Laney hummed to herself as she packed the clothes she’d brought with her to the lodge. The power had been restored at the ranch yesterday, and she and Bailey were returning tomorrow, New Year’s Day.

Graham had been very convincing when he’d asked her to stay for the New Year’s Even party that night. Whispers about kissing under a disco ball had entered her ears, and she’d finally admitted that he could recite a shopping list in that husky voice of his and she’d probably melt into him and agree to whatever he’d said, the way she had that morning.

But since she’d come to Whiskey Mountain Lodge a few days before Christmas and had been here so long, she had way more than she could fit in the bag she had. So she’d be making a couple of trips today to get most of her and Bailey’s stuff back home.

“Where we belong,” she murmured as she folded another sweater. She liked being so close to Graham, but sometimes distance helped a relationship. It definitely would help Laney get some of her crooked thoughts straightened out.

“Knock, knock.”

She jumped at the sound of Graham’s voice outside her bedroom. To her knowledge, he never came upstairs.

“Hey.” She tossed the shirt she’d just picked up to the bed and moved in front of the pile of laundry. “What’re you…what’re you doing up here?”

“Seeing if you wanted to grab lunch before taking a load back to your place.” He flashed that sexy smile that made her want to throw herself into his arms and kiss that mouth until it wasn’t grinning quite so coyly.

“Yeah, sure.”

“I’m ready whenever you are.”

Of course he was. He seemed to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. She’d been impressed by his work ethic, because by the time he emerged from his office in the morning, he already looked like he’d been up for hours. He got all the chores done around the farm, and he’d been meeting with his brothers behind closed doors too.

He’d told her a lot about it, and she hoped he and his brothers were successful at making Whiskey Mountain Lodge into what they wanted it to be.

She handed him her stuffed bag and said, “Use your muscles for this, cowboy.”

He chuckled as he took it, sweeping his free arm around her waist and pinning her against his body before he kissed her. This kiss was slow, sensual, exploratory. She let him take his time, her heartbeat accelerating with each moment that passed.

When he kissed her like this, she’d learned that he was feeling vulnerable and needed some sort of reassurance. So she returned his affection with as much passion as he gave her.

“Ready now,” he finally whispered. When he stepped back, he looked at her lazily, that slow smile curving his lips and promising another bone-melting kiss later.

Laney felt like she was walking on clouds as she rode next to him in his big SUV, as he ordered the exact kind of pizza she liked from Just a Pie, as he asked her about her resolutions for the new year.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Just trying to survive.” She hadn’t told him anything more about her money troubles, and she wouldn’t unless they got really serious. Like, diamond ring serious. “Make sure Bailey’s happy. That kind of thing.”

“She said she wanted a new puppy.”

Laney scoffed. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. I’ll have to get up in the middle of the night with it, and I’m too old for that.”

Graham gave her a peculiar look, his right eye squinting a bit more than his left.

“I can see you forming a question.” She lifted her soda to her lips and waited. Graham usually didn’t hesitate to vocalize what he was thinking, something Laney liked. If she was too old to get up in the middle of the night with a new puppy, she was definitely too old to play games.

“Would you get up in the middle of the night with a baby?”

She choked and flinched, soda spewing from her mouth and slopping onto the back of her hand.

Graham’s face colored, but he gazed at her evenly. “You’re the one who mentioned marriage and that you didn’t want another man abandoning you and Bailey.” He shrugged like this conversation was no big deal, but Laney felt like she’d just sprinted up the hill to his place.

“I, well, to be honest, I’d never thought about it.”

“Having more kids?”

“Yes. In fact, I never thought I’d get married again.”

Graham stuffed his hat lower onto his head and ducked his chin toward the table, hiding his eyes. Laney didn’t like that, but she felt powerless to say the right thing.

“What about you?” she asked. “You’re forty years old and unmarried.”

“Thanks for pointing it out.”

“I didn’t think it bothered you.”

He looked up. “It doesn’t. It…didn’t.”

Laney felt like he’d splashed cold water in her face. “What are we talking about?” She’d liked Graham forever. Sure, their paths had diverged for years, and while she hadn’t obsessed over him, the moment he’d moved back to Coral Canyon, her heart had been singing for him.

“We’re just talking.”

“Do you want children?”

He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then he nodded, that adorable ruddiness coming back into his face. “I think I do.”

And Bailey probably wouldn’t be enough for him. Laney bit the inside of her cheek, wondering if she could have another baby. If that was even possible at her age. If she should even risk it. She knew about the issues and birth defects that came later in life when women got pregnant.

