Page 70 of Love Me Dangerous

Gabe hooks a finger through my belt loop and gives me a little tug. “I miss you.”

I step back, and his hand drops into the void. “No more favors. No more anything.”

His face darkens, and for an instant, I see the hurt. But then it’s gone and buried beneath his anger. He spins on his heel and storms off.

The Huttonslive on Morning Star Road, south of town where people with roots in ranching and farming settled. I don’t know Barb and Henry very well. Back when I was in high school, I used to see them at football games. They continued to attend even after their kids were gone. Dad knows them, though. Barb found us Cocoa. I haven’t met them officially, and I’ve never been to their place.

The Wagoneer’s saggy suspension bounces over the bumps and dips as I count the house numbers on Morning Star. My mind drifts to the conversation with Gabe. The finality of separating from him settles through me. While I’m relieved, I’m still angry. I didn’t ask Gabe to meddle with Jesse’s tox screen. Now I’ll never know the truth.

The Hutton’s property is lined with split rail fencing. The driveway passes beneath a high archway made of a single giant log. I turn up the wide gravel lane that bisects a tidy but faded lawn and ends in a turnaround driveway between a handsome farmhouse and a two-story barn. The barn’s red metal roof contrasts with the dark woods and the dry yellow pasture behind it. Rising above the tips of the distant forest is a view of the Bitterroots, their tops dusted with snow.

When I pull to a stop behind a silver Ford truck, two brown dogs trot over from the covered porch, tails wagging.

The dogs circle my shins, sniffing. I give them each a welcome, then head for the house, where a woman with short brown hair steps out in a thick jacket and worn brown boots.

“Hello,” she says with a curious glint in her eye. “What can I do for you?”

A gust of cool wind buffets the aspens flanking the left side of the house, making the leaves rattle. “You’re Barb, right?” I walk closer and extend my hand. “I’m Sofie Whittaker.”

Barb’s eyes soften as she gives my hand a quick, firm shake. “Glad to meet you, Sofie. How’s that Appaloosa we found for your dad?”

“Cocoa? She’s great.”

Henry joins his wife on the porch, his cheeks a rosy red, like he’s been outside.

I suck in a gasp as a memory fires. He’s the one who carried me from the lake so Zach could return for Jesse. The sudden tug of emotion catches me off guard.

“Sofie, hey,” Henry says with a kind smile.

“Hey.” When he came to the house after Zach was attacked, I was pouring my frustration into barn chores, so I didn’t put it together. But it all falls into place now. Zach and Henry were both there, and Zach’s been with the Huttons since.

I swallow down the lump in my throat. “Um, is Zach here? I… need to tell him something.” This might be the lamest thing I’ve ever said, but the Huttons don’t seem affected by it.

“Sure. He’s in the barn,” Henry says, “We were just heading back out there.”

“I think he’s with Galaxy,” Barb adds as we set off acrossthe gravel driveway, the wind kicking up dust. Ahead, the opening of the large barn yawns like an abyss.

Henry leads, his gait surprisingly energetic for a man who must be pushing seventy. Is Zach’s presence the cause? The thought is incredibly endearing. I want to thank them for how they’ve obviously been caring for him, even though I have no right to.

Barb and I follow Henry into the barn. Scents of fresh hay and horse dust mixed with leather and wood are welcoming and familiar the way every barn is to me. We pass a big stallion’s stall and a smaller mare’s. At the end of the row is an empty stall, the back door opened to reveal an enclosed corral. Through the cutout of the doorway, Zach is sitting on the fence rail while a black foal whose ribs are showing snuffles around the edges.

“Oh, he’s outside,” Henry says, and strides out the back of the barn and thankfully not through the stall because I’m dressed for Autumn Fest, not barn chores.

Before I follow, Zach looks up. Though he doesn’t move from his perch on the railing, I can see the rise and fall of his chest and the set of his jaw. But it’s those eyes that do me in. Framed as he is with the bluebird sky behind him and the rugged mountains rising rocky and sharp, he looks like he’s a part of the landscape. Like he belongs.

As we stare at each other for that tender, fleeting moment, it becomes clear that he’s not only become a part of this place, but he’s become a part ofme.

Chapter Seventeen

SOFIE

Henry says something to Zach,drawing his attention away from me. I follow Barb through the open back door of the barn and turn left on a worn path through the dry grass. My heart flutters like a bird in my chest, tickling my insides.

Henry and Zach exchange words I can’t hear. Zach nods and eases down the fence, his grimace a testament to how much he’s still hurting.

“I was going to take Galaxy on a short trail walk after Zach got him warmed up.” Barb shoots me a warm smile. “Maybe the two of you could go instead?”

“Oh, um, sure.” My voice is up in the high notes. I smile back at her to make up for it.

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