Page 106 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

And I keep thinking it while she talks, watching how her face changes when she remembers him in a better light. How love stays stubborn even when fear gets tangled up in it.

By the time we leave, she’s smiling more genuinely now.

The night is colder than before, and she tips her face up, letting it wake her up.

“Thank you,” she says as we head back toward the truck.

I glance over. “You don’t owe me thanks for soup.”

“It wasn’t just the soup.”

“No,” I say. “But the soup helped.”

She smiles a little. “It did.”

We drive back in comfortable silence. The kind that comes after a hard thing’s been set down for a while, even if only temporarily.

I keep my eyes on the road and try not to think too hard about how badly I want to reach across the seat and take her hand.

Not for anything dramatic. Just because I suspect she’d let me tonight, and I’m trying very hard to keep being the version of myself she can lean on without having to brace.

The ranch comes into view around the next bend, lights low and familiar against the dark.

Something feels wrong before I know why.

I pull up near the barn and cut the engine. Annie’s already looking toward the office annex.

“The door,” she says.

Yeah.

The back office door is cracked open, just enough to show a blade of light. At this hour, it should be shut, locked.

My whole body goes alert in one smooth shift.

“Stay here,” I say automatically.

She gives me a look. “Absolutely not.”

I get out first, moving fast, putting myself between her and the office without making a big show of it. She’s right behind me, all softness from the café gone hard again in an instant.

I push the door wider.

And there’s Silas.

Standing in the middle of the office with the overhead light on, one hand braced flat against the desk, the other hanging at his side so still it’s almost worse than if he were pacing. His face is thunderous.

His eyes go to Annie first.

Then to me.

Then back again. His warning to keep away from Annie jumps to mind. I can tell he can see right through me, that he knows to me this wasn’t just a friendly thing.

Well.

Hell.

CHAPTER NINETEEN