Page 97 of Sherry and Sunflowers
She sighed. "I know. Homer, right?"
"Yeah."
"I feel so bad, Reaves. There was no way we could have a dog in the camper." She held her hand up. "And I'm not saying we're going back to the camper. I don't know what will happen yet, but…" She smiled. "I want to find a way for us to stay here."
He grinned at that. "Good. If you want it, we'll make it happen, one way or another. But I know that's too big a question for right now. And it's not even the question I was asking."
"I know. Sorry, I…"
"No, it's me." He shot her a quick smile. "What I want to ask is … How would you feel if I got Homer?"
She raised her eyebrows. "You?"
"Yeah. I've heard so much about him that I feel like I know him already. And I'm not going to be flying much anymore, so he can come around with me. And you know Zia would love it."
She had to smile at that. "She would, but she wants him for herself, Reaves."
He pulled over to the side of the road and cut the engine before turning in his seat to face her. "That's kind of the point, Alara."
"What is?"
He leaned his elbows on the console and beckoned for her to come closer. "If we're all together, then me having Homer means he's Zia's, too. And yours."
She pressed her lips together, but couldn't manage to hold the smile in. "Is that really where we're headed?" she asked.
"It's where I want us to go. Do you?"
"Yeah, Reaves. I do." She drew a breath. "I'm scared. Scared to want too much. My life doesn't tend to work out that way. But yeah. It's what I want."
"You know—instead of saying your life doesn't tend to work out that way, you could look at it like you've gotten all your bad luck out of the way already. And now the good things get to happen for you."
"Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful?"
"Yeah. It would. And as far as I'm concerned, it can be. All you need to do now is start believing it."
Chapter Twenty-Two
When they arrived at Muse on Friday evening, Reaves went straight to Alara as they climbed out of the back of Ollie's Cullinan. Ollie and Callie came to join them, and before Reaves could put his arm around her shoulders, Callie slipped her arm through Alara's and tugged her forward.
"Come on. Let's go see the girls."
Alara glanced back over her shoulder at him with a smile, and he nodded as they went ahead.
Ollie punched his shoulder. "It's good to see her finally getting out and about. I'm glad you guys wanted to come tonight."
"You know my deal; I wanted to come. Alara said she did, but I didn't know how she'd feel after the infusion this morning. It really knocked her out last week."
"And how's she feeling? She seems okay."
"Yeah, she says she's good. She says it feels like it helped, this time. Henry did say the second one was more likely to start building her up than knocking her down again."
"That's good. Come on, let's get in there." As they made their way up the steps and greeted Rodney, the concierge, Ollie added, "Do you know who's out tonight?"
"I think everyone is," said Reaves. "Jacob and Becca, Bentley and Alyssa."
"I talked to Willow earlier," Ollie said with a smile. "She's still pretending to be mad at us for abandoning her, as she calls it."
Reaves laughed. "I know. She's been giving me shit as well."
