“C’mon,” he said, motioning them back inside. “I’ll make us another fire and we can get some more sleep. Okay?”
“But why were you outside?” she asked, concern still lingering in her creased brow.
“I was having nightmares. I wanted to clear my head.”
Her eyes widened. “I’ve got an idea.” She darted over to the fireplace, picked the blankets off the floor, and hurried back to him. “You have a porch swing out here,” she said. “Let’s sit there.”
She explained as she led him to the swing. “If I have a nightmare someplace—it’s usually in my own bed, of course—I can’t go right back to sleep in that place or I’ll have the same one again. So I used to grab my pillow and my blanket and head to my dad’s office, where I’d fall asleep on the vent while the warm air blew.”
She had the blankets set up, one positioned on the bottom and the other in her fist, ready to pull it over them, he assumed. A shiver rocked her small body as she looked up at him with a smile, that moonlight glowing off her cheeks. She patted the blanket-covered cushion beside her. “Come on.”
Bursts of warmth exploded like a bomb in his heart. One massive wave after the next, infusing him with a deep sense of emotion. He tried to place that emotion as he joined her on the patio swing.
Andie tossed the thick quilt over them, then snuggled her head against his shoulder while looping her hands around his arm. “I love being close to you,” she said in a whisper. “No one has ever made me feel so safe.”
Trenton kissed the top of her head. “I love being with you too, City Girl. Does that mean you’re becoming fonder of the country these days? Or do you think you’ll up and leave me for the life you used to have?” He’d only been half-kidding. In truth, he feared very much that she might leave him one day. It’s what made the idea of selling his ranch so tolerable. Until lately, that is…
“Trenton,” she came, a level of sternness in her voice. She looked up at him, waiting until their eyes met in the low light. “This is where I’m going to be now and forever. I’ll never…” She shook her head, worried her bottom lip with her teeth, then shrugged. “I can tell you with absolute certainty that I’ll never go back to my old life.”
He wished he could see her expression more clearly. He couldn’t be sure, as soft as nature’s light was in the hour, but Trenton sensed that her eyes were pleading with him beneath the shadows. Or maybe it was the serious nature of her tone that spoke to him. Nearly begged him to see past her words and into something that lay just beyond.
He’d had the sensation before—the two times he’d pestered Milton to his edge. The times where he didn’t snap at him or huff and stomp away. But the times where he’d looked at Trenton, a pleading in his eye, and assured him that the story of his past was better left untold.Trust me,he’d pled.Just trust me.
Maybe it was all in his head. Perhaps Trenton was just too close to that part of the story right now. But as he slipped his arm around Andie and pulled her in close, Trenton couldn’t help but wonder if the woman he was falling in love with was hiding a secret of her own.
Chapter 17
Andie narrowed her eyes at her target as she measured the weight of the horseshoe in her hand.
“Better make it count, Andie,” Trenton hollered from the benches beside the fire. “This isoneclose game and the men are about to take the lead.”
“That’s right we are,” Emmitt cheered.
She glanced over in time to see Trenton and Emmitt giving high fives to their teenage teammates, D’Shawn and Shaquille. The brothers were guests at the inn for the week, as was their little sister, Dominque, who was on the girls’ team with Andie, Betty, and Mable. Lucky for them, Mable’s technique at horseshoes was a close second to her culinary skills.
“Oh, hush up boys,” Betty told the pompous group. “Don’t go counting your chickens before they hatch.”
“Yeah,” Dominique added. The darling girl had just started third grade. In fact, she’d recently developed quite the crush on a boy in her homeroom class—a fun fact she’d shared around last night’s bonfire while roasting marshmallows.
Andie’s competitive streak revved as she fixed her gaze back on the metal stake in the dirt pit thirty feet away. She’d gotten quite good at the game since the weather warmed, thanks to Trenton and his patient lessons a few weeks back. Her favorite part of those lessons were the moments Trenton backed her against the nearby tree and sampled the spot just beneath her earlobe with a wicked growl. The mere recollection caused goosebumps to surface over her skin.
Focus, Andie.People took these competitions seriously around here, and she didn’t want to disappoint.
That thought urged her on as she swung her arm back, eyes fixed on the stake, and swung forward to let it loose. The metal piece tipped upside down, then right side up as it hurled through the air toward the dirt pit.
“C’mon…” Mable said under her breath.
Dominque had started her little chant as she watched, as well. “Please, please, please…”
At last it landed with a metal clank. And while it hadn’t looped around the stake as she’d hoped, the horseshoe kept a nice lean against it, meaning she’d scored points for her team.
“Atta girl,” Betty cheered.
“Yes!” came Dominque’s reaction next.
Andie sighed. She might have missed the mark with her first toss, but at least she’d made up for it with this one.
“That makes the score nineteen to sixteen,” Mable’s husband Don cried out. He updated the chalkboard with a few scribbles. “The guys are up. Be sure to step back to the forty foot line, gentlemen.”
