He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “Now that you know the truth about David,” he said quietly, “about who killed him, that he wasn’t dirty, and that he didn’t have an affair… does that make it easier for you?”
Laney lifted her head slightly, her eyes searching his. She stayed quiet for a long beat, thinking. He could see it in the crease of her brow, in the way she worried her bottom lip.
“Yes,” she finally answered. “It feels like closure. Something I’ve been fighting to get for four years. It feels like justice for David.”
Her voice broke on his name, but this time there was no bitterness. No jagged edge of betrayal. Only grief, tempered by truth.
Harlan smoothed a hand down her back, relief threading through him. “Justice,” he repeated, letting the word settle between them.
She leaned back against his chest, and he pressed his lips to her hair, closing his eyes. He hoped, maybe for the first time, that this was the start of real healing for her. For both of them.
Harlan and Laney eased apart, the warmth of her still clinging to him as he reached for the ignition. The SUV hummed to life, and he steered carefully around the wreckage, the words of the sheriff echoing in his mind.
“The long way back home,” he muttered, the phrase slipping out low as he pressed the wheel straight.
At that, Laney gave a small smile, faint but real, tugging at the corner of her mouth. He caught it in the glow from the dashboard, and it steadied something inside him. The stew of emotions was still swirling in her eyes—grief, anger, relief—but beneath it all, he saw a glimmer of something else. Maybe hope. Maybe the start of peace.
She shifted in her seat, her voice quiet but sure. “Feels like I’ve been on the long road home for a while now.”
Harlan’s chest tightened at the truth of that. He glanced at her, then back to the road. “Yeah,” he said, the word gravel-deep. “I know exactly what you mean.”
The silence after that wasn’t heavy, not anymore. It was the kind of silence that wrapped around them, steady and grounding, as the miles began to slide beneath the tires.
Harlan kept his hands steady on the wheel, guiding the SUV through the last stretch of the country road. The sunlight was sharp and clear, the heat already building in the late morning. The brush and ranch land rolled by, familiar and steady, and he could almost taste the relief of pulling into the ranch, of knowing Evie was safe and close.
But when they were about a mile out, Laney shifted in her seat. Her voice was quiet but carried a note of resolve.
“Pull over. Right there,” she insisted. She pointed to a narrow layby that broke the line of mesquite along the roadside. “I need to settle a bit more before I see Evie… and there are some things I need to tell you.”
He felt his gut tighten. He slowed and steered off the asphalt, gravel crunching beneath the tires. His pulse quickened as he eased the SUV into park.
Settling before she saw Evie—that made sense. But then came the other part, things she needed to tell him. His mind jumped ahead, working over possibilities he did not want to face. Was she about to say she needed time? That she wasn’t ready for whatever had sparked between them?
Or worse, that being with him had been a mistake?
His grip on the steering wheel went even tighter, his body wound up for a blow he wasn’t sure he could take.
Laney turned toward him, her expression lit by the clear daylight streaming through the windshield. He tried to prepare himself for words that might tear him in two.
But she didn’t speak. She reached for him, her hand curling against the side of his neck, and she pulled him toward her.
The kiss was sudden, firm, a surge of warmth and need that knocked his doubts flat. For a moment, the rubble, the gunfire, the death that had clung to the morning was gone. There was only her lips on his, her hand anchoring him, and the solid, undeniable truth that she wanted him still.
Laney eased back from the kiss, her breath brushing warm against his lips. Her smile flickered for a heartbeat, then faded into a frown.
“I can’t do casual,” she said, her voice quiet but steady. “It wouldn’t be right to bring someone into Evie’s life only for him to disappear.”
Harlan felt his own frown form. He reached for her hand, curling his fingers gently around hers. “I have no intentions of disappearing.And I don’t want casual either.” He paused, searching her face, then gave a half-shrug. “Even though I’m not entirely sure what that means for us.”
The worry in her eyes shifted. The corner of her mouth tugged into a small smile, softer this time, more certain. “It means I want you around. A lot. If that’s what you want too.”
Something in his chest loosened, the tight coil of tension unspooling until he could breathe again. He hadn’t realized how much he needed to hear her say it, how much weight he’d been carrying in the silence between them.
“That’s exactly what I want,” Harlan said, his voice low and rough with the truth of it.
The silence stretched for a beat, the hum of the engine filling the space between them. Then, at the same time, their voices broke through.
“I’m in love with you.”
