Whatever reservations I had—and I had plenty—I pushed aside. “Hell, yeah, honey.”
Her lips curved and she bounced on her toes. Déjà vu. That day we’d gone into town for boots, she’d bounced exactly like that. Fight or flight. But I’d read her wrong in that moment. My girl wasn’t a bolter. She was a fighter.
Her stalker, for all hisweandusbullshit, he didn’t know her as well as he thought he did, and I had the feeling that was going to be his downfall. I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
But then the wind rustled the leaves and Lennon whipped around, searching, and my gut clenched. Fuck that guy for putting that mix of fear and fury in her expression. I didn’t feel sorry for him at all. He better be praying to the Patron Saint of Jackasses that the police caught him before I did.
Holly laid a hand on my arm. “Keep her safe, okay? Lennon makes a good nemesis. It’s been a while since I’ve had one of those. She got the best of me twice.Twice, Jay. No one does that.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I never saw her coming.”
Me, either. A month ago I had no idea who Lennon Graves was, and now I didn’t know how I was supposed to keep breathing without her.
THE GUARDIAN
He took her from me.
Keeping a bland smile on my face while Liam shared the news was hard. I wanted to scream and rage and throw something. But I kept my cool. I imagined Jeremiah floating in the sky like a balloon, a string tying him to Lennon. I imagined cutting the string with a pair of scissors. I imagined Jeremiah getting smaller and smaller as he floated up, up, up and away untilpoof!He was gone. My smile went from forced to genuine.
Camping. Honestly. Did he even know her at all? With a derisive snort, I turned on my heel and stormed to the parking lot. Lennon didn’t want to go fucking camping. It was dirty and gross out there. She wanted to sit on a porch and enjoy nature from a safe distance away, with running water and flushing toilets and a soft bed.
There was no way she would really go on a three-week pack trip. No fucking way. She could have this night with him—he better bring her back without so much as a goddamn scratch, or I was going to push him off the cliff like Miguel—but not three weeks. It was good, actually. Twenty-four hours camping with Jeremiah would make her miserable. She’d realize she needed to end things with him before this became her life and she was stuck with these camping trips forever.
Except…Lennon didn’t have the best track record, honestly. Men were a real weakness for her. She craved stability, and she thought men were the way to get that. Fucking dumb. Like men could be counted on for anything.
But I understood it. The world was unfair. Men had everything—they hadtakeneverything. Power. Money. She thought if she played by their rules, she could win. I had believed that, too, once. Now I knew better.
But Lennon hadn’t learned her lesson yet, apparently. Like that time one of her subscribers told her he liked Pokémon Go, and instead of laughing at him like she should have, she cosplayed as a female avatar while baking him a cake for his birthday. Of course, he’d given her ahugetip for that, which only reinforced her belief that if she twisted herself into his perfect woman, a man would take care of her.
Now she was doing the same thing with Jeremiah. He was steady. Loyal. In possession of an apartment with an extra bedroom and a great view.
Oh, goddammit.
She was really going to do it, wasn’t she. Lennon was actually going to go on a stupid three-week pack trip with him. She would make herself miserable just to make him happy. He didn’t deserve that, but he would take it from her anyway. As long as he got what he wanted from her, he wouldn’t even notice she wasn’t happy. Men were never as ashamed of themselves as they should be.
I couldn’t let him do that to her. I couldn’t let her do that toherself.
I threw my bag on the passenger seat of my car and peeled out of the parking lot. Tomorrow I would take my camper van to work instead of my car.
Tomorrow I would be ready.
Thank goodness I was here to save Lennon from herself.
33
LENNON
My muscles screamedin protest as I threw my right leg over Indigo’s rump and dismounted. I wobbled on the landing and my knees buckled right out from under me, causing me to roll onto my back like a goddamn turtle. I rolled back up on my feet again just as quickly, brushed my ass off, and peered around to make sure Jeremiah hadn’t noticed. Indigo gave me an unimpressed look.
“You good?” Jeremiah asked mildly. The brim of his cowboy hat obscured his face as he worked at the knots securing the packs to Ruby’s saddle.
Swear to god, that man had eyes in the back of his head. He didn’t miss a damn thing. “I’m good,” I chirped back brightly. “My legs forgot how to work, that’s all.”
It was hard to tell if that sound he made was a muffled laugh or a grunt of effort. I decided I didn’t care. I was new to all this outdoorsy shit, but I didn’t mind looking like a fool while I figured it out. There was a time I didn’t know how to pose for a camera or roast a chicken either, and look at me now: a master of both. I liked a challenge.
The moment I loosened Indigo’s girth, he let out a big sigh and bobbed his head. “You’re welcome,” I crooned, giving him a brisk pat on the neck. Then I started in on unpacking him.
“It doesn’t seem right that I’m sore but Indigo did all the work,” I said to Jeremiah as he unloaded the saddle bags and swapped Ruby’s bridle for a halter.
