Dread curled its icy fingers around my veins. “How dangerous?”
Folk didn’t say anything for a moment. He found my hand and laced our fingers together, breathing a slow sigh that felt like the end of the world. “It’s dangerous enough that I’m scared of saying the most important thing to you in case you say it back, and I have to go out there knowing for sure what I’ve left behind.”
“You’ve always had people waiting for you.”
His gaze flashed to mine. “Not like this.”
It hit me like a freight train.He loves me.
And I loved him. But a mountain of who the fuck knew what stood in our way, and nothing but a dance with death could fix it.
Fucking hell. I blew out a stressed breath.
Folk squeezed my fingers. “This isn’t how I wanted to wake you up.”
“What else did you have in mind?”
“I’m not sure, but I never want to be the dude putting that look on your face.”
“What look?”
“Yeah, okay.” Folk reached for my tea and pressed the warm mug into my hands. “How about you drink that and take a shower with me, and we’ll see how you feel after that.”
* * *
An hour later, we rode to the compound. Folk thought he’d screwed up our morning, but despite the stress still squeezing us tight, I had a lot to be happy about.
Apparently getting my brains sucked out before breakfast put a smile on my face. Who knew?
Saint. Obviously. The second he set eyes on me. “Good night?”
I grinned at my boots. “Shut up.”
He did, but I couldn’t tell if it was on purpose, and I chose not to look hard enough to figure it out. I busied myself opening the sales desk for Orla and collating timber orders.
I thought Saint would find something else to do, but he followed me around, helping me with jobs I didn’t need help with. “Something on your mind?”
He eyed me from behind a pallet of reclaimed scaffold boards, saying nothing, not even with his convoluted gaze.
I tried a different tack. “Is there something you want to ask me?”
“No.”
“You want to cross this pallet off the run sheet then?”
Saint pulled a pencil from behind his ear and doctored the paperwork. “What’s going on with Lauren?”
“Lauren?” An instant frown folded my face in half. “Nothing more than usual. Why?”
Saint took his sweet time to answer, and he didn’t like it when people made it obvious they were waiting on him.
I went back to work, trusting he’d catch me up when he’d figured it out.
By the time he did, I was loading wagons.
“She hasn’t called you yet.”
“Hmm?”
