Page 70 of Colton's Last Resort

“Noah spent the night here.”

She shook her head automatically. “I don’t know what—”

“Come on, ace.” Joshua rolled his eyes. “I saw him head out just a few minutes ago.”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat and reached for it awkwardly. “It’s not what it looks like.”

His brows came together. “Why not? Haven’t you two been together for six months?”

“I...” She caught back up and nodded, clutching the lapels of her robe together over her collarbone. “Yes. Yes, we have.”

He lifted his hands. “Hey, I’m not judging. You say he makes you happy. I believe you.”

“You took him running,” she recalled.

Caught, he lifted both shoulders in a sheepish shrug. “Adam’s idea.”

“Oh, give me a break, Josh,” she snapped. “I heard you were the pace car. I also heard you took him up the advanced hiking trail. Even Adam thought his legs were going to fall off.”

Joshua pursed his lips. “It’s not my fault I’m in better shape than everybody else.”

She gave a half laugh. “If you’d believed me when I told you he makes me happy, would you have put Noah through his paces?”

“He kept up just fine.”

He didn’t sound pleased about the fact. “You like him.”

“Maybe,” Joshua said. “And he said something that scared the hell out of me.”

“What?” she asked.

Joshua took a breath, rolled his shoulders back as if trying to dislodge tension and said, “He said he was here to keep you safe. He said you could be the next target of whoever killed Allison.”

She shook her head. “Nothing’s going to happen to me.”

“That’s what she thought, too,” Joshua said. “I may be your brother, but I like that he’s staying the night with you. I like that you have someone watching over you when Adam and I can’t. Until the police find out who killed Allison, I’m willing to look the other way when Noah’s around. Bonus points that he looks like he could scare off a grizzly.”

She smiled. It wobbled around the edges. “You don’t have to worry about me so much.”

“That’s the thing,” he drawled. “As long as Steele’s around, I worry less. Where’d he go, anyway?”

“Sedona,” she said. “He had something to do there.”

Joshua lifted his chin. “Right. Valentine’s Day’s tomorrow.”

“Valentine’s...” She shrieked and ran back into the house, leaving the door open for him. In the bedroom, she dressed quickly, did her hair and applied makeup faster than she ever had before.

How could she sleep in the day before the wedding?

She snatched the coffee off the nightstand and downed half of it as she eyed the cat still curled up at the foot of the bed. Normally, Sebastian woke her if she even thought about sleeping past her alarm. He required a prompt meal at the break of every day.

As she ventured into the kitchen, where she found Joshua pouring coffee from the pot into a mug of his own, she peered into the cat food bowl. The remnants of a feast were scattered across the bottom of the porcelain dish.

Noah had fed her cat? Stunned, she took the bowl to the sink to rinse it. Then she remembered the note. Turning to the oven, she pulled open the door.

One of her china plates sat in the center of the upper rack. She pulled it out and found a still-warm western omelet.

Joshua peered over her shoulder as she set it on the range. “That looks incredible.”

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