Abby sniffled as she tried to figure out how to get the cracked board off the stairs that led up to the tiny trailer she’d grown up in. The stairs probably hadn’t been properly taken care of since her father died. They’d been tricky to maneuver even back when she’d lived here.

She took a deep breath and tried to remind herself why she was here. Her mom needed her. When she didn’t need her, Abby would head straight for Austin to see how she liked the city.

Her baby sure seemed to like it. Lexi was thriving in college. That had to be enough.

The unmistakable sound of heavy tires crunching on the gravel road brought Abby’s head up and she got off her knees. There was no way she was having this conversation on her knees.

“Hello, Ken,” she said, recognizing her old high school classmate despite the fact that he was wearing a deputy uniform instead of a football jersey. He’d been the best running back in the area until he’d blown out his knee in his sophomore year at LSU.

Maybe he’d seen her struggling and this was a friendly call. So far she’d been lucky. With the exception of the Thursday morning brunch club refusing to sit in her section, she hadn’t felt unwelcome. The community around her mom had given her a warm welcome, but given Ken’s frown, she thought her luck might be about to change.

“Ms. Moore,” he began and then sighed. “Hey, Abby. Damn, you look good. Have you aged a day since high school?”

She’d so aged. His voice had softened, but she noted he wasn’t moving any closer to her. No welcome-home hugs. “You look good, too, Ken. What are you doing out this way?”

His face flushed, another sure sign this wasn’t going to go well. He was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, she got his hard lawman voice. “How long do you think you’ll be staying here, Abby?”

“As long my momma needs me.” She wasn’t seventeen years old and desperate. She couldn’t be bought off for a thousand bucks and the promise of being left alone.

“Do you have any idea how long that will be?” He stepped toward her.

She held her ground. “She had surgery. I’m going to be here probably six weeks. Maybe eight.”

“That’s a long time,” he said with a frown. “Shouldn’t she have a nurse? Why hasn’t her insurance brought in a professional?”

How little they knew about her. “I assure you there’s no one they could bring in who could do the job better than me. I’m a registered nurse with fifteen years of service under my belt. My degrees have degrees, Ken. Do you know how I managed that? I managed to get my degree while raising a child alone and working thirty hours a week to support us. So you tell your boss Ruby Echols that the girl she shipped away is not the woman who came back.”

His jaw tightened and she knew she’d rubbed him the wrong way. She talked to doctors like that all the time and they rolled their eyes and usually did what she told them to because those men were perfectly confident in themselves. That was what she’d learned. It took confidence to be able to listen to other people. Ken looked hard and mean as he stepped into her space.

“My boss is the sheriff of this county and you better not forget that, little girl,” he began.

She heard the sound of another car coming down the road, but she knew she couldn’t count on anyone to save her. Not from the law. She kept her eyes on the deputy. “Like I said, I’ll be here until my mother is on her feet again.”

He loomed over her. “And like I said, your momma needs a professional, someone who isn’t related to her.”

“You mean someone who doesn’t make Ruby Echols mad.”

He stopped, his eyes looking down at her. “You know it strikes me that we could work something out, Abby. That old lady doesn’t have to know you’re still here. Not if you promise to stay in this trailer. Hell, I wouldn’t even leave you alone. I’d come and visit you.”

She could bet he would. She fought back tears. Damn but would this ever stop? She wasn’t safe here.

He stared down at her. “What do you say, Abby? You want to stay here, you gotta pay the price.”

“Is there a problem, Deputy?” A hard voice broke through her fear.

Abby looked over and Jack Barnes was standing in her momma’s tiny, well-kept yard. He was big and solid and she kind of wanted to run over and throw herself into his arms.

She didn’t, but she wasn’t sure if she’d ever been more grateful to see a man than she was to see Jack.

Ken glanced over at Jack and took a step back. “Now, Mr. Barnes, I was discussing a situation with Abby here. Get back into your truck and move along.”

“Is that what he’s doing, Abigail?” Jack asked. “Is he having a normal discussion with you? A consensual discussion?”

She had two choices. She could keep the peace or she could throw herself behind that big, broad body and let him protect her. Would she be getting him in trouble? Would she be making Jack Barnes’s life worse for stopping to help her out?

