Laura tried to walk slowly so she wouldn’t get to the barn too quickly, but it seemed like the trip was shorter than ever today. She knew she needed to apologize to Cade for yelling at him the way she had, but she didn’t really want to have this conversation about it. She’d embarrassed herself enough as it was since she’d arrived at the ranch.

She’d seen Cade go down to the barn shortly after she had stormed out and she hadn’t seen him leave in the last two hours, so he was likely still down there working with the horses or dogs.

Sure enough, as she rounded the corner, she saw him throwing hay bales into a stack along the center aisle of the barn. Light from the afternoon sun streamed in through the double doors to land on taut broad shoulders. The muscles in his back rippled under his shirt, drawing her gaze, but she blinked and tried to focus on the conversation they needed to have instead of the effect that watching him sometimes had on her body. Okay, the effect watching him always had on her body.

She knew he saw her because he stilled slightly before tossing the next bale onto the stack.

Laura waited, not sure how to start. She would have liked to get lost in him for a while instead of dealing with the awkwardness of her apology, but he stopped and wiped his brow with one arm, then stripped the leather gloves off his hands and looked at her.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn't have taken out my fear on you when you were only trying to make me feel better,” Laura said, arms crossed over her chest. This was the first apology that felt true and real to her, and the first time she cared whether someone believed her apology was genuine.

In the past, apologies had been obligatory, either to avoid her father’s wrath or to appease her husband and ward off further blows—to show the right amount of deference. She always knew a few more strokes would follow an apology for good measure, but it would eventually lead to peace. At least for a while.

But now, she cared what Cade felt and thought, only she couldn’t read him. He merely looked at her. When she began to fidget, he held a hand out to her.

“Come here. I want to show you something,” he said.

Laura laid her hand in his, so big and strong and protective. She tried to ignore the way that hand made her feel, the way his warm strength caused her body to thrum with electricity, but it was getting harder to push those feelings down. He tugged her out the back of the barn and around to one side where the Jeep she’d seen many times was parked.

“Shane was going to show you this later, but this is probably a better time,” he said, opening the door and reaching into the glove box. Cade pulled out a set of keys and turned to sit on the seat of the car, long legs hanging over the edge. He pulled Laura into him so that she stood with each of her legs brushing the insides of his. They’d never stood this close—this intimately. He’d always kept his distance. But, now there was a closeness she hadn’t dared to crave for more than three years. The heat from his legs brushing hers traveled, the warmth flooding her thighs and settling between her legs and making her chest tighten with anticipation, but he seemed unaware of the effect he had on her.

Cade held out the keys to her and pointed out the key to the Jeep. He looked her dead in the eye when he spoke, and she could see how much he meant the words he was saying. “This is always in here. If anything happens, if you even think someone is coming or you see anything suspicious, I want you to take the Jeep.”

Laura opened her mouth to object, but he cut her off. “Take it, Laura. You need to have a way to get to safety if anything happens and I’m not here to protect you.”

Her heart flinched at the thought that he would want to protect her. And, also at the thought that maybe he couldn’t. She nodded at him.

Cade took out another key, looped on a chain, and held it up to her. It was a smaller key, brass with a number on the side. He drew a piece of paper out of the glove box.

“This is the key to a bus station locker. Shane had some business in Johnson City a few days ago. He went to the bus station there and put ten thousand dollars in cash in a locker. This locker,” he said showing her the key and then the paper. “There are directions to the bus locker here. There are also times and meeting places.”

Laura looked at the paper.

Noon, two days after you run: Baird Diner in Searcy, Arkansas.

Noon, four days after you run: Casey’s Barbeque, Springfield, Tennessee.

The list went on specifying ten separate meeting locations spread out over the course of almost three weeks. Laura looked up at Cade, unable to speak.

“If you have to run and I can’t go with you, this is where I’ll meet you when it’s safe. If I’m not there, it means it’s not safe for me to come and get you yet, so you keep moving and get to the next meeting spot. If you get to the end, go back and start over at the top of the list. I’ll be there for you as soon as it’s safe. I promise you that, Laura. This is your running plan. This is what you do if you have to run.”

Laura was stunned as Cade looped the chain with the bus locker key over her neck. The brush of his hands sent tingling sensations down her spine, but his words had a much stronger effect on her. They melted her heart. “There’s a copy of the meeting times here in the car,” Cade said as he put the paper back in the glove box and shut it. “And, there’s a copy in the locker just in case you can’t get to the Jeep and you have to run some other way. Just remember the bus station in Johnson City.”

Laura couldn’t say a word. She was flooded with more emotion than she’d felt since the day Patrick had died and she’d started running. But a different kind of emotion. One overwhelming and new to her.

“Remember when you said I’ve had a charmed life, never had to worry about not having love and support?” Cade asked.

“I…” Laura whispered, voice thick as she shook her head. She felt awful for what she’d said. For the unfairness of what she’d said to him because of her fears. He cut her off before she could say anything more.

“No, Laura, you were right. Other than losing my dad, you’re right. And even that happened when I was an adult and better able to handle it than I would have as a child.” Cade laced both of his hands with Laura’s and held them to his chest, pulling her body even closer to him. Their bodies aligned in an intimate way that she’d never shared with any man other than her husband. No, that wasn’t right. She’d never had this type of intimacy, of closeness, with Patrick. Cade’s eyes were heated and she couldn’t look away. “So, believe in that. Believe in my charmed life. Believe that I always get whatever I want. Because I want you in my life, Laura. For as long as you want to stay. When you’re too scared to believe in anything else, you can believe in that.”

Laura’s eyes were locked on Cade’s face as her breaths went shallow. She couldn’t pull her gaze away. His eyes burned with intensity and need. And it created something Laura didn’t want to feel. Hope. The greatest of hopes.

And Laura had never been so scared in her life.