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“It’s never kept me up at night before,” I admit. “Thinking about Dakota having to face a man like Trafton. Knowing his shadow got anywhere near Eli.”

She holds my gaze for a long moment.

“Are you going to make it right?” she says.

“Yes.”

“With Taya?”

“With everything I have, everything I am, and everything I can be.”

Clara turns to Wiley and jerks her chin. I hear him grunt softly.

“I’m gonna head home for a bit and come right back. You stay here until then,” he tells me. “And you make sure Clara and the kids stay safe. Can you do that?”

I turn to look at Wiley. “I’ll protect them with my life.” I mean it, too.

Wiley believes me because he nods at Clara and leaves.

Clara comes around the counter and sits on the bar stool next to mine.

“I’m working on locating Trafton. He’ll never get near you again.”

She glances at the doorway where Wiley had just been. “I know.”

“I’m sorry, Clara. I really am.”

She smiles. “You say it like a man who isn’t used to apologizing.”

I weigh my words before answering. “I never went back to where I worked—never saw the consequence of what I did.”

“But you came back this time,” she points out.

“Yes.”

Clara regards me steadily. “She’s in love with you, you know.”

“I know.”

“She hasn’t said it to me. She doesn’t have to.” Clara picks up her coffee. “I know what a woman looks like when she’s fighting herself about a man.”

Eli appears in the kitchen doorway. “Mama, I had a bad dream.”

He’s in horse pajamas. His hair is sticking up on one side, a small wooden horse held against his chest with both arms, the way small children hold things when something has frightened them.

He doesn’t see me at first. He sees his mother, and he goes to her—the direct line of a child who knows where safety is.

Clara opens her arms, and he climbs up onto her lap with the boneless trust of someone who has not yet learned to be guarded.

Then he sees me.

He stares.

I hold very still.

“You’re the man from Mav’s.”

“Yes.”