“Abigail…” His deep voice broke through the questions running through her mind. “I want to know what’s happening. Do you understand me? I don’t want some bullshit because you think we should avoid conflict.”

Ken turned toward him. “Mr. Barnes, there’s zero reason for you to be here.”

“Except that I want to know what’s happening with Abigail,” he replied, his voice steady.

There was a moment when she wasn’t sure what was going to happen, when she worried she was about to get Jack Barnes into serious trouble. And then Ken stepped back, his shoulders coming down and his whole demeanor changing in a second.

“Nothing at all, Mr. Barnes,” Ken said. “Just checking in on an old friend. Abby, good to see you. Think about what I said.”

She stared at him, not giving him a single word. He didn’t deserve one. She stood there with her stupid hammer in her hand and wondered why the hell she’d thought this could work.

Jack moved in, taking Ken’s spot, though he turned his back to her, watching Ken as he got into his car. He was a big bulwark between her and the cop. He crossed his arms over his chest as he watched the deputy drive away.

Abby took a deep breath.

Jack turned to her. “You all right?”

She nodded.

“But he wasn’t being pleasant, was he?”

She felt tears pierce her eyes. Shame, that old nasty friend, flushed through her. She managed to shake her head.

Jack Barnes stepped in, crowding her, but not the way Ken had. Somehow she knew she could back away and he would let her go. He wasn’t trying to take something from her. He was trying to give, to give her comfort, to let her know she wasn’t alone. His hands came up and he used his thumbs to brush away her tears.

“You call me if he comes around again. You get in the house and lock the door and call me, you understand?” Jack’s voice was low, deep and solid.

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

His jaw tightened and for a second she could swear she saw a flash of something hot in those green eyes of his. “Damn it, Abigail. You’re killing me.”

He turned away and looked down at the porch.

“I was trying to fix it but I couldn’t get the board off.” It was way easier to talk about the stupid steps than it was what had almost happened.

He held out a hand. “Let me deal with it.”

She passed him the hammer because she was done trying for the day. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“I wouldn’t turn down some iced tea. Give me ten minutes and I can have this fixed.” He got down to one knee and allowed her to step up and into the trailer.

She practically ran to the fridge. Her mom was still asleep, and that was a good thing. Sleep was healing, and it also meant she hadn’t witnessed that terrible scene with the deputy.

She stopped at the sink. What the hell would have happened if Jack Barnes hadn’t gotten out of his truck and intervened? Would she have been forced to use that damn hammer on the deputy?

She took a deep breath. It had been a very long time since she’d been that intimidated, worried that something very ugly was about to happen to her.

One breath and then another and another, and then she turned and got some ice and poured his tea. All the while she could hear Jack hammering. How was that such a soothing sound?

He was an overwhelmingly large man. He could do anything he wanted to her. It was only her and her momma here, and no one would hear her yelling at this time of day. Yet she felt not an ounce of hesitation as she poured a second glass and walked back out.

He was putting the last of the nails in. “This place is falling apart.”

“You’re telling me.” She handed him the glass and sank down on the steps.

They were barely wide enough that he could sit beside her.

She tried not to think about how nice it felt to have his hips brush hers.

“I don’t think I like that deputy,” he said, his eyes staring ahead.

“Well, there’s something we have in common,” she replied.

He drank down his tea and then stood, passing her the glass again. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, handing that to her, too. “Thank you, Abigail. And you remember what I said. You find yourself in this position again and you call me. My cell phone is the second number. I don’t care what time it is. Day or night, you call me. You tell them you’re calling me. You understand? You tell them Jack Barnes is going to want to have a long talk with any man who tries to hurt you.”

She nodded slowly, looking down so he wouldn’t see how affected she was by his words.

His hand came out, gently lifting up her chin, and he shook his head.

He sighed and stepped back. “Like I said, you’re going to kill me, Abigail. I’ll have someone out tomorrow to look at that lock on the door.”

She started to argue, but his eyes went dark. “Yes, Jack. Thank you.”

He turned and got in his truck and drove off.

And she watched the truck until he turned on to the highway, wishing all the while he would have stayed.