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Boone opened the passenger door and stepped out, pulling me in for a quick kiss before helping me up into the seat. Within just a few seconds, I was right where I needed to be—right between my guys.
“Your hair looks really nice,” Boone said, reaching over to gently push a blonde strand back away from my forehead. “I love how it looks when the sun hits it just right. Just like this.”
“You could shave all that hair off and still be the sexiest woman I know,” Cade said, tossing me a wink as he drove around the back of the bunkhouse and into the pasture.
I laughed and shook my head. “Thanks, I think? For as long as it took me to grow my hair out, I think I’ll keep it long for a while.”
“We do have some electric clippers we can use if you ever change your mind,” Boone said. “We wouldn’t even charge.”
“Well,” Cade added, waggling his eyebrows. “Maybe we wouldn’t charge cash. But we could probably work something out in trade.”
“Oh my God.” I rolled my eyes. “You guys are too much. But God, you don’t even know… I really needed a good laugh.”
They both gave me an adorably identical worried look. It really was hard to worry about anything at all when I was with them, but my conversation with Nora was still weighing on my mind.
“What’s wrong, babe?” Boone asked, reaching over to place a hand on my leg. “Whatever it is, we’ll fix it.”
“Did something happen at the salon?” Cade asked. “Did you have any trouble getting back? Do I need to kick someone’s ass?”
I laughed again and shook my head. “No ass-kicking needed today, but I appreciate the sentiment.” I sighed, then looked from Boone to Cade and back again. “It’s Nora. I ran into her at the salon.”
Both sets of eyebrows shot up at the same time. Cade shot me a sideways glance as we bounced over the rough terrain of the pasture. “I knew you were up to something at that salon… you should have taken us with you.”
“Well… I didn’t know for sure she’d be there,” I said, which was mostly true. “But anyway, when I saw her, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask some questions about the poisoning.”
They both looked interested now. “And?” Boone prompted. “Did she say anything useful? Anything we can take back to the sheriff?”
I sighed. “That’s sort of the problem. I’m not sure if she’s behind it now that I’ve actually talked to her.” I thought back to the sight of her crying, of her whole body shaking as she sobbed. “I know it sounds crazy, but if you guys would have seen her… She was really torn up about her horse. I actually felt bad for her.”
Just saying it all over again made me feel sad. And okay, maybe I felt worse for her horse than I did for Nora, but just knowing that the stallion had been an anniversary gift from her husband right before he passed away?
It was one of the most romantic and sad things I’d ever heard.
“So if it isn’t her…” Boone began.
“Then who is it?” Cade finished.
“That’s the question of the day, isn’t it?” I shrugged. “I wish I knew, but now I feel like we don’t have any leads.”
“And you seriously don’t think it could be Nora?” Boone asked.
“I guess I’m not ruling it out completely. I mean, anything is possible, right?” I took a deep breath and shook my head. “But my gut is telling me it isn’t her.”
Boone smiled, then leaned over to kiss my forehead. “Then I’m going to trust your gut.”
“That makes two of us.” Cade grinned, reaching over to rub my thigh. “And now that we don’t have to worry about Nora, we can enjoy the rest of the afternoon.”
We’d been bouncing along through the pasture for the past few minutes, and I’d been so caught up in my thoughts and the guys’ questions that I hadn’t even been paying attention to where we were going. I could see the tree line at the edge of the pasture approaching, though, and I knew there were some light woods beyond the barbed wire fence.
“Where are we going anyway?” I asked. Not that I really cared. I’d meant it when I’d said I would have gladly gone anywhere as long as I was with the two of them. “I haven’t been out to these woods in years.”
“Oh, then you know about the little stream that runs through here?” Boone asked. “And here we thought we might be surprising you.”
“Well, I did grow up here.” I smiled. “But I can pretend to be surprised if that helps?”
“You can be whatever you want to be, sexy,” Cade said, stopping the truck next to the fence and turning off the engine. “As long as you want to be with us.”
It was like he’d been reading my mind. “That’s all I want.” I grinned, meaning it.
