Fuck. I was right.When I wanted to be wrong.
“It’s just you?” I frowned.
Eve tilted her head back to look up at me as I pulled wire off her boots, hating how the leather sliced up, but better that than her skin. “I know that look. That’s your Ranger Rhys look.”
“Ranger Rhys?” I laughed, a full bellow that startled the poor deer strung out between us. I pressed a hand to its hind quarters, murmuring low and soothingly until it settled. The seasons dropped away until I remembered in full what it was like to be back on this land, the weeks I'd spent here when I first met Eve, working here shoulder to shoulder with the men who ran the land for her.
Worked alongsideher.
“You make me sound like a park ranger off on a jaunt with Yogi Bear.”
Eve smothered her yelp as I tugged too hard on a wire, flapping at me. “Well, maybe a little more than that,” she conceded with a smile. Some of the sparkle returned to her eyes, and that alone made the drive across the country worth it.
I’d do anything to make this woman happy.
Anything.
I dipped my head, tugging gently at the end of the length of wire she passed over to me. My own tangle seemed endless, but finally I managed to pick it free. “A pair of wire cutters would have been handy, you know.”
Eve grinned. “Yeah, I should have gotten you to find some. I— I got frazzled. Left my phone in the house. Panic hit me, and I had to get her free.”
I huffed a soft laugh. One of the things that attracted me most to Eve was her ability to cut clear through the bullshit factor. That, and her strength. Both internal and external though I knew she never saw herself that way. She had come through so much, and I met her at the peak of her duress, or so I’d thought.But even the strongest only gained strength from the people supporting them.
“I’ve missed that.” I spoke to the deer’s leg, running my hands over her rump in a quietening motion.
“What?” Eve jerked her head up, staring at me.
I met her cinnamon gaze. “This place. You. How direct you are.”
How fucking beautiful you are.
I caught the last words before they could escape. Now wasn’t the time for romance. That could come later, if she let me. Right now I needed to fix everything that was crumbling around Eve in an effort to prop her up when everyone else turned away from her. When theyforgother.
I refused to let that happen for one more night.
A sardonic smile curved my lips. Ranger Rhys was back, indeed.
“I’ve missed you, too,” Eve whispered, ducking her head. Thick lashes covered the eyes that were a window into every inch of her soul that was just Eve, something she’d given me access to before.
No matter how I tightened my grasp on her, the further she slipped away from me. And I’d only just arrived.
“Eve,” I murmured, freeing the deer.
It shook itself all over us. Grit and mud splattered everything around the deer as it scampered away on four perfectly healthy, stable limbs.
I brushed my finger over a spot of mud that joined the streak already marring Eve’s cheek.
“Mmhmm?” She raised an eyebrow at my wince.
“Uh, you’ve got —” I kept trying, but only succeeded in spreading mud about her pale, clear skin.
“You’re making it worse, aren’t you?” Eve laughed, peering up at me.
Even with her hair in a wild mess of chestnut curls that cascaded over her shoulders and mud smeared across her face, my heart battled for space in my chest.
“You’re beautiful. And yes,” I replied at her sharp inhale.
You don’t have to do it all alone, Evie.
