Page 39 of Matthew
Carter gasped. “Betrayal.”
Matthew stood and gathered his notes, what little there were. He didn’t need paper trails to follow instinct. And right now, his gut was telling him Wednesday’s delivery wasn’t a one-off. It was a breadcrumb. The question was, what kind of trail and where would it lead?
If someone thought Morgan Creek was an easy mark, they were about to learn otherwise.
By the time he pulled into the nursery lot, the morning sun had already burned off most of the haze behind the tree line. Thesummer heat was in full force, and he marveled at how Callie and her crew managed to keep all the plants from drying out and turning to dust.
Miracle workers.
From a distance, everything looked normal. Orderly rows of plants, clean walkways, even the damn wind chimes by the entrance clinking sporadically in the wind.
But the moment Matthew stepped out of the SUV, he felt it.
Something was off.
Not with the property. With Callie.
She was near the shade tunnel, talking with Les, her body angled slightly away. Her ponytail twitched as she gestured toward a pallet of mulch, giving Les some kind of instruction. It all looked the same on the surface. But he’d seen her relaxed. He’d seen her rattled. This was her version of armored.
Matthew took his time crossing the lot, letting her finish. Les gave him a chin tip in greeting before peeling off toward the truck, loading supplies without missing a beat.
Callie stayed where she was, arms crossed over her chest, not cold, but…guarded.
“Busy day?” he asked, voice easy.
She gave a short nod, not quite meeting his eyes. “Always is.”
He waited, but she didn’t say more. Callie shifted her weight and glanced toward the greenhouse like there were ten more things she needed to do.
So that’s how it was going to be.
It shouldn’t have surprised him. He’d kissed her. She’d kissed him. Hell, they’d practically melted into each other in the middle of a field of sedum. And then Caspian had shown up, all snark and timing, and reality had come rushing back in.
Matthew hadn’t regretted it. Still didn’t. But he knew the fallout when he saw it.
Callie wasn’t the kind of woman who got swept off her feet. She stayed grounded, rooted. Sturdy as the live oaks on her land. He respected the hell out of that, although, part of him still wanted to push. Just a little. Only enough to remind her that the ground had shifted for him too.
“You good?” he asked, his tone careful.
Her jaw ticked. “Fine.”
A lie. A subtle one.
“Look,” she said before he could say more. “About yesterday—”
“You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“I know. But…” She rubbed the back of her neck. “It happened fast.”
“Yeah,” he said. “It did.”
Her gaze flicked to his, quick and sharp. “I wasn’t expecting it.”
“Neither was I.”
That was the truth, but it didn’t mean he regretted a damn thing. If anything, the memory of it had dogged him all afternoon. The taste of her. The way she’d curled her hand into his shirt as if she wasn’t ready to let go. The way his pulse had pounded with something deeper than heat.
Not only had the incredible woman gotten under his skin, she’d settled somewhere deeper. And now she was trying to build walls back up before he got too close.
