Sara tilted her head, studying me like she was trying to line up two completely different versions of me. The rough-around-the-edges cowboy standing in front of her and the guy who painted tiny dragons in his spare time.
“You? D&D?” Her voice was full of sarcastic disbelief, like she couldn’t quite picture it and yet wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. “Surprising, huh?”
I dropped the die into the tower on my nightstand and let it clatter down, the sound sharp in the quiet room. “But it fits. Out here, life’s a lot like a campaign. You need a good team, a solid plan, and the guts to face whatever monster comes at you.”
Leaning in closer, I lowered my voice, letting a touch of seriousness creep into my tone. “From the outside, it might look like I’m just rolling dice and hoping for the best…”
I gave her a look that had her breath catching, a shiver running down her spine.
“…but the truth is, I always know the map. I know my team. And I don’t make a move unless I’m ready to win.”
Her lips parted, surprise giving way to a small, knowing smile. “So basically, you’re a cowboy nerd with a hero complex.”
I laughed, a deep, rough sound that felt good in my chest. “Pretty much.”
She studied me a beat, then nodded like that, somehow, made her safer.
“Get some sleep,” I told her. “Dawn comes fast.”
She slid under the covers like a cat discovering sun. I sat in the chair, boots on, back to the wall, ready to move if I had to. That’s what a man does when the thing he wants most in this world is also the thing he’d fight and bleed to protect.
The storm finally sighed itself out sometime after midnight, leaving a silence that felt almost eerie. I didn’t sleep. Couldn’t. By the time graylight crept through the windows, the radio cracked to life.
Hilton was able to plow the outer road. Window’s two hours before the next storm rolls in.
Good. We’d make it count.
I rose, stretched out the stiffness, and leaned over the bed. “Morning,” I murmured.
She blinked up at me, soft and wrecked and beautiful. “Morning.”
“Let’s go get your car,” I said. “Then we talk next steps.”
Her warm hand found mine under the blanket. “Okay.”
Outside, the mountain was white and clean, the kind of morning that made you believe in second chances.
We were going to take ours.
CHAPTER 7
Sara
I didn’t carewhere I was going yesterday. At least, not at first.
When I’d turned up that mountain road, my only thought had been escape. From Chad. From the whispers. From the life that felt too tight and too sharp around the edges.
I’d been a mess of cold, rage, and exhaustion. A woman half convinced she wasn’t worth saving.
But now, as I sat beside Lucas in the cab of the ranch truck, watching the world outside shift from graylight to dim dawn, I couldn’t help thinking how different everything felt. I wasn’t running anymore.
I was heading home.
The storm had broken overnight, leaving behind a world scrubbed clean. Trees bowed heavy with snow, glistening like they’d been dipped in crystal. The road ahead gleamed icy and treacherous, but it no longer terrified me. Not with Lucas’s steady hands on the wheel, his calm presence beside me.
He’d been my anchor through the chaos. My rescuer. My… everything.
