Page 39 of Rolling Thunder

“I did buy myself some toys with the settlement money the state gave me. Most of it, Dan and I used for seed money to start flipping houses.”

She nodded.

“Smart,” she commented, throwing back another gulp from her glass.

And suddenly he realized he could love this girl. She was afraid his bikes came from dirty money. Still, she didn’t seem to have the slightest inclination to want to know how much money he had. She only worried he was into something dirty, not what he could buy her or give her. He was good at reading people. Plenty of girls pretended they didn’t care about money. Kayla really didn’t. She was absolutely smokin’ hot, but she didn’t ever seem to want to draw attention to herself for it. She was a dream girl except for one thing.

She was holding her phone in a death grip, even though he’d seen her flinch and silence it after the last notification. She appeared to be trying to drown out her phone with booze. Whatever was going on, she wasn’t going to tell him.

He begged off early from the bar, amazed that she didn’t act drunk after the amount of whiskey she’d ingested. She’d become solemn and quiet. He thought of the dirtbag in her driveway threatening her.

When they rolled to a stop at her place, she swung off. Her face was slightly illuminated by the newly working porch light. She glanced nervously at her otherwise dark house.

“Want me to check your place, seeing as you’re out here all alone?” The relief on her face was obvious, so he killed the engine, swung off and walked her to the door. She hung back in the doorway as he methodically walked from room to room.

“All clear,” he announced as he returned to her.

She nodded. “Thanks.”

“You okay?”

Again, her eyes darted up at him and then quickly away, her face strained.

“Yep,” she blurted, and he was sure it was just what she thought he wanted to hear. He was also sure it was bullshit.

“I don’t believe you. You’ve been looking at your phone all night like someone’s about to jump out of it. What’s going on?” he asked softly.

A flash of desperation crossed her face. There was so much more unsaid. He could see it, sense it, plain as day. As if some other person were standing in the room with them. And for some reason, it was driving her away from him.

“I’m sorry if I ruined our date. I didn’t mean to. My old boss started texting me right before you picked me up.” Her voice was so shallow, it sounded like she could barely get a breath.

“The guy who was here before?”

She nodded slightly. His instincts bloomed brightly, and he shifted toward her. She recoiled slightly, fidgeting and scrubbing her hands on her jeans.

“What does he want?” he demanded, a little more forcefully than he probably should have based on her reaction. She’d wrapped an arm around her waist as if she could hold herself together and was pensively chewing a nail, sneaking glances at him.

“He wanted me to come back down to cover a shift, and he was pissed I said no,” she finally admitted in a small voice.

“I don’t like this. Do you want me to stay?”

“No, it’s fine, don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” She moved away from the door as if to suggest he should leave. Every male instinct he had was blasting at him that she was in big trouble and he needed to protect her. But she was shutting him out, and he didn’t know why. He took a step toward her, and again he saw an almost imperceptible wary glance and a tiny motion, as if she had the impulse to cower from him, but was forcing herself not to. He breathed out his tension deliberately, stepping again slowly enough that he could reach her without scaring her. He leaned in and kissed her cheek, holding her face for a moment in his hands. She grabbed his wrists, and he felt for a moment like she was clinging to him. At last, she removed his hands from her face, playfully spun him toward the door, and stepped back with a thin smile. “I’ll be fine.”

“I’m right down the road if you need me,” he said impulsively. She nodded a little, blinking quickly as she turned away from him.

“Thanks,” she murmured as she closed the door, then locked it behind her. He shook his head, feeling like he was no closer to understanding her now than when he first met her.

CHAPTER 16

She finished with the horse she was grooming and put him back into a stall. The aisle was tidy. The barn looked good again. Not quite like when it was Kay’s, but things were no longer leaking and broken. Without a daily maintenance crisis, she was able to do a better job keeping things tidy.

She longed for Evan to come rolling in and save her. But she hadn’t been so drunk the night before that she couldn’t remember doing everything in her power to let him know she wouldn’t accept his help. She wanted to hate him, but the quake in her heart wasn’t anger. It was love. She saw the look in his eyes that meant he knew. He was there, he was willing and able. And she’d chased him away to hide in terror by herself. She feared and expected that he would break her heart. And here she was, breaking it all on her own.

Despite the train wreck that was her personal life, she panned over the barn with pride. She now had four boarders, two trail horses of her own, and a new one coming in for training in two weeks. She didn’t have a ton of money, but her lights were on, and she could make a living with her clothes on. She didn’t have to drink herself into a stupor to forget about it either. Instead, she’d felt as proud as a mom watching Miranda and Rocket win at the rodeo.

She took a deep breath. And when she turned around, it all fell apart in an instant.

Trent stood in the doorway at the end of the barn, and he was furious. He didn’t wait but stalked down the aisle toward her. How had he gotten in? She felt sure she’d locked the gate, so he must have hopped it. Her only hope was that someone would see his car in the road and come to help her. She glanced around quickly. There was no sign of Bill. She didn’t hear the angry roar of Evan’s motorcycle storming in to save her this time.

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