With the gentlest of touches he clasped her hands and planted a light, whiskery kiss on each cheek. “We are all your friends, Joelle. We are your family.”
She blinked away tears and managed a smile. “Thank you.” It seemed inadequate, but it was all she could find to say. Family. The word was almost painful in its intensity. It conjured images of laughing faces, arms that kept her safe and made her feel wanted. Things she had lost, had almost forgotten.
Strong arms pulled her back from the edge of the void. She gasped into Luke’s shoulder, rigid as stone under her cheek. When the swirling darkness subsided and her vision cleared, she looked up, still tightly locked in Luke’s embrace. Philippe stood motionless against the sofa, his eyes turned aside.
The tension was palpable, it pulled Joey out of herself instantly. She shifted in Luke’s hold, which tightened even further, a clear nonverbal message she was not quite prepared to contest.
“Um—gentlemen, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting rather hungry.” Joey could hear the shaking in her voice and spent several seconds getting it back under control. “And Philippe is going to think we are lacking in the hospitality department. So, if you’ll just let me go, Luke…”
“There won’t be any time for that now, Joey.” Luke’s voice held an edge that stopped her from pulling away. “Philippe and I are on our way into town.”
Joey twisted against him with a frown. After a moment just long enough to make his control abundantly clear, Luke loosened his hold. She stepped back to a place at an equal distance from both men and raked them with her glance, taking in the two parkas draped over the sofa behind Philippe and the snowshoes propped against it.
“Isn’t it a little late to be going out again?” she asked. “If you’ve run all the way from Val Cache, I’m sure you could both use a rest.” The words she wanted to say—begging them to stay with her, not to leave her alone—were painfully locked in her throat.
Luke’s expression was unmoved and almost stern as he met her eyes. “We’ll spend the night in Lovell. I have business there, and I don’t want to keep Philippe away from his family.” For a moment his gaze moved to his cousin, who seemed quite content to look in the opposite direction.
“You’ll be all right, Joey,” Luke said at last, turning back to her. His eyes still held a challenging sharpness, but gradually his expression softened, as if he read her hidden distress, his muscles tensed as if to cover the short distance between them, but he turned instead to retrieve the parkas and snowshoes, brushing by Philippe without a word.
His back was to her as he pulled on his parka. “Be sure to lock up, and bank the fire as I showed you, we’ll be back tomorrow as soon as we can.”
As if that alone were sufficient good-bye, Luke tossed one of the parkas to Philippe, who donned it silently; in another moment both men were heading for the door, Philippe casting a half-apologetic glance back over his shoulder.
“Wait a minute.” Joey shook herself and trotted after them, pulling Luke around with a firm hand on his arm. “You’re just going to leave me alone here after what you told me, about”—she swallowed heavily—”what I am?” The words came out with some difficulty, but they came, she was amazed at her own calm. “Don’t you think it’s just a little unfair to leave me with only half an explanation?”
The sudden flood of moisture in her eyes startled her more than anything that had come before. Without warning, Luke pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips against her forehead. After a moment he took her chin in one callused hand and pulled it up, the thumb of his other hand stroked away an escaping tear.
“I will explain, Joelle—when I can. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You are still what you always were.” He dropped a kiss on each of her cheeks, then on her mouth with gentle tenderness. “I’ll be back soon.” Even as he spoke, he looked deeply into her eyes, in that way that always made her lose herself; she was smiling and forgetting whatever it was that had been bothering her by the time he dropped his gaze. He kissed her again, with sensual promise, and then released her. “Sleep well, Joey.”