Jude fixed me with a steady gaze. “You haven’t been here.”
I snorted. “That’s what she said.”
“And I know you couldn’t get back, Archer. You did what you had to do. Nobody blames you for that.”
A second snort.
I blamed me for it.
“And doing everything the right way—where exactly has that gotten me, Jude? She’s in there with another man, for Christ’s sake.”
Jude lifted both eyebrows. “Then what are you doing out here?”
I opened my mouth to fight back, but something in his face stopped me. I peered closer. “Are yousmiling?”
“Yes, sir.” Jude nodded toward the house. “And I’m going to help a certain lady cook for everyone, seeing as she looked a little uh, worse for wear when she arrived.” Jude paused midstride, looking at me askance. “You didn’t actually—” He waggled his eyebrows. “—right away, did you?”
I stared at him with hard eyes that had made a lesser Ranger flinch. “Do you think I’d be this fucking antsy if we had?”
“Good point.” Jude clapped my shoulder, steering me toward the house. “Beer?”
“Please.”
Inside Red Hart’s stunning ranch house seemed warmer with a host of people cluttered in her belly than it had with me running about shouting Eve’s name along vacant halls. Jude poured me a beer, refusing to let me serve anyone else. I took it with as much good grace as I could, watching the men Pierce had ‘lent’ Eve mingle around the long table set off to one side of the open space, eating her snack food and talking too loudly.
None of that would usually bother me, but not one of them raised a hand to help in an otherwise empty house. I noted the oven was already warming with bake trays filling the space.
As soon as I made a move to help, Jude fixed me with a hard stare, but the moment his back was turned, I headed out the back door to where I knew the wood pile resided. Situated at the rear of the house, the white capped mountain that framed RedHart Ranch loomed over me. But rather than being dwarfed by the majesty of the behemoth, I was in awe of it.
Some primal part of me wondered what was on the other side. I recalled Natalie saying that she lived over the Canadian border, which must be a royal nuisance to Jude, getting to and from her place.
HummingThe Bear Went Over the Mountainto myself, my lips quirked in a stupid smile that had nothing to do with the beer I had downed. I loaded my arms with the last of this year’s dried firewood. Protected from the weather, it was perfect for burning now. But the rack seemed sadly depleted, and I added splitting firewood—if there was any cut—to my list.
Which was growing fast.
Jude and I needed to talk. But first, I refused to let the ranch house fall prey to Eve’s somber mood. Hell, lifting it back to its usual Christmas spirit might actually help her.
“Damn. I didn’t think of it,” Jude muttered as he massacred elk patties on the stovetop.
“You’re doing enough,” I called, adding him to my list.
Warmth spread through the open plan living area in a sunset glow that appealed to the dying early evening light. I’d spent more time than I thought on the western boundary with Eve, the dapple light already low in the forest. The decent drive back stole extra hours I didn't have to give, and suddenly I craved the solitude I'd hoped for in holding her while she explained what the hell happened here.
Now I knew that wouldn’t happen.
Jude continued to attempt to cook and when I joined him to assist, I noted some of Joe’s friends filter into the living room, filling it with conversation and laughter.
When Eve appeared at the top of the stairs, I paused, watching her small frame, thinner than she had been the last time I had seen her, I was sure.
Still, she was the epitome of stunning as she walked slowly down the stairs, taking in the ambience I’d helped to build. She halted on the bottom step gripping the banister with clenched fingers.
I stopped chopping the vegetables that Jude hadn’t kicked me out of the kitchen for stealing from him.
“Go to her,” the foreman nudged me. “If nothing else, Archer, the girl needs a damn good loving. Bring her back to us.”
I laid down my knife in an instant. Flashing a grin to my friend that faded just as fast, I went to meet her. Not that I needed his permission, but this was Jude’s domain as much as it was hers. Maintaining the status quo had always been key at Red Hart.
“Eve.” I caught her on the bottom step of the stairs, so she stood at perfect eye height with me.
