Page 8 of Montana Silence

Kind of like the one I needed last night.

Shoving the thought away, I looked back at them. “What’s up? Provided you’re not actually here for an intervention.”

“No, we wanted to see if you were ready,” Lucas said.

“For?”

“The survey in the back corner for the rehab facility, remember?”

I ran a hand over my face. No, I hadn’t remembered. My mind was so caught up in Mara and making sure she was safe that I’d forgotten about it completely. “Wow. I’m sorry. I heard this truck acting up last night, and I wanted to see what was wrong with it. But I don’t see anything obvious.”

The three of them shared a look I pretended not to see. If they wanted to ask, they could, but until they did, I was going to act like everything was business as usual.

Lucas nodded to the truck. “What does it sound like?”

I hopped into the driver’s seat and turned it on, pressing down on the gas so they could hear the squeaking. It was even more obvious when the truck wasn’t moving.

He waved a hand, and I killed the engine. “Jeez, yeah. Sounds like the engine belt is going. Probably a good thing you checked on it.”

A broken belt wasn’t the most dangerous thing that could happen in a vehicle, but still, the thought of the belt snapping while she was on the road? It hollowed out my gut and made my chest tight.

I focused, letting the thoughts tumble through, one after another. If something happened on the road, the terrified look on her face from last night would reappear. That alone was more than enough reason to fix this truck. Not to mention the possibleactualdanger to her.

I took a breath and stretched, trying to shake the sudden tension out of my body. Mara wasn’tmine. I didn’t own her. I had no more right to protect her than any of the other Resting Warrior guys.

The fierce rejection of those words in my gut nearly put me on the ground. The deep need to protect her made me want to tear things apart—both friendly and not—in order to make sure she was all right.

Lucas looked at me, and I realized the silence had stretched too long. “I’ll pick one up tomorrow,” I said. “Let’s just make sure no one drives this one until then.”

“Don’t worry,” Jude said. “Mara doesn’t usually leave the ranch for the first part of the week.”

I glared at him, and he just grinned at me.

It wasn’t like I could be mad at him. I’d given all of them a hard enough time while they were courting their women that I’d earned everything they might want to throw at me.

“Good to know,” I said. “Or anyone else who might use the truck.”

Another truck pulled up to the lodge, and Daniel stepped out with a wave before collecting what seemed like a mountain of mail and packages.

“We’re headed to the northwest corner, Daniel. Want to come?”

“I do, but I need to take care of some things in the office first. I’ll join you when I can.” He carried the mail into the lodge, and Jude led the way to his truck so we could head where we needed to go. The back of it was filled with what we’d need.

The location was a good one, but we had to confirm there were no unseen obstacles before we started calling in contractors. And it helped all of us to see something like this laid out in physical space so we got an idea of how big it would be and how it would look.

“How’s Avery?” Noah asked. “I saw Evie with her last night, but they stayed out of the action.”

Lucas smiled, and you could tell it was an instinctual smile. The kind you couldn’t control even if you wanted to. “She’s incredible,” he said. “It feels like there’s something new every day. Hell, I hate leaving the house because I know when I get back there, Evie’s going to tell me something she did that I missed.”

The little family had taken a month of leave together, and we’d barely seen the three of them in the whole time, but I understood the desire to be present for everything your child did. It was what made Lucas an amazing father and was how I wanted to be when it was my turn.

What I would have given to have a father who was so interested…

“That’s good to hear,” Noah said, laughing. “Careful, though. Soon, you’ll have another one on the way, and things will get even more hectic.”

“We do want more,” Lucas said. “Not going so far that we’re the von Trapp family, but definitely more.”

I was the one who laughed this time. “You guys are going to outgrow your house pretty quick.”

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