Elyse winced. “He split my lip.”
Ian’s bright blue gaze drifted to the thin scar down her bottom lip, and he didn’t look surprised at all. Perhaps he’d already guessed she was mishandled. “You kicked him out immediately?”
“Yes.” Stupid shaking voice. She wanted to be strong when she admitted this. “I loaded a shotgun and pulled it on him when he wouldn’t leave. Told him I’d blow a hole through him. He told me he didn’t mean to, that it was an accident, but that’s what they all say, you know? I don’t want to be one of those women who sticks around for that shit.”
“Like I said. You’re a tough woman. A survivor.”
“A tougher woman would’ve let him go a lot sooner. I knew he was using me, but I was scared of being alone.”
“Why?”
“Because life out there isn’t easy, Ian. Every day I run into something that could kill me, and being alone means I’d die alone. Josiah hardly ever comes my way unless we’re driving the cattle either to the good pastures or back to my place for the winter. It could be weeks, maybe months, before anyone found me. Being with Cole was hard, but it took me a while to realize I’d rather die alone than be with someone who breaks me. Lesson learned the hard way.”
“Is that why your advertisement said Romantics need not apply?”
“Yeah. I didn’t expect this.” She gave him a pointed look. “I thought it would be more like legally bound friends running the homestead. I was just so desperate for help that I did what my Uncle Jim did and put an ad out. He’d only wanted a helpmate, and Marta could’ve walked away any time, but I didn’t want that. I wanted someone I could depend on. I got lucky and got you.”
“Lucky,” he repeated low, sounding unconvinced. She understood his reaction. She had trouble accepting compliments, too.
Ian spotted a place to land, and the panic set in, so Elyse did the only sensible thing and closed her eyes tightly until the bumping plane came to a complete stop. When she opened them again, they were surrounded on two sides by towering pine forest and wild grasses that swayed in the wind like ocean waves. Wild flowers dotted the landscape, and she was rendered breathless by the mountains that towered in the distance. This place was what calendars were made of. It was what mainlanders traveled hundreds of miles to see, and it was just a short bush plane ride away from her home.
“Do you like it?” Ian asked softly, as if her answer truly mattered.
“It’s incredible.”
Ian pulled off his headset, turned off the plane, and ran around the front to help her out. While she shouldered her backpack, he loaded himself down with most of their equipment like it weighed nothing, then he strode off toward the forest. She was stunned by how strong he was. Sure, she’d known by the way his muscles pushed against his clothes that he was powerful, but his easy gait and long strides up the side of a sloping hill were completely effortless.
Shaking her head, she hurried after him, resembling a tranquilized rhino next to his smooth strides. The hike through the woods lasted a good half hour at their fast clip, and Elyse gasped as they came out of the trees onto the bank of a stream. A small waterfall easy enough for salmon to jump in the right season flowed into the churning waters of the river. Ian kissed her forehead and then unloaded everything. He hopped over a set of rocks like a nimble mountain goat to the other side of the stream. If she tried that, she was going in the water, no doubt.
“We’ll see if we can’t get some lingering silvers with the net, and if not, we’ll use the poles. Stand over there,” he said, pointing right across from him.
“Oh!” she yelped as soon as the water splashed above her boots. “Good golly, that’s cold!”
Ian frowned as he lowered himself easily into the water. “I didn’t think about how the water would affect you. I should’ve brought waders.”
Elyse stared in disbelief at him as he stood up to his waist on a rock below the churning water’s surface. “You aren’t cold?”
“I don’t get cold easily.” A troubled expression passed over his face as he dragged the net down through the deep water beside his standing rock. The giant net with the silver handle looked heavy to lift, but Ian did the practiced movement as though the weight didn’t bother him at all.