Breaking Free: A Colorado High Country Crossover Novel, Pamela Clare [i can read book club .TXT] 📗

grandfather. The last time she’d set two places at her table, Naomi had been out of town, and the second plate had been for Chaska. She couldn’t help feeling a little nervous, especially now that she knew Jason was single.

“That smells good.” Jason twisted the cap off a bottle of beer and poured it into his glass. “Want one?”

“No, thanks.” Winona sat. “I don’t drink.”

“Got it.” He took his seat across from her. “How are Naomi and little Shota?”

While they ate, Winona shared the news. Naomi’s preeclampsia had improved, but she was still in pain from the C-section. Her doctor thought she’d be able to come home by the end of the week. Shota was thriving and had the nurses wrapped around his tiny pinky finger. Chaska had slept at home last night and had finally gotten a shower. Doug and Star were watching over Grandpa. Chaska had been approved for eight weeks of paternity leave.

“The last time I saw my brother so happy was on their wedding day.” Winona realized Jason didn’t know any of these people. “I’m boring you to death.”

The warmth in his gaze made her pulse skip. “I asked, remember?”

She broke eye contact, shifted the conversation to him. “Do you have any nieces or nephews?”

“I’ve got three older sisters, and between them, they’ve got seven kids—three boys and four girls. They moved away, one by one.” There was a disapproving edge to his voice. “I do my best to stay in touch. I don’t want the kids to grow up not knowing what it means to be Tohono O’odham.”

“Your sisters will teach them.”

Jason didn’t look sure of that. “They all married non-Natives. They don’t speak the O’odham tongue to their kids, and they’ve never brought them home to Sells. How can you teach someone what it means to be O’odham—one of the Desert People—if they’ve never seen the desert and don’t speak the language?”

Winona could see how much this bothered him. “Do you think they left because of what happened to your parents? After my mother died, I couldn’t walk out the front door, not even with Chaska holding my hand. I had to go out the back way. I was so glad when our grandparents took us away from that house.”

“I’m sure that was part of it. More than that, I think they just wanted easier lives.” He sounded disappointed.

“Is that so wrong? After centuries of suffering and trauma, isn’t it a good thing when one of us finds happiness?”

“If everyone with a college education or special training leaves the reservations, where does that leave the Nations? How will anything get better for our people? What happens to our cultures, our languages?”

“We carry them with us.” Winona tried not to take what Jason was saying personally, though she couldn’t help but feel judged. “We speak for those back at home. We are the voice of our people to the outside world.”

Jason didn’t look convinced.

Winona didn’t want to lose her temper, but she needed him to see her point of view. “Naomi has a gift shop that sells jewelry made by Native people from reservations all over the country. If not for her and her shop here in Scarlet, they wouldn’t have that income. Don’t forget Camp Mato Sapa. I’ve seen it change kids’ lives.”

“And Chaska? Couldn’t his engineering skills be put to better use at home?”

Winona leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms over her chest, irked now. So much for her silly hopes for a romantic evening. “Sure—when the Oglala Lakota start launching rockets. And, yes, I probably could have started a wildlife sanctuary on the reservation. It would have taken years to get the funding and all the permits. But I don’t want to live far from my brother. Once my grandfather makes the journey, he and Naomi will be all the close family I have.”

“I get that. Family is important. But do you think little Shota will grow up to have the same sense of what it means to be Lakota that you and your brother have?”

Winona hoped so. “Chaska plans to speak only Lakota to him, and he will spend time on Pine Ridge visiting relatives, even if he doesn’t grow up there.”

Jason’s gaze dropped to the table for a moment. “Sorry. I don’t mean to question your choices.”

“Yes, you do.” Winona let go of her frustration. “But I understand why.”

She understood something else, too. No matter how attractive or courageous Jason was, she couldn’t afford to let herself develop feelings for him. He would never leave Sells, and her home was in Scarlet Springs.

Jason watched the news while Winona packed for their stay at the ranch, brushed her teeth, and got ready for bed. He did his best to ignore the sight of her as she moved back and forth from her bedroom to the bathroom, but it wasn’t easy. He wasn’t sure what he found sexier—her sleeveless white sleepshirt with pink sheep on it that showed off her smooth, slender legs or the blue bathrobe she’d left open.

She’d been wearing that same bathrobe this morning, except it had been tied, and she’d been soaking wet and naked beneath it. Yes, he’d noticed. How could he not?

He dragged his gaze away from the hallway and back to the TV, where CNN had aerial footage of a fire at an apartment complex in Miami. But Jason was too restless to take in the news, their dinner conversation on loop in his head. He shouldn’t have pushed Winona the way he had.

No matter how strongly he felt about the issues, he was a guest in her house. How she lived her life wasn’t his business. She and her family were doing a lot of good in this world, which is why he was here in Scarlet in the first place.

Sometimes it pays to keep your mouth shut.

Yeah, well, that was a lesson he was still learning.

He turned off the TV and walked toward his room, colliding with Winona in