“You want to crash in the guest bedroom?” she asked hopefully, stalling for more time with him.
“Nah, I’ve got my own animals to feed. I’m gonna load the four-wheeler in the back of my truck and get going. Ian.” Josiah shook his hand hard. “I will slit your throat if you hurt my sister. Formalities aside, I like you better than her last man. Cole never worked a day in his life, but I can see you’re a real hard worker. I thank you for taking care of my sister.”
Ian huffed a tired laugh. “Brother, you’ve got it wrong. Elyse takes care of me.” He stood and followed Josiah with Elyse trailing behind him.
“Speaking of Cole,” Josiah said, turning around at the door. “His brother was up at my place last week asking about Elyse.”
“Miller?” Elyse asked, shocked to her bones.
Josiah nodded. All the humor had seeped out of his eyes now, and he looked more and more like the somber Josiah she was used to. “He was asking if you were done mourning and ready for a man and followed it directly with asking how your cattle are doing. Shit timing, too, because wolves had just taken one of the calves the night before, so I wasn’t in a mood to answer him. He left pissed.” Her brother dragged his gaze back to Ian. “Be wary of that one, okay?”
When Ian clenched his hands behind his back, Josiah couldn’t see it, but she could. He was shaking, and a deep red flush of anger was creeping slowly up his neck. “Will do. Thanks for the head’s up.”
“Sure thing. Night,” Josiah called over his shoulder as he strode toward his four-wheeler.
Troubled, Elyse watched Josiah straddle the seat of the ATV, rip the engine, and gun it toward the hayfields where he’d left his truck parked on the edge.
“Miller is Cole’s brother,” she explained softly.
“I know.” Ian’s voice was more growl than anything, and he strode out the front door and off the porch.
“How do you know who he is?”
“Small town,” he answered mysteriously.
But that didn’t make sense. Miller didn’t live in Galena. He lived near Naluto, closer to where Josiah lived.
“Where are you going?” she called.
“To check on the animals.”
Huh. Elyse leaned against the open doorframe, arms crossed over her chest as she frowned so deeply her face ached with it. It wasn’t uncommon for Ian to check the animals right before they went to sleep, but they would likely be up for a couple more hours still. Josiah’s admission that Miller had been asking about her had rattled Ian badly, but for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why. Cole wasn’t a threat to either of them, seeing as how he was cold and buried, and Miller could ask about her all he wanted. That butt-faced moocher wasn’t laying a hand on anything she owned ever again. She was Ian’s now, and he was the biggest, baddest man there was. With everything going on around here, a drunken McCall brother should be the least of her mate’s worries.
Gooseflesh rose in waves across her skin, and she grabbed her coat off the rack before she shut the door behind her. Shrugging into it, she made her way carefully over the dark yard, but when she got as far as the tree with the rope swing, Ian suddenly appeared out of the dimly lit barn. His nostrils flared slightly in the warm glow of the lantern light, and his eyes were dark as pitch, as though his bear was right there, just below the surface.
“What is it?” she asked, drawing to a halt. Chills rippled up her spine.
Slowly, Ian lifted his face to the sky, and in that moment, she felt it. Something cold, as if the finger of a corpse brushed her cheek. No. Elyse gasped when a snowflake floated down in front of her face. Before Ian, snow hadn’t meant anything. It was a way of life and expected, but now? Suddenly the small, cold flake melting on her cheek stung like acid. Dread seeped into her as she wiped it off and shook her head in despair. “It’s too soon.”
Ian’s chest was heaving as he watched her. She could see it in his eyes—he was rocked to the core by the early snow, too.
“It’s too soon!” she repeated louder, walking toward him. She picked up her speed, then bolted into his open arms.
“Shhh,” he said against her hair, hugging her so tight she couldn’t breathe.
Or perhaps it was the crushing realization that her time with him was growing so short.
“I’m not tired yet. I’m not. Elyse, it’s okay. Shhh. Don’t cry.”
She was gasping, holding in her sobs and trying, but failing, to be strong for him as more snowflakes floated down to the ground around them.
“I’m not going to sleep on you yet, woman. I’m not. Listen.” He eased back and cupped her cheeks. “We’ve still got things to do together. It’s just the first snow, and it’s not even warm enough to stick yet.”
“I’m not ready, Ian. I just got you.”
“I know.” He leaned forward and kissed her, then rested his forehead against hers. “I know, and I’m not ready for it either. We’ve still got time.”
“How much?”