“Are you all right? Have you taken a second to sit down?” I demanded. I’d left the living room so there was a chance of hearing her over the din; I sank to sit cross-legged on the carpet in the hallway leading to the back of Clark’s house. “You sound like you’re ready to collapse. And you’re pregnant!”
Ruthie laughed, a soft expulsion of breath. “I’m more than all right. We’re home, Marshall is safe.” I pictured her sweet, beautiful face bathed in the low-wattage glow of the lights in Marshall’s hospital room, surely dimmed for sleeping. After a weighty pause, she whispered, “Camille. Oh, God, Milla. There’s so much we have to talk about. Not right now… but soon. Promise?”
“I promise.” I rested the back of my head on the wall, closing my eyes so no tears would escape. “We’ll stay in Montana for a while longer, don’t worry. Besides, everyone is flying out here tomorrow, Mom and Blythe and everyone. Be prepared!”
She laughed again, simultaneously clearing her throat; I heard her sniffling and imagined her swiping at tears. “It’s just…there’s so many things we left unresolved, so much I don’t know. And I don’t know if I’m brave enough to ever know.”
I understood on a deep, absolute level.
“What happened to Axton, to Patricia and Cole and the baby? I left them all so quickly, they’ll never know what really happened to Marshall and me. Birdie and Celia will be so worried. Ax won’t know what to do. Oh God…” Ruthie’s voice broke.
“I know, honey, I really do.”
She sniffled again, with a small, choked gulp. “Derrick told me a little about you and Malcolm. Oh, Camille, I know how that must have been. When I realized who Miles really was…just before he died…” Crying now, she was overcome, beyond exhaustion, and I wished I could wrap her in my arms.
“Ruthie, we’ll talk when you’re ready. I’m here for you, always. I promise.”
“Thank you,” she managed at last. “I don’t know what I would do without you and Tish.”
“That’s what sisters are for.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Landon, MN - July, 2018
“THIS FEELS SO ILLICIT,” MARSHALL WHISPERED, PEERING around as if it was bright midday rather than deep night. Thick with heat and humidity, the summer air felt like juice. Crickets and gray peepers sang in harmony, accompanied by the occasional bullfrog; the stars glittered with no moon to overshadow them, dotting Flickertail’s smooth surface with reflected diamonds.
“Hurry, honey, the mosquitoes are going to eat us alive.” I giggled, slipping on the dew-damp bank as we scurried toward the water; the dock boards trembled beneath our bare feet. I turned so that my back was angled toward him and ordered, “Untie me, quick, before they carry us away.”
“Oh God, with pleasure,” he groaned, cupping my breasts from behind, lightly jiggling them against his wide palms before untying my bikini top and slipping the straps from my shoulders. He gently bit my nape, exposed by my pinned-up hair, and then, with a muted roar, leaped from the end of the dock, sending cold droplets arcing over me as he cannonballed into the water.
“You aren’t naked!” I yelled in a whisper, hands on hips.
Treading water ten feet out, I saw the bright flash of his teeth as he grinned. “I ain’t taking no chances,” he teased. “Too many fish!”
I stepped delicately from my bottoms and Marshall executed a surface dive, gliding toward me beneath the lake. He reached the dock and rested his elbows on the end board, water pearling from his wide shoulders, catching my ankles in his chilly hands. Wet hair slicked back from his forehead, he offered up a wicked smile. “This is a heavenly view, angel,” he murmured, eyes all over my naked flesh.
Our third child and first daughter had joined our family only three months ago – and our sex life had taken a wee bit of a hit since then, to say the least. To indulge in this moment of unhurried and undiluted lust with my husband felt so damn good I didn’t even mind the subsequent mosquito bites.
“May I join you?” I asked demurely, the one to cup my breasts this time, gently tracing my thumbs over my distended nipples. Almost immediately my letdown reflex prickled to life, drenching my skin with sticky milk. “Oops…dammit…”
“Get in here, woman, right this second. I need you like I’ve never needed anything in this world.” Marsh was giddy with bliss at our secret, skinny-dipping date. “I can’t believe how hard I am in this cold water… here, feel, hurry…”
Giggling like a teenager I did indeed hurry, joining him with a noisy splash, surfacing to wrap all around his almost-nude body.
“You are hard, you feel so good…get these stupid trunks off…”
His mouth was too full to respond, his hands too busy to obey my breathless order, and so I made short work of his swimwear, slipping it down just enough to expose the enormous evidence of his desire. Marsh slid both hands along the length of my thighs, sleek and buoyant under the water, drawing them around his hips and deepening our kisses, groaning against my lips. It had been weeks since we’d last managed to sneak in a round of lovemaking and I tore my mouth from his to insist, “Don’t come too quick, honey…”
“I can’t promise…” And he groaned again, inspiring a new round of giggling, as he slid fully home, grasping my ass in both hands.
“Slow,” I demanded in a whisper, licking his lower lip, taking him deep; he was so hard he could probably have pole-vaulted and my giggles dissolved in a wave of pure heat.
“Slow?” he repeated in teasing disbelief. “Holy God, woman, I’m about to explode…”
I ran my fingers repeatedly through his damp hair, which fell past his shoulders when wet. He’d long since shaved his winter beard but his jaws were deliciously stubbled here in the