“Noted,” she said coolly, hoping she didn’t come off as too icy. But kids? With Graham Whittaker? She hadn’t even spent a second thinking about it, and she needed more time to process.

They ate, and he drove her to the ranch, where she was just going to run the bag in, dump everything in the laundry basket, and come right back out.

But a strange truck sat in her snowpacked driveway. “Who is that?” she wondered aloud. The plates on the vehicle were from Idaho, and Laney didn’t know anyone in that state.

Graham reached to unbuckle his seatbelt. “Want me to come in with you?”

Laney peered at the truck. There didn’t appear to be anyone sitting in the cab. No footprints leading up the front door, but a set that went to the garage. Her pulse reacted as though she’d been hit by lightning.

“They’re in my house.”

Graham pulled out his phone. “I’m calling the police.” He lifted the device to his ear. “You’re sure you don’t know who they are?”

“Could be Gentry, I suppose,” Laney mused, but the thought felt false. Her sister would not return to Echo Ridge Ranch, a place she’d despised since the day she was born. “But I don’t think so.”

Something seethed beneath her skin, and she put her hand on Graham’s arm. “Ask Sheriff Bentley to come out. Something’s not right.”

Who would know how to get in her house, through the garage, with the code?

Someone who’s been here before, her mind whispered.

“Hi, yeah,” Graham started. “I need someone to come out to Echo Ridge Ranch. There’s a suspicious vehicle in the driveway Laney doesn’t recognize, and it looks like a person went in her garage.”

“It’s Mike,” she blurted out, her mind working overtime now. Desperation clawed its way up her throat, and she felt frozen in this expensive, leather seat inside Graham’s SUV.

Graham looked at her, clearly trying to listen to someone on the phone and make sense of what she’d said. “Yeah, okay,” he said and hung up.

“It’s Mike,” Laney repeated. “He’d know the garage code, and he’s just arrogant enough to show up out of nowhere and go straight inside my house.”

Graham frowned, his expression turning darker by the moment. He finally turned and looked at the truck in front of them again. “When’s the last time you saw him?”

“Over three years ago.”

“Last time you talked to him?”

“The day he left. No, the day he was served with divorce papers, a few weeks after that. He called, surprised.” She gave a bitter laugh, and it hurt her throat, her chest, her stomach. She felt seconds away from seeing her lunch for a second time that day. “I told him to sign the papers or come home. He signed while we were on the phone.”

Graham reached over and threaded his fingers through hers. A simple hand-hold. He squeezed, another simple gesture. “It’s okay, Laney.”

She looked at him, and while she wanted to believe him, she wasn’t sure how she could. “I don’t want him to see Bailey.” Her words felt tiny, barely made of air and letters, but she said them again, louder the second time.

“He’ll destroy her, and he’s already done it once.”

“Let’s go see what he wants. Maybe he’ll leave without a fuss.”

Laney scoffed but reached for her seat belt anyway. “You don’t know Mike McAllister.”

“No, I don’t, but he doesn’t know me either.” The beast had added a growl to the words, and a tidal wave of relief and hope hit Laney that maybe, just maybe, she could face Mike and come out the victor—as long as she had Graham at her side.

They got out of the SUV and walked through the snow to the garage. She keyed in the code and waited for the door to lift. It seemed to take an enormously long time.

She finally ducked under and took three steps before the door to the house opened, and her ex-husband stood there, a can of soda in his hand.

“There you are,” he said as if she’d just run out for groceries. His eyes flicked to Graham and stuck. The two men stared at each other, and Laney had no idea what to do.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Passing through.” Mike never gave a straight answer, and Laney wondered if he needed money. She had no idea what he’d been up to for the last three years, and she honestly didn’t care.

“Keep driving, then,” she said. “We don’t want to see you.” She couldn’t believe she’d once found him attractive. He’d put on at least twenty pounds since she’d seen him last, and his brown hair had started to lighten into gray. His blue, blue eyes glared at her, but she didn’t flinch. Or breathe.

He indicated the house behind him like he owned the place. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”

“The Sheriff is on his way,” Graham said. “You should probably leave.”

Mike looked like he might snarl. Then his face smoothed over and he leaned against the doorway and took a long drag of his soda. “Karl Bentley is coming? I think I’ll stay and say hello to an old friend.” With that, he turned and went back into the house, letting the door slam closed behind him.

Laney couldn’t move. Her legs felt numb, and she wanted to turn around and go back to the lodge. Anywhere Mike wasn’t. What was he doing here?

And more importantly, how could she get rid of him before he destroyed everything she had—again?