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

or staying in one place. It’s a journey. Your grandmother knew that. I don’t think she meant you to promise that you wouldn’t leave the rez. She wanted you to promise to hold onto our ways. Besides, what would she want for you now? She would want the grandson she loved to be happy.”

Jason struggled to think this through.

But Teresa wasn’t finished. “Ren is right. You can’t abandon your people by moving away. Who gives a damn what your sisters did? That’s their choice, their journey. As long as you hold true to our beliefs, to our values, you’ll carry us with you wherever you go—and pass what you know on to your children. And why do you have to be here or there? Can’t you go back and forth? Isn’t that what roads are for?”

Teresa threw up her hands and walked back to the kitchen, muttering to herself and leaving Jason to stare after her.

Ren cleared his throat. “Brother, I think you’ve just been told.”

Winona woke to a buzz from her cell phone. She rolled over, picked it up, read Jason’s text message.

Good morning, angel.

Along with the text was a photo of him sitting in his pickup at a gas station, either at dawn or dusk.

Her heart swelled to see him. She saved it to her photo app and replied with a selfie she’d taken with the bear cub yesterday.

Good morning, my love.

This was her new morning routine. Every day began and ended with a text message from Jason, most of them accompanied by selfies or beautiful pictures of the desert or wildlife—roadrunners, a desert tortoise, an elf owl peeking out of a giant saguaro. He also sent emails when he could, and, on his days off, they chatted on the phone or online, sometimes for hours. And still, it wasn’t enough.

Jason had been gone for a little more than five weeks now, but it seemed like an eternity since she’d watched him drive away. She missed his face, the sound of his voice, his touch, his scent. She missed sharing meals and unhurried conversations. She missed falling asleep beside him and waking up in his arms.

She missed the sex, too, of course. God, yes, she missed that.

Worse than missing him was the niggling fear that he’d get back into his routine in Sells, surrounded by his Pack and his people, and lose interest in her.

Grandpa had told her to give Jason space. “Let him find his path back to you.”

But it was hard to live every day not knowing when they’d be together again.

Jason had told her he was working on their situation. When she’d asked what he meant, he’d said he didn’t want to get her hopes up and had kept it to himself.

Long-distance relationships sucked.

Winona sat up, reached for her boot, and slipped her Frankenleg inside. She’d been off crutches and walking for a little more than a week now. Though each step had been painful at first, she was grateful to still have her leg and be more mobile.

She walked to the bathroom and brushed and braided her hair. It was a Saturday, but she wanted to get her rounds at the clinic done early so she could help Naomi at the shop. Shota was almost two months old now and went to work every day with his mother. But when Naomi needed to breastfeed him or work on jewelry or even eat her lunch, someone needed to take care of the baby or cover the sales floor and the register.

Her phone buzzed again.

How is your morning going?

She typed a reply.

It would be better if you were here.

Still in her bathrobe, she started toward the kitchen to make breakfast when her phone buzzed again.

Then open your door and let me in.

“What?” His message made no sense, so she read it aloud. “Open your door and let me … Oh, God!”

She hurried to the door and looked outside. “Jason!”

He stood there, handsome as sin, huddled against the cold in a denim jacket, a smile on his face.

She punched in the code to deactivate her security system and opened the door.

He stepped inside and drew her hard against him. “God, Win, I’ve missed you.”

She held on tight. “I can’t believe you’re really here. Am I dreaming?”

He stepped inside, closed the door behind him. “If you are, then we’re both having the same dream.”

He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her, deep and slow.

Five weeks of longing flared into sexual need in a heartbeat.

“I want you, Jason.”

He scooped her into his arms, carried her into the bedroom, then set her down beside the bed and began to undress. Winona let her robe fall to the floor and removed her boot, then lay back on her bed, feasting on the sight of him.

He stretched out above her and kissed her, the two of them rolling in a tangle of limbs, hands moving hungrily over soft skin, seeking to arouse and please. After so many days apart, there was no need for seduction or finesse.

Jason ripped open a condom packet with his teeth, rolled it onto his erection—and then he was inside her, his hips a piston as he drove himself into her. She came hard and fast, Jason moaning her name as he joined her.

They hadn’t yet caught their breath before they started laughing.

Then it hit her. “Did you drive all night?”

He drew her close. “I left Sells yesterday after supper. I was going to leave this morning, but I just couldn’t wait.”

“How long can you stay?” She wanted to know upfront so she could steel herself.

He grinned. “That’s the thing. I was hoping to stay forever.”

“You want to stay… forever?” Her pulse skipped. “What about your promise?”

Jason’s fingers caressed her shoulder. “At the inipi, Old Man said something that stayed with me.”

Winona couldn’t help but smile. “He’s good at that.”

“He said, ‘A promise is a sacred thing. So is the love of one’s half-side.’ At the time, it seemed impossible to reconcile those two things.