Chapter 17: Still

Joni's POV

On Friday I called the owner of Lakeshore Truck & Auto and told him about the deputy.

He coughed into the phone for a while.

"You tell your biker he's my guest," he said. "I own that lot. If the sheriff wants to argue about who stands on it, he can argue with me."

Holt didn't say thank you.

He sat on the edge of my bed that night with Bear's head on his boot, and he said, "I'll stand still."

On Saturday I woke before the alarm, in the gray light, with his arm heavy across my waist.

The red dress hung from the closet door where Cass had left it, with the tags still on.

The Rally began at noon.

It was a little past six.

I turned over slowly, and Holt's eyes were already open.

"You're awake," I said.

"I've been awake."

"Doing what?"

"Looking at you." He said it with no embarrassment at all.

I put my palm flat on his chest and felt his heart under it.

"Don't move," I said.

His brows went up. "Why?"

"Because on Thursday night you promised your sister you could stand still. I want to see."

A slow smile came over his face.

"That's a different kind of still."

"It's the only kind I'm testing." I pushed the blanket down. "Hands on the pillow."

He put them there, both of them, above his head.

I knelt over him with my bad knee on the soft part of the mattress, and I took my time.

I kissed his throat, where the beard stopped.

I kissed the compass on his shoulder, and the ship under it, and the two letters on the inside of his arm.

His breathing changed.

I slid my hand down his stomach, past his ribs, and felt every muscle jump under it.

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