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“I would offer you a nice soothing cup of tea or something, but I don’t have any tea.”
“Do you want to serve me plain hot water?”
He stopped moving and stared at her.
“Kidding.”
He chuckled, but she sensed that he wasn’t amused this time. He sat down beside her. “Did you forget to lock the door?” he asked and then hurried to add, “I’m not blaming you!”
She shook her head. “I did lock it. I’m wondering if the lock didn’t work. Or maybe he had a key.”
Gunner laid his head back and groaned. “Of course the lock didn’t work. This old house. Nothing works. Sorry ...” He looked at her. “You were in Colton’s old room, so I didn’t know that the lock didn’t work. Ironically, the one on my door does work, so maybe we should have switched.” He shrugged. “Now that I think about it, I should have done that anyway. It was rude of me not to offer my guest a bed.”
“I was very comfortable until he came in ...” She reached over and laid her hand over Gunner’s. “I promise you, I am fine. He startled me, but I screamed upon his arrival. He didn’t do anything.”
He seemed to believe her. “That’s great to hear.” His expression turned into something like admiration. “And you have one impressive set of lungs, young lady.”
She laughed. “Thanks, I guess.”
He chuckled. “We should have you go out and have a contest with a goat sometime.”
She wasn’t sure whether or not that was offensive, but he was laughing, so she decided that it wasn’t.
His expression dropped into a sober one. “I should have fired him today. I shouldn’t have let him spend the night.”
She reached for his hand again. She didn’t want to seem overly familiar or forward, but she was desperate to comfort him. “Gunner, you did nothing wrong. The guy is a criminal, and now he’s going to jail. This is going to make a great story ...” She caught herself. She had almost said “for our kids.”
He was still waiting for her to finish her sentence.
“For everyone,” she said lamely.
He nodded, seeming to accept that that’s what she had been intending to say. “Yeah, well, let’s wait a while before we start telling it.”
She couldn’t help it. She laid her head on his shoulder and hugged his arm. “You’ve got a deal.”
Chapter 17
As Gunner followed the sheriff’s deputy down the creaking stairs, he noticed that Nova was still wide awake. She sat up straight on his couch. She didn’t look at him. Instead, her eyes followed Rocky’s back out the door.
Gunner couldn’t blame her for still being awake. His heart was still doing its best to thump its way out of his chest, and he hadn’t even been the one attacked.
They stepped out onto the porch, and Gunner thanked Bill one last time before watching him roughly escort the fired hand to the cruiser. Gunner didn’t go inside until the taillights disappeared into the darkness.
When he finally went back into the house, Bull stood looking out the window. Apparently he wanted to see the guy vanish too.
Gunner nodded to him. “Thank you for all your help tonight. I know that wasn’t in your job description.”
“No sweat. And I know my job description is flexible.” His lips twitched in something resembling a smile, but it was a pretty subtle one. “Do you need anything else from me tonight, boss?”
“No, thank you. See you in the morning.” Gunner glanced at the couch and wished that he’d thought to whisper. Nova had lain down and closed her eyes. Gunner grabbed a blanket and gently draped it over her. He pulled it up to her chin, careful not to wake her.
Then Gunner found a second blanket and sat in a wing chair nearby. He could go to bed. He needed some sleep, and the threat was over, but he couldn’t quite make himself leave her. He watched her sleep, marveling at how natural her beauty was. Shewasn’t the classical beauty with bleach blonde hair and a dainty heart-shaped face, but she was still something to behold—maybe even better than classical beauty. She had a wild strength to her, and her beauty felt organic—reminding him of a strong spring breeze that carried the scent of wildflowers.
It occurred to him that it might be creepy to stare at her while she was sleeping. He didn’t want her to wake up and scream at the sight of him, so he made himself look away. He slouched in his chair and closed his eyes knowing that if he could just sleep for half an hour, he would be in far better shape than if he didn’t sleep at all.
He awoke disoriented with no idea how long he’d slept, but the sun hadn’t come up yet. He found his phone, saw the time, and decided he might as well get started on his day. He was going to be down a hand, maybe permanently.
He went into the kitchen and made a large pot of coffee. He didn’t know when his two houseguests would wake up, but in case it was soon, he wanted them to have fresh caffeine waiting for them. He started for the back door but then thought maybe he should leave Nova a note. He didn’t want her to think that he’d had second thoughts and taken off running for the hills.
