CHAPTER 65

“Make sure the door is locked when you leave, eh?”

Macie rolled up the picture and carefully inserted it in a cardboard paper towel tube so it wouldn’t get crushed in her backpack. She slammed the back door and rounded the side of the brick building, her guilty footsteps loud in the gravel and the muted night air.

She was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice him until she’d reached her vehicle.

Carter lounged against the passenger door, his cowboy hat pushed back off his forehead. His arms were folded over his broad chest; his legs were crossed at his ankles.

If she hadn’t focused on his eyes, she’d bristle at his defensive posture. But there wasn’t a defensive, macho, self-righteous glint there—just wariness.

Or was it hope?

What if was she projecting what was in her eyes into his?

Did it matter?

No.

“He came lookin’ for you tonight.”

She set her backpack on the ground and launched herself at him before she ruined the moment with what-ifs.

******

Carter caught her with a grunt t