Page 32 of Ethan

Or maybe not completely unaware.

“Ready,” she said. “How many hands is Vulcan?”

“Seventeen. He’s a tall horse.”

“He’d have to be.” She looked up at Ethan in the saddle. “You’re so tall. Your brothers too.”

“We’re all six-five. Get it from our parents. Dad is six-six, Mom is five-eleven.”

“I’d feel like a little bug standing next to all of you.” She smiled. “Your parents are wonderful, by the way. I met them at the reception. Lovely people.”

“Yes, they are.” He said it simply, it without needing to elaborate.

She fell in behind him as the trail narrowed, keeping her eyes on his broad back and the way he sat in the saddle, relaxed and straight all at once. She made herself look out across the pasture instead.

That was when she noticed the small building tucked against the tree line.

“What’s that?” She pointed.

He glanced over his shoulder. “Fishing cabin. My dad built it years ago when all this land was still his. I’ve stayed there a few times when a storm came up faster than I could ride back.” He turned back to the trail. “There are a couple of covered stalls behind it too.”

“Does it have a bathroom?”

He looked back at her. “Yes.”

“Can we stop?” She made a face. “I had too much coffee this morning.”

He chuckled. “Sure.”

He tied Vulcan to the rail outside, and she did the same with Jewel. He pushed the cabin door open and stepped back to let her in.

She stopped just inside and looked around.

It was small but solid, one main room with a stone fireplace, a worn leather sofa, a small kitchen along one wall. Fishing rods lined up neat against the far wall, a tackle box on the shelf above them. A braided rug on the floor, faded but clean.

It smelled like wood smoke, pine, and old leather.

She loved it immediately.

“Bathroom’s through there.” He nodded toward a door.

“Thank you.” She crossed the room and disappeared inside.

When she came back out she stopped in the middle of the room and turned slowly, taking it all in properly this time.

“I love this place.” She looked at the fireplace, the fishing rods, the worn sofa. “It feels like the rest of the world doesn’t exist out here.”

“That’s the idea.” His voice was quiet.

She turned to look at him, and they were closer than she’d realized, the cabin being what it was.

She didn’t step back.

Neither did he.

Naomi looked up at his face and watched as his eyes dropped to her lips, then back into her eyes.

“Is there a bedroom?” she asked, then gasped when she realized what she’d said as Ethan’s eyebrow rose. “Uh, I just meant, do you sleep on the sofa or is there a bed? God, I’ll just shut up now.”