The relief was short-lived as the wind howled through the broken window, sending the room’s temperature plummeting.
“Stay back,” he said, already moving toward the kitchen. “There’s glass everywhere.”
He grabbed the broom from beside the refrigerator and returned to sweep a path through the shards. The Christmas tree lights flickered, then stabilized, casting eerie shadows across the room. Outside, the wind had picked up, bending the pines around the property like dancers in some violent ballet.
Johanna had moved away from the window and wrapped her arms around herself against the cold. “Do you need help?”
“No, I got it.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice unsteady. “I should… probably go back to my cabin before the weather gets worse.”
“Yeah.” He watched her hesitate, caught between staying and going. The broken window had broken more than glass. It had shattered the moment, whatever it might have been.
“I’ll patch this up,” he said, nodding toward the window. “You should get some sleep.”
Johanna tucked her hair behind her ear, a gesture so familiar it made his chest ache. “Right. Sleep.” She took a step back, then paused. “Walker?”
He looked up from where he’d been collecting larger shards of glass.
“For what it’s worth, I think this place can work. I think you can help Boone.”
He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
“Goodnight, Walker.”
“Night, Jo.”
four
What had she been thinking, almost kissing Walker like that?
Five years of carefully maintained distance nearly undone by a half-decorated Christmas tree. If it hadn’t been for the tree branch breaking the window she might have crossed a line she’d promised herself she’d never cross again.
Johanna pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders as she stepped out into the biting cold. The wind had picked up, whipping snow across the yard between the main house and her cabin. Her boots crunched through the crusty top layer, sinking into the softer snow beneath. Each step felt like a retreat, a necessary withdrawal from dangerous territory.
She’d come here to help a troubled veteran, not to rekindle whatever had once burned between her and Walker. That fire had left nothing but ashes and guilt. And yet, sitting beside him on that worn leather couch, watching the Christmas lights reflect in his eyes, she’d felt the embers stir.
Stupid.
A glow of yellow light caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Johanna paused, turning toward the barn where a dim light spilled from the gap in the door.
She hesitated, the cold biting through her clothes. She should just go back to her cabin, crawl under the covers, and forget this entire evening. But that lonely light pulled at her professional instincts. Fifteen years of tending to other people’s crises had wired her brain to investigate, not retreat.
No one should be out there at this hour in this weather. And since Walker was in the house and there were only three people on the entire property, that left Boone.
Johanna changed course, her footsteps crunching through the snow as she approached the barn. The door creaked as she pushed it open, letting in a swirl of snowflakes that danced in the light of a single bulb hanging from the rafters.
“Hello?” she called.
The barn smelled of hay, old wood, and something sharper—whiskey and cigarette smoke. She spotted him in the corner, sitting on an overturned bucket, a bottle dangling between his fingers. Boone didn’t look up as she entered, just took another pull from the bottle. A cigarette burned between the knuckles of his other hand, ash collecting at the tip.
“You don’t have office hours at three a.m.” He brought the cigarette to his lips, the tip glowing red as he inhaled. “Unless this is some new therapeutic technique I haven’t heard about.”
“I was on my way back to my cabin,” she said, and stepped further into the barn, letting the door close behind her to keep out the worst of the cold. “Saw the light.”
“Yeah, well, now you’ve seen who turned it on, so you can go.”
She had no intention of leaving him here in this state. “What are you doing out here in the barn instead of the bunkhouse?”
