Page 85 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bargain

Not withanyoneafter that day.

Talking about it makes it feel too raw.

Too real.

But I can’t avoid it forever.

Not now that Dalton and I have grown so close and the line between friendship and more seems to have blurred into nothing today.

“I used to. Haven’t in a while.” I pull my head back and look up at him. “But it was different this time.”

“Different how?”

Though the images flicker in my head, I can’t make sense of what they mean, ofwhythe dream changed.

The explanation burns in my throat, but I force it out, needing to talk about what it could mean. “This time, when I got there, when I found him, he wasn’t alone.” Another little shiver hits me. “There was someone else in the barn who ran off as I came in…”

Dalton’s brows draw low as he narrows his eyes on me. “What do you mean?”

“That day…he wasalonein the barn stall with one of the horses—Wilder. And that’s the way the dream has always come before,exactlyas it happened. But tonight, it was like, I don’t know…” I shake my head, trying to make any sense of it. “Like maybe someone else was there and hit him? Like maybe it wasn’t the horse. But…it’s just a dream, right?”

I know what happened the day I lost him.

It would be impossible to forget any of those minute details that are so seared into my brain.

I remember exactly what time he walked out of the house to head to the barn. I recall the moment I realized he was late coming back in for lunch. And I could never wipe away the image of what I found when I went looking for him…

So, the dream is justthat.

A dream.

It has to be.

Dalton swallows thickly, and his eyes dart to the window before they come back to me. He doesn’t say anything, but his silence speaks volumes.

“You don’t think—”

He shakes his head. “I don’t. I mean, is it possible that whoever Pops saw at the lake has been up here before, snooping around?” He shrugs. “Of course. People have been after the land and what’s on it for a lot longer than I’ve even known about it. But would they go so far as to actually attack Dave to try to get you off the property, to try to send a message tous?” His eyes meet mine. “That would be crazy, right?”

I nod slowly. “It would be.”

“And you said it was the horse…”

“I assumed it was. What else could have caused a head injury like that? There weren’t signs of anyone else or anythingelse around.” I squeeze my eyes closed, trying not to picture Dave, but I can’t keep it out. “Wilder has always been just that—wild. It’s one of the reasons I never tried to ride him, and Davey knew to keep his distance in the pasture and barn. Only Dave could ever handle his attitude. And it looked like Dave gotkicked.” That bloody image makes me wince. “But I suppose anything blunt striking him could have caused that if he were hit hard enough.”

During my years in the ER, I sawplentyof blunt force trauma head injuries, but itnevercrossed my mind that it could have been anything else until now.

Wilder is precisely the type of horse whowouldthrow an unexpected fit and injure something.

That’s why I sold him immediately after Dave died.

Dalton tugs me up against him fully, my belly pressing against the side of his solid body, his arm rigid around my back. “I think everything that happened today is just messing with your head, making it spiral to create this crazy alternate situation. It’s your subconscious. Nothing more.”

“Do we really know that?”

How longhasGallo’s client been after the land?

And who is to say what lengths someone might go to in order to get it?

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