“Breakfast, Rose. I’m taking you to breakfast.”
She smiles. “OK, but then can we go meet this sheriff?”
She’s toying with me. She has to be.
Rose takes another sip, leaning back against the passenger door, watching me. “Maybe I’ll hold off on naming your cart just yet.”
I smirk.
“How’s Dallas?”
“Think he was hurtin’ this morning. But I can’t say I’m sad about it.”
“Even if he came to my rescue?”
I perk a brow. “Becausehe came to your rescue. I should’ve let you both get eaten by the Callahan wolf pack.”
“Dusty doesn’t seem so bad. She seems kinda sweet.”
I laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“You should tell your brother you think Dusty’s sweet. You’ll never hear the end of it. And he might just have you committed.”
My eyes go wide. “Wesley? He’s a teddy bear; he’d never hate on anyone.” She winces. “Then again, I nearly cracked a rib whenshe threw me against the wall, but if she hadn’t, I would have had my face creamed.”
Bile rises in my throat. “Dallas didn’t move you aside?”
“He pushed me behind him, but I thought I could help and jumped between the guys when things started to heat up.”
“Jesus, Rose.”
I pull up to the outdoor café in town, setting the truck in park and jumping out, my boots scuffing against the gravel.
Jerry, the owner, waves as he clears a table, then nods that he’ll be right with us.
Rose is still by the passenger door and I nod her along, but she doesn’t move.
Her eyes gaze past the storefronts and lampposts of the small street. I know exactly what she’s fixed on.
The beauty of Blue River Springs. The mountains, the river that flows below, the evergreen trees lining the hills. That sweet smell of pine in the faint wind.
“Wow,” she breathes. “I could just stare at these all day.”
I expect to roll my eyes. I’ve got work to do and already spent the past hour fussing over her.
But I don’t. I lean against the building with my arms crossed like I’m annoyed. But through my sunglasses, I watch her face, her eyes taking it all in. Her chest rises as she inhales.
Tearing her eyes off the scene, she turns to me, her cheeks rosy with that same flush. “Sorry, coming.”
I sigh and hold the fence open for her.
I lean back in my chair, arms crossed loosely, watching Rose take another bite of her omelet. Perhaps it’s the lighting, but the shadows under her eyes seem to have softened.
There’s something quietly fierce about this girl. And maybe not so quiet too. Something that Wesley never mentioned.
Or misunderstood, perhaps?
