Page 14 of The Truth

Hala had sort of just ended up staying at the ranch with Greer now that Greer was staying there more, too. She and Greer had been best friends since practically diapers. There were people around the ranch everywhere lately—women people.

Gunn did not mind one bit.

Hala’s older brother had stayed with them for a few days—after the accident where he and his son had been injured. That had been a week or so back. Hala had been there almost every night since.

Gunn didn’t mind. She was like another little sister to him. If she was there with his brothers—she was safe.

Sometimes, after everything that had happened lately, he didn’t know whatsafereally was.

“You look deep in thought,” a feminine voice said, behind him.

Gunn recognized that voice immediately.

He turned.

Thereshewas. The woman he couldn’t stop thinking about.

“Hello, Reverend Hiller. It’s a bit late, isn’t it?” Moonlight was coming in through the windows of the patio doors. It tangled in her blonde hair and made her look… angelic?

A very mischievous angel was this one. “What are you doing… here?”

In his very house, looking like his every fantasy. She wore a thin tank top—and he could see dark straps beneath it. And navy sweatpants. His sister Genny slept in similar every night.

But Ayla had no business parading around his house at two a.m. inthat.He’d already woke, after dreaming of her.

In ways he definitely shouldn’t have been.

He was going to have to decide what to do about her. Fast.

He hadn’t ever felt quite like this for a woman before—not since before he’d gone into the ministry, anyway. He had had one serious romantic relationship before he’d dedicated his life to his calling. They had consummated that relationship. He wasn’t exactlynaivewhere fleshly matters were concerned, despite what his siblings thought.

He just knew what he had to do when temptation was staring right at him. In his own living room.

“I was awake, remembering… anniversaries, that kind of thing… then I had to go to the bathroom. Do you know how much of an ordeal finding my way to the bathrooms in this place can be? This is the only one on this level. Icouldhave done the stairs, but… why risk it? But I’m all good now. What are you doing up… Reverend Hiller?”

“Just running over my next sermon. I couldn’t sleep.” He was going to change the entire theme to one about resistingtemptation.That would probably serve him well. He wanted to scoop her up, to carry her to that big wooden rocking chair he’d caught Chad holding Genny in that morning. He wanted to hold Ayla as close as his friend had been holding Gunn’s baby sister. And just… be. “Do you want to share a snack with me? There are milk and cookies in there. Mom bought them for Genny. She’s hovering.”

“So is Aubrey. It’s why we’restillhere. I think I’m not responsible enough to stay by myself. Especially after what happened two nights ago. And Aubrey was one hundred percentconvinced that Genny needed three doctors to hover over her tonight.” She shot him a cheeky grin that he could just see in the low LED lights that ran just under the steps of the sunken living room. “But… I think I may have been her buffer, really.”

He was starting to relax. She was just so open and honest… and naive. He was one hundred percent convinced this woman had no idea that he had been consumed withherfor days. “Oh, from what?”

“Dr. Hot Hands.”

He almost fumbled the gallon of milk. “Who?”

“Dr. Hot Hands. It’s what Hala calls Guthrie. Dr. Hot Lips is Chad, because Genny says he gives scorching hot kisses.”

“I… see.” He was thirty-three years old. Nineyearsolder than this woman. The last thing Gunn wanted to do was stand there, whispering with her while the rest of his family—and hers—slept in the house around them.

It just felt far too intimate. Too… tempting.

Intimate would get a man like him into trouble with a woman like her. In a heartbeat.

He helped her onto the bar stool. She wasn’t wearing shoes. And she just had one crutch. Normally, she used two.

Helping her was an excuse. He liked lifting her, getting his hands on her when he could. Maybe it was wrong of him, but… it was fact.

He dutifully ignored how his hands burned where he touched her. He hurriedly stepped away, before he kissed her next.

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