Page 83 of North

“Who’s giving away my room?”

RJ turned, and Gerri looked up, and Selah’s gaze landed on a well-built man wearing a pair of cargo pants and a thermal shirt, hair cut short, holding hands with a pretty gal with reddish blonde hair, in leggings, Converse tennis shoes, and an oversized T-shirt.

“Ford. Seriously,” RJ said. “What, we’re calling in the Army now?”

“Navy. Navy—let’s get it right.” He opened his arms for his sister and pulled her tight.

Selah saw him whisper something into her ear.

She held on a little tighter.

“Scarlett,” Gerri said and went to greet Ford’s fiancée. Selah had met her a few times at Ham’s place. She worked for his team behind the scenes.

“Hey, Selah,” Scarlett said after Gerri released her. She dropped her backpack by the door and came over. “You okay?”

“Getting better by the second.”

Scarlett gave her a hug. “You scared the life out of all of us. Next time, buy a cell phone.”

“I did. It doesn’t work.”

“Lemme see it.”

Selah slid off her chair, then started for her room and stopped. “It’s in the RV.”

She headed past them, outside, to where the Winnebago parked in the driveway. A cattle trailer had pulled up to a gate, and another man stood with Reuben, older, dressed in jeans, boots, and a cowboy hat—the uniform of the Marshalls, apparently—directing as yet another man stood at a closed door, holding on to a rope. A ramp led down from the trailer.

“Ready?” said the man holding the rope.

“You better run,” said Reuben.

He laughed and opened the door with a tug.

A bull came raging out of the cattle trailer so fast that Selah nearly screamed. The other man darted behind him, shut the door, locked it, and turned a second after the bull had rounded.

Oh no.

The bull lunged.

The man dodged it, lost his hat, but picked it up and turned to face the animal again. “Whoops.”

“Please,” Reuben said, shaking his head. “You do this on purpose.”

“I like to stay in shape.”

The bull charged again, and this time the man leaped for the fence, scrambling up, then falling over the other side.

The older man caught him. “Knox, I swear, if you were my son, I would have taken a switch to you.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Reuben said. “Dad did. But Knox has an iron backside. And he was a rodeo clown for a couple years on the circuit.”

“We call that a bull fighter,” Knox said, picking up his hat. He spotted Selah, nodded, pulling on the brim of his hat. Walked over to her.

Blue eyes landed on her with warmth. “Knox Marshall.”

“Selah Silver,” she said and shook his hand. “That was crazy.”

“Nuts,” said Ford, walking out of the house, followed by Scarlett and North.