Every single one of her brothers and their significant others had problems with anonymous gifts, but Willow knew it was harmless. It was only honey.
“I called the feed store that delivered it, but they didn’t know who it was from. I’ll ask more next time I go to the feed store.” She sank the tines of her fork into the rich, dense cake. “Have you guys tried this? It’sdelicious.”
They both laughed and abandoned their lunches to taste their own desserts.
A ripple of awareness washed over her. As if someone was watching her. She spotted Decker at a table along the wall.
She sent him a smile and only received a head dip in return before he turned his attention to his plate of food.
Willow’s fingers tingled at the memory of how warm his skin was and how the muscle rippled beneath it.
She couldneverlet her attraction to Decker be known, but the first time she’d set eyes on the battle-hardened SEAL, her body reacted.
When he came to the ranch, he wouldn’t speak a single word. Days turned into weeks of silence, his voice locked away as tightly as his pain. The only things that spoke for him were his eyes. Haunted, watchful, carrying stories he couldn’t—or wouldn’t—give voice to.
Willow learned to read those glances, to catch the flicker of gratitude or the flash of torment in a single look.
His eyes were a dark, steady brown, the color of earth after rain. Solid and carrying a warmth that could steady her if she let it.
Since he began speaking again, his eyes burned with a quiet fire that made her chest ache. Every glance was a reminder of the man beneath the scars and silence.
And god, the man was pure sin wrapped in worn denim and flannel. If he weren’t in the therapy program… If she didn’t fear putting more pressure on him…
Well, she didn’t have time for romance even if it were possible.
She turned her focus to her companions and brought up the wedding, which made Rhae perk up as much as the cake. The rest of lunch, they discussed everything that needed done.
When she stood and grabbed her tray, one of the guys who was passing the table stopped. “I’ll take your tray if you’re done, Miss Willow.”
She smiled. “Thank you, Rex. That’s kind of you.”
He took her tray, and she felt that prickle of awareness again, as if someone was watching her. But when she looked up to where Decker had been, he was gone.
Willow strode out of the therapy lodge, letting her fingers trail along the wood-paneled wall. The smooth wood grounded her, and by the time she reached the security office, she was ready to tackle the stack of paperwork on her desk.
Her office was only a small nook tucked in the corner of what her brothers called the “war room,” but it was hers. Issuing a sigh, she began sorting through the mail.
Outside the window, the ranch hummed with life. Horses clustered around a big round bale of hay. The top field, dormant all summer, now contained the cattle Colt and Theo moved earlier that morning.
Somewhere in the house came the rumble of male voices as her brothers discussed a schedule. But her mind wasn’t on the mail she opened or scheduling.
It snagged stubbornly on Decker.
The way he sat alone in the dining hall, quiet as always, his shoulders squared as if braced for a hit.
The way his eyes burned into her before he looked away.
At every turn, he retreated. And that worried her. He’d fought so hard to claw his way back into the land ofcommunication, to let his voice out after being locked inside his own silence for so long. Was he backsliding again?
Her pen stilled over the page, the numbers she’d been working on blurring. She pressed her lips together and forced herself to focus. The men who came to the Black Heart to heal counted on her to keep the ranch running smoothly just as much as they counted on the structure the program provided.
Still, she couldn’t shake the thought of Decker—of how tightly her stomach knotted when he wouldn’t give her more than one guarded glance.
A knock on the doorframe made her lift her head. Carson leaned in, his big frame filling the doorway. “Hey, Willow. Just wanted to remind you—Felicity’s got that order waiting for us at the bookstore. She called to say it came in this morning.”
“Right.” She set her pen down and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was later than she thought. Her desk was still littered with mail and reports Carson asked her to type up based off his scrawled notes, but a trip into Willowbrook might be exactly what she needed to clear her mind.
“I’ll just finish up here and head to town.” She offered him a smile.
