own like she is. But she’ll make friends and that will help. Too bad you’re leaving at the end of summer. If you were staying, she’d have friends when school starts.”

“Starr goes to a boarding school. She’ll be going back there.”

Kipling frowned. “She doesn’t live with you full-time?”

“No. Just for the summer. I’m her legal guardian now, but that’s more for handling logistics.”

“Oh. And she’s okay with that? With not having a real home?”

Destiny didn’t like the questions. “She has a home.”

“Where?”

Destiny didn’t have an answer to that. Starr had only spent a few days at Destiny’s place in Austin before they’d left for Fool’s Gold. The apartment wasn’t really big enough for the two of them.

“I guess I haven’t thought that part through,” she said slowly.