He was breathing hard, struggling to get enough air. When he spoke, the words came out between gasps.
“We’re… sort of neighbors.”
I blinked at him. “Neighbors?” There were no neighbors out here. That was the whole point. I’d moved to the middle of nowhere specifically because there was no one around.
He pointed up. “I live up the mountain.”
“Oh.” He must be the light I’d seen high up on the mountain late at night.
He shifted his weight, wincing as his torn feet pressed into the ground. His eyes darted to the smoldering house, then back to me. Something flickered across his face. Discomfort, maybe. Or uncertainty.
“You can’t stay here tonight,” he grunted.
I hugged myself, feeling the cold nature of the world. Would I have to move back home to Abeline?
Would I have to seethemagain?
Hating the weakness in my own voice, I whispered, “I don’t have anywhere to go.”
Chapter 3
Hall
She stood in the moonlight, shivering so hard I knew it wasn’t from the chill in the air.
She’d lost the quilt at some point, and the moonlight revealed the soft curve of her breasts held in place by the thin straps of her low-cut nightgown. Her chest rose and fell with each shaky breath.
The woman was beautiful. She was full-bodied with big brown eyes. Her wavy chestnut hair tumbled around her shoulders, mussed from sleep.
Her face was streaked with tears, her cheeks flushed from the cold, and something in my chest twisted at the sight of her.
She looked so lost.
“I can’t go back to Abeline,” she blurted out, her voice cracking on the final word. “Ican’t.I won’t.”
I didn’t know who or what Abeline was. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was the fear in her eyes when she said it, and the hint of desperation.
Whatever Abeline was, it had wounded her more than her house burning down.
In the distance, the owl called out again, its voice echoing across the valley. The mountains rose up around us, dark shapes against a darker sky, and I was suddenly very aware of how alone we were out here.
How alone she was.
“You don’t have to,” the words came out before I could think them through. “You can stay with me.”
The spring night pressed in around us, cold and damp. Smoke hung thick in the air, mixing with the scent of wet ash and pine.
Her eyes went wide. “What?”
“My cabin. Up the mountain.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder toward the ridge. “It’s not much, but it’s warm and… safe.”
She stared at me without comprehending my words. I couldn’t blame her. I was a stranger who’d just crashed through her bedroom window and dragged her out of her house.
Other than the fact that I’d just put out her kitchen fire, she had no reason to trust me.
But she also had no options unless she wanted to get in her car and find a motel at this late hour of the night.
“I don’t even know your name,” she whispered.
