“I did. Made more sense than bringing two cars up.”
“Yeah, I guess it does.”
His voice was easy, unhurried. The kind of voice that could talk someone through a crisis without ever raising its pitch. She’d noticed that on the trail, too, though at the time she’d been too rattled to fully register it.
He paused a beat, then said, “Why were you off the trail?”
“Pardon?”
“Where you found the, um, cache. There wasn’t a trail.”
“Rattlesnake. I heard one and...I guess I freaked.” She let out an embarrassed laugh. “I know better, but I ran, and, well, that’s where I stopped.”
“You’ve had quite the day.”
She met his gaze again, certain she’d see mockery or pity. Instead, she found warmth and genuine understanding looking back at her.
“Yeah.” Tears stung her eyes as she took another sip of water.
Tyler gave a nod, seeming to understand both her emotions and her embarrassment. “I’m going to check and see if Sue and Robert need anything.”
She watched him go, noticing he glanced back about halfway toward their Subaru. The gesture made her smile.
He was right about one thing: it had been quite a day. Her life had always been quiet, almost boring, the kind of life she liked. Work, running, friends, family. Nothing ever out of the ordinary.
Until recently, that is.
The past few months had been difficult, but she was slowly finding her footing again, little by little returning to the Brooke she used to be.
She’d lived in Irma her entire life. Thirty-two years in a town where everyone knew everyone, where the biggest crime was usually teenagers spray painting the wall of a building or the occasional rogue cattle moseying through town.
At least, that’s what she used to think before she learned her friend Kelsey was being blackmailed into stealing confidential files from her employer. Brooke had been so naive.
That day had changed everything she thought she knew about not just their little town, but also about herself. Even so, owning a coffee shop meant she saw a good part of the town regularly and knew their orders, their routines, their families.
But she didn’t know Tyler.
Her eyes drifted to where he stood near the other car. Instead of looking at his friends, he was scanning the tree line, like he expected something to emerge from the forest. Even from this distance, she could see the tension in his body, the way he held himself alert and ready. Like he wasn’t convinced the danger was entirely behind them.
She’d been too panicked earlier to really look at him. Her brain had been locked in survival mode. Get away from the bodies, mark the location, don’t die from a bear attack or become the next cache herself.
Now, standing in the relative safety of the parking lot with her heart rate finally returning to normal, she could actually see him.
He was tall, around six feet, with the kind of athletic build that came more from actual work than a gym membership, but she suspected he worked out too. His dark hair was cut short and practical, a hint of silver around the temples. Strong jaw, serious expression. He was older than her by a few years, she guessed, though it was hard to tell for certain.
He was handsome, which felt wrong to notice given what they’d just found.
But it wasn’t just his looks that caught her attention. It was the way he’d handled the situation. When she’d been spiraling in panic, ready to bolt into the forest, he’d been calm and confident. He’d assessed the danger, made a plan, and executed it without drama or hesitation.
He had positioned himself between her and the caches while they marked the trail. He shot out his hand to steady her when she stumbled on the hike back. He did small, protective things without making a fuss about them.
And the way he looked at her when their eyes met, attentive and unreadable even in the middle of a crisis...
Heat crept up Brooke’s neck. This was ridiculous. Completely inappropriate. There was a dead person—possibly two dead people—less than two miles away, and here she was cataloging some stranger’s attractive qualities like she was scrolling through a dating app.
What kind of person did that?
She forced her attention back to Robert, who was still on the phone, but she kept looking back at Tyler.
