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Some other sensation was coursing through her, though, something besides physical discomfort.

Relief.

Not so much for her back, which of course was complaining after she’d put it through contortionist movements to escape Frisky. This relief was deeper. She was relieved for Dylan, that he was finally unwinding from their near-miss. As if he was important to her again.

Reality splashed cold water onto the cozy emotional bubble she wanted to crawl into and hide. She’d better lock down her personal feelings or they would put both of them in danger. This assignment couldn’t afford for her to make a misstep.

“We got through our defensive driving refresher course that one time with flying colors, remember?” His query challenged her silent oath to close her heart to temptation. “That was only because of your skills. If I’d been the one driving when we had to scale those steep inclines in the Badlands, we’d have flunked out.”

“Doubtful.” She hoped her voice sounded more confident than her insides felt, as though an invisible fist was squeezing her lungs. Pausing to draw in a breath, then release it slowly, she forced her grip on the wheel to loosen. “We’re trained law enforcement, Dylan. We do the job in front of us, whatever it is. Right?”

“Yeah. Right.” His words held disappointment. She didn’t dare look at him, not when her heart was such a raw sack of vulnerability.

“Let me circle back to your dollar mart bonanza that’s waiting for me. Does this mean we’re going to be out of town for a while? Why don’t you tell me where we’re headed, and why?”

A sparkling blue sky reflected in the calm water of the lake where Veronica sat with Dylan the next morning.

“This is prettier than I imagined.” She sipped at the tin cup of coffee Dylan had miraculously prepared at the picnic table that they now sat at while she was still fast asleep in the back of the truck. “I’ve been in Saskatchewan before but never to this particular lake, in fact.”

After a few hours’ drive, they’d crossed the border and eventually stopped at a remote campground and parked on the beach of a lake that was one of hundreds, probably thousands in Saskatchewan, Canada. The province was under two hours’ drive away from Red Grove, and where, according to Dylan, his FBI sources indicated Slim ran his entire North Dakota drug ring from. They were located in the midst of the glacier lakes region, where receding glaciers tens of thousands of years ago had etched the landscape with innumerable pockets of fresh water.

“My dad brought my brothers and me up here when we were all still kids, on the one father-son outing he did each year. We loved it, and were always sad when it ended.” He motioned at the water with his half-full mug. “This is the spot where Callum taught Aiden and me how to skip a rock.”

“Your sisters didn’t want to come?” She’d grown up with only Tawny, and the thought of being stuck at home while other siblings went off on such a fun adventure that was out of her family’s economic reach was the epitome of disappointment.

“Oh, don’t feel badly for them. On those same weekends, Mom would take my sisters Kelly and Matilda to a resort, usually in Montana, for girls’ time. They’d swim in a hotel pool, get their nails done, you know, girly stuff.” He mock-shuddered.

She laughed. “Yeah, I don’t see you enjoying a mani-pedi. Although you should keep an open mind. The leg massage with a pedicure is quite the treat. How long did you do your father-son trips?”

His serene expression turned stony. “We didn’t go on them after my junior year of high school. We tried to resurrect the tradition after my parents divorced eight years ago, but it was a nonstarter. Dad’s always too busy being a trauma surgeon and now my brothers and I are all working with demanding schedules. I miss them.” Wistfulness sanded off some of the regret in his tone. She wasn’t sure if he meant he missed his brothers, his father, or both of his parents. It wasn’t the time to ask, not with him appearing so vulnerable.

There you go again, reacting to his well-being instead staying focused on yours.

She moved a long, stray lock of her hair that had dropped over her brow to behind her ear. “I knew your folks had split, but you’ve never really told me why.” Or maybe he had, but she’d been too distracted by his rugged looks to absorb the story. She really had been smitten back in their rookie days.

“Dad was gone too much, is how I see it. Mom needed a break from us kids, and she sure as hell deserved it. It took every ounce of her management skills to corral us between school and athletics, and other after-school activities. But somehow she did, and she worked as a journalist while working on her own book. She writes fiction. Well, you know that.”

“I do.” She nodded. Yes, she knew that Emily Colton was a published novelist—they were a rare breed anywhere, but especially in as tiny a town as Red Grove. Emily’s novel was a permanent fixture in the picture window of their local independent bookstore, Grove-y Books.

“Mom put everything of herself, professionally that is, on hold to raise us kids. She had to stay in a slow lane, career-wise, because Dad was gone all of the time. To be fair, what surgical resident isn’t? And then as a surgeon, if you’re any good, you’re working twenty hour days many days of the week, depending on where you live.”

“Red Grove isn’t that big,” she mused aloud.

“You’d think so, right? But when you consider all the farm accidents, ranch mishaps, then the car crashes on the big highways where everyone speeds, Dad was never short on patients to save. And Mom lost her patience—sorry.” He flashed her a grin at his unintended pun. “She told us that after she dropped Matilda off at college, she realized she needed to finally put her needs first.”

“So they divorced without your dad trying to win her back? Have either of them remarried?” She’d witnessed her mother getting a happy ending with her second marriage, and in her heart of hearts believed true love could happen for everyone. Except her.

Dylan shrugged. “They’re both still single, but they’re my parents. I don’t ask them about their dating lives.”

“That’s fair. I’m happy my mom found someone and remarried, this time happily. It’s been a relief in a lot of ways, to not have to worry about her the way I used to right after…” She didn’t want to finish her thought.

“Right after your sister, Tawny, passed?” His eyes were full of a tender concern she hadn’t seen since they’d been rookies. She looked away, unwilling to let him see that she was touched by his remembering.

“Yeah.” Standing up from the picnic table, she took his mug and walked over to the water pump at the edge of the rustic campsite. When she’d returned, he had a map unfolded, the corners held down by river rocks at each corner.

“We’re going old-school, I see,” she quipped, setting the mugs on the bench and sliding back in. “Not that we have any choice, with the lack of cell service. How long are you planning to be out here?”

“As long as it takes.”