He was still staring at the ridge when she nudged Winnie forward. He had a very bad feeling. “Why would the city be surveying?”
“Oh, um…It’s nothing really. I just got a letter from the city planner’s office recently, and…it turns out they might not have left this to me. Something about trusts and domains. I don’t really know.”
Son of a bitch. So this was the property Dave had been looking at? Had him looking at? “So it’s not for sale?”
“No. Why?”
He opened his mouth to tell her what little he knew, then shut it. He’d get the facts, then he’d take care of it.
— Had she really just told Stephen something she hadn’t even told her brothers? She didn’t need another person worrying about her. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Right,” he said, not sounding entirely like he meant it.
“There’s a small creek up ahead. Let’s cross that and circle back.” They paused side by side on the shady bank to let the horses drink and she gave Winnie a loving pat.
“Have you always ridden?”
“No. I started when I was seventeen.”
It was a day she remembered well. A drive in the country with Nick, a forced venture from the safety of home. The world had flown by as she stared blankly out the car window. And then she’d said one word. Stop. Even one word was so rare, Nick had stopped right in the middle of the road.
“What? You want to see the horses?” he’d asked.
So completely broken in body and spirit, she still couldn’t say why she’d voiced that one word. Why she’d nodded yes, in answer to his question. But he’d turned in at the gate and in minutes she was limping slowly into the darkness of the barn. She paused at a stall and raised her hand toward a dark brown horse as far as her healing arm would allow. He lowered his head, his velvety muzzle meeting her halfway as if he knew just how much it hurt.
When she came back to the present, Stephen was staring at her intently. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re staring at me.”
A lazy smile pulled at his mouth. “I like looking at you. You’re beautiful.”
There was no sound above the gurgling water and the wind in the trees.
“You don’t like me to say that.”
No. She didn’t. Because she wasn’t. So much so, it felt like a lie to say thank you. And if he knew— “Hannah.”
Without warning, Stephen leaned in his saddle and kissed her. A mind-boggling, toe-curling kiss that left her breathless. When they parted, he braced her with a strong hand lest she fall right out of her saddle and into his.
Good Lord. The satisfied smile that lit his face was enough to make a girl forget who she was.
They returned to the barn, unsaddled, and turned out the horses. Stephen moved easily, mouthwatering in jeans and dusty boots, and she tried not to stare. She’d for sure never be able to go to her favorite wooded spot again without thinking of him. But without the horses as a buffer, inadequacy crept in.
“Well,” Stephen said, after several minutes passed standing at the fence. “Maybe we could go to dinner one night this week.”
“Okay.”
Still neither of them moved, both looking at the horses grazing. Now that the sun was setting it felt more on the winter side of spring than summer. She wrapped her arms around her middle, the green knit top she wore not quite enough.
Trust him.
Mia had said that when she trusted enough, she’d be ready, that everyone had scars. Though she’d seen no evidence that Stephen did.
“Do you want to say goodbye to me at my door?”
His gaze swung to hers. “What?”
“You said once—”
“I know what I said. Are you asking me to?”
He stepped close, so close she could smell him. He was so big, so strong, and yet she’d stood there sandwiched between the wall of the barn and the wall that was Stephen unafraid. Secure even, like he could and would protect her.
“I was going to make spaghetti. It always makes too much for one person.”
A sexy grin spread across his gorgeous face. “Now it sounds like you’re asking me to dinner.”
If she was normal and if they were dating, the next logical step would be to ask him to dinner. “I guess I am.”
Moving even closer, he touched her cheek, back to serious Stephen. “You sure?”
She nodded. If she wasn’t before, that clinched it.
Chapter 15
So her house had been right here all along. Stephen followed behind Hannah, turning on a barely visible path he hadn’t noticed his first time out. They wound around, moving slowly until the woods opened into a clearing revealing a small log cabin.
She got out and tossed a shy smile over her shoulder before leading him up the steps and onto a porch that ran along the front of the house. She unlocked the door and he followed her inside to a small open space that flowed into the kitchen. “Very nice.”
“Thank you.”
“Need some help?”