"Thank you," she said finally."For getting me out of there."
"Always."
She let out a shaky breath."Do you ever wish you'd done something different?Whole different life.Different choices.Different path."
He thought about it.Really thought about it.There were plenty of calls he wished had gone another way.Words he wished he'd said sooner, or kept inside entirely.Roads not taken, opportunities missed, moments he couldn't get back.
"Sure," he said."I've got regrets.Everybody does.But if I'd changed any of that, I might not be sitting in this truck with you right now."He held her gaze."And I'm not willing to trade that."
Her breath caught."Why?"
"Because you're here," he said simply."And you're safe.That matters to me."
Her eyes went shiny with tears she refused to let fall.She turned her head away quickly, swiped at one cheek with the back of her hand.
"I don't know what I'm doing," she admitted."With any of this.The fire.The inn.Him being here.You.Any of it."
"That's fine," he said."We don't need a ten-step plan today.Just the next right move."
"What's that?"she asked.
"We can skip Main Street for now," he said."Order some basics online.Bree would love an excuse to play stylist, help you pick things out.Or we can hit a quieter store later, somewhere outside of town, where you won't run into anyone you know.You don't have to prove anything to a bunch of people who don't matter."
"You make it sound easy," she said.
"It's not," he said."But that doesn't mean we can't do it."
She stared at the dashboard for another long moment, her breathing slowly evening out."Can we go home?"
Home.The word landed in his chest like a fist wrapped in velvet.She'd called his house home.His half-finished, barely unpacked, still-figuring-it-out house.
"Yeah," he said."Home it is.But I want to call Diaz first and let her know Gavin is in town.Either still or again."
"Okay."She inhaled deeply, squared her shoulders, and stared straight out through the windshield.
Colby touched the call button on his steering wheel and told the system to dial Marisol Diaz.Sergeant Diaz answered on the second ring.
"Landon."
"Diaz."
She chuckled on the other end but stayed silent, waiting.
"Gavin Hartley is in town.Sabrina and I were walking into the clothing store on Main, and she spotted him outside the café, talking on his phone."
"Thanks for the heads-up.Is Sabrina safe?"
"I've got her.She decided to head back to the house and stay out of Hartley's sight line."
"Smart.I'll run down and see if I can have a chat with him.Thanks for letting me know."
The call ended.Colby put the truck in gear and pulled away from the curb, leaving Main Street and Gavin Hartley behind.
Sabrina didn't speak the entire drive home.She sat with her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes fixed on the passing scenery, her jaw set in a tight line that he was learning to read.She wasn't shutting down.She was processing.Filing everything away, trying to make sense of a world that kept throwing new complications at her.
He let her have the silence.Sometimes that was the kindest thing you could give someone.
The afternoon passed in quiet rhythms.Sabrina retreated to the spare room for a while, and he gave her the space, busying himself with small tasks around the house.He tightened the loose railing on the back porch.He sorted through one of the boxes in the living room and actually found places for most of what was inside.He made a grocery list, because if she was going to keep cooking like she had this morning, he needed to give her something better to work with than sad vegetables and freezer bread.
