Page 19 of She Autumn Be Mine

“You don’t have to.” She hesitated.

“But I want to.”

“Oh. Go on. Kick up your heels a little,” Harper encouraged.

Autumn finally slipped her hand into mine. Always protective, I curled my fingers around it. I guided her toward the floor, chest out proudly with her beside me.

She settled a palm on my shoulder, while her other hand I held close to my heart. Eye to eye, we swayed at first, gaining confidence in her body in time with mine. Closer still, her lips reached my ear.

“You’re full of surprises. You dance well,” she observed.

“With the right partner.” True. Every word. I got tongue twisted around other women. Never with her.

“I think everyone’s staring at us,” she chuckled.

“They’re staring at you, at your beauty.” I held her closer, her ribs against mine.

My hand spanned the small of her back, and I kept it exactly where a gentleman keeps it, which took roughly all of the military discipline I owned. Through the satin, the heat of her skin burned, every breath moving her ribs against mine, and when she tipped her chin up, her mouth ended up close enough that one bad decision would have finished me in front of the whole county.

So I filed it all away instead. The dip of her waist under my palm. The hitch in her breathing when I drew her in. Evidence, a man might call it. I was building a case for how not to be a “good friend.”

“I’m an outsider. Sometimes I don’t feel like I belong here,” she admitted.

“You belong more than most.”

“Why do you make me feel so safe, Jake?”

“As long as I’m here, you can be by my side. You don’t have to run. You don’t have to hide.”

“Oh, I hope that’s true.” She held on, her arms going around my neck, letting me truly in for the first time as her body melded with mine. Every second of the song could have lasted an eternity, and I would have been fine. But we coasted to the end, the music faded, and couples broke apart and clapped.

Autumn stepped back, eyes up at me, cheeks flushed, guard down enough, until she blinked out of the spell

“It’s getting late.” And the guard was back up again.

Harper found me at the truck while Autumn was inside the farmhouse, getting Stetson from Avery. I knew before she said one word that this wasn't a goodnight.

She'd been seated next to Autumn all evening, warm as ever, and none of that was on her face now. She glanced back at the farmhouse door once, then kept her voice below the music still drifting from the tent.

“This is probably nothing.” Which is how every something starts. "But a man came into the Copper Cup earlier this morning. He ordered coffee he never drank and asked some of the regulars a lot of questions." Her eyes came up to mine. "About a woman with a baby.”

"What'd you tell him?"

"That Forest Grove's got a lot of women and a lot of babies, and we don't answer questions about either." Harper's jaw set, and underneath the landlady I saw the woman who'd once run from a dangerous man herself, so I’d heard. "Gavin's aware. He’s put an extra patrol on the street for the next week between the Copper Cup and the Sapphire. I thought you should be aware too."

“Yeah. Thanks.” We parted on a nod of understanding.

Then Autumn came out the farmhouse door with our sleeping boy against her shoulder, laughing at whatever Avery had said, green dress catching in the moonlight. I took the diaper bag, and buckled them both in tight.

I checked the mirrors the whole drive home for any sign of trouble.

SIX

Stumped

Jake

The last stump in the way of the hayride staging ground was a green cottonwood with roots halfway to China, and it fought us until sunset.