She finally nodded, allowing him to breathe normally again. “Okay.” She glanced toward her suitcases that were parked in the middle of the living room. “I’d better roll my suitcases back to the guest room.”
“I’ll do it,” he said quickly. Leaving them out where anyone could see them would raise questions from Ryder and Cooper that he’d rather not answer.
She climbed down from her stool. “You don’t have to…”
“I insist.” He was already several strides ahead of her. He picked up her suitcases instead of rolling them, which made a lot less noise on the hardwood floor.
Owen sleptlittle the rest of the night. In the wee hours of the morning, he received a text from his immediate supervisor, Rock Hefner, who ran Lonestar Security’s forensics team.
It won’t be the full crew, but we can get started today.
Owen threw an emoji thumbs up on the update while Rock was still typing.
Can you talk now?
Owen dialed him.
Rock answered after the first ring. “Morning, New Recruit!”
“Good morning.” Owen’s voice was sheepish. “I’m sorry about raising such a ruckus before my first day on the job.”
Rock gave a snort of laughter. “It’s okay. We were kind of expecting it.”
Oh?“Why’s that?”
“Funny you should ask,” his supervisor drawled. “We had this same conversation in our team-building meeting yesterday. Someone called it the Lonestar Security curse. I don’t know why, but trouble follows nearly every one of our new hires into town.”
“Uh-oh,” Owen muttered. “You could’ve warned me.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Rock chuckled. “Seriously, though, with a job like ours, we’re forever in somebody’s crosshairs. Looks like it’s your turn, but we’ve got your back. I sent out an SOS to the rest of the team. Two people have already written back to say they can be at your place by nine o’clock to work on your security system.”
Owen was moved by Rock’s kindness. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“No worries.” His supervisor sobered. “If you stick around long enough, we’ll get our pound of flesh out of you. Eventually, someone else on our team will be in the hot seat, and you can return the favor then.”
“Count me in!” As a single dad, Owen was grateful to be part of the camaraderie Rock spoke of.
Rock gave him a few more details about the equipment their company would begin installing at Garrett Farm a few hours from now. “I’ll drop by later to check on things,” he promised before ending the call.
Muffled giggles met Owen’s ears, which told him the twins were awake. It sounded like the giggles were coming from the living room.
He climbed out of bed and stepped into the adjoining bathroom to take care of a few human necessities before heading to the living room to do dad things.
As he brushed his teeth, he shuddered over how closehe’d come to losing Halle last night. He wasn’t ready to let her go.
The way his heart pounded every time they were together told him he was probably never going to be ready to let her go.
Chapter 5: Hardworking Farmhand
One month later
“Idon’t get it.” Halle shoved the sleeves of her sweatshirt higher. “We haven’t found anything out of the ordinary.” She and Owen hadn’t stumbled across so much as a blade of grass waving in the wrong direction, but not for lack of trying. They’d spent every minute they could spare for an entire month searching Garrett Farm for anything that would justify James House’s frantic warning to Halle.
The fences and chicken coops were in excellent repair. The crops were neatly weeded, adequately watered, and in full bloom. There were no infestations of pesky insects in the strawberry patch or any sign of rogue foxes trying to dig beneath the chicken pens. The deer grazed through each morning, and the owls kept vigil at night. It was beautiful and peaceful—almosttoopeaceful.
“Is it just my imagination, or are you disappointed we haven’t run into any trouble yet?” Owen’s baritone voice rumbled lazily overher.
Yet.The three-letter word told her he, too, understood it was the calm before the storm. Like her, he was waiting for the next shoe to drop. She was back on her ex-fiancé’s radar. It was only a matter of time before he showed her his cards.
