Shay paced in her cabin, her heels making her more anxious than she already was. If she didn’t text Austin in the next five minutes, he’d leave for church without her. She knew. She’d tracked his schedule for months.

“Don’t you ever tell him that,” she told herself, gripping her phone too tightly and making another pass toward the front door and back. Of course she wouldn’t tell him. So she was detail-oriented and extremely observant. Both skills had served her well in the Army, but sometimes they became a bit of a shock for the average person.

“Just do it,” she muttered to herself, making her thumbs fly across the touch keyboard and send the message she’d wanted to send last week.

With it done, her nerves deflated and she sank onto the couch. Now all she do was wait, and she didn’t like it. Was this how Austin felt when he asked her out and she just stared back at him? The poor guy. And he’d done it more than once, which really testified of his character—and his interest in her.

Sure, he messaged back. I’m just leaving now. I’ll come pick you up.

Only a minute later, the sound of his truck rumbled to a stop in front of her cabin. Shay jumped to her feet and hurried around the couch so she could meet him before he came all the way to her front door.

After all, it was just church. Not a date. They wouldn’t even sit by one another once they arrived in town. Shay would make sure of that.

Just because they’d spent a day and a half unloading the Christmas decorations, sorting them, and testing them didn’t mean she was ready to open herself to the possibility of love. She didn’t want the most exciting part of her future to be chess on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. And she would not let her entire life be ruined when the love of her life was lost.

She held onto the railing as she moved down the steps and onto the gravel. With her tall black heels, she didn’t need to face plant in front of the cowboy she was crushing on. She tugged on the hem of her dress—pure black from shoulder to knee—her nerves getting the best of her in the worst moment possible.

When she finally lifted her gaze to Austin, she found him to be a vision straight out of a Hollywood western, wearing black slacks that seemed tailored exactly for him. His white shirt practically glowed in the weak winter sunlight, and the bright blue tie rivaled his eyes in brilliance. And the dark gray cowboy hat undid her composure completely.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said in that smooth, bass voice of his, and she wanted to hear him call her beautiful every day of her life. Maybe they could be the type of friends that kissed sometimes. Held hands as they walked toward his truck, as they were right now.

She sure enjoyed the heat and weight of his hand along her back as he held open her door for her and helped her into the truck. Settling her skirt to cover her legs properly, she gave him a smile. Friends could smile at each other.

She watched him walk around the front of the truck, his mouth in a shape indicating his whistle, wondering when she’d even started seeing him as a friend. He’d been a man she tolerated. A man who’d bought her ranch. A man who’d lit something in her that hadn’t been near fire in years.

He ceased whistling when he got in the truck, and he started it up and pulled out in silence. After fiddling with the radio, he started to hum along, seemingly at complete ease with her. Shay was grateful he wasn’t all keyed up, because she certainly was.

“I haven’t told my brothers about the anger management,” he said when they pulled from the dirt road of the ranch and onto the asphalt of the road leading to town. He cut her a glance out of the side of his eye. “And I want to keep it that way.”

“All right,” she said. “I wouldn’t have told them.”

“I didn’t think you would,” he said. “I just didn’t want it to slip or something.”

She turned toward him slightly. “What are you going to tell them? Where do they think you’re going on Thursday nights?”

He shifted on the seat, a slight cough escaping his mouth. “Bible study class.”

Shay blinked, the irony of the situation bubbling out of her mouth. “Bible study class,” she repeated around her giggles. “So you’re lying about going to church. Seems a bit off, don’t you think?”

Austin shrugged, but a smile definitely pulled at the corners of his mouth too. “I suppose.” He removed his right hand from the wheel and extended it toward her, a very clear invitation for her to slide across the seat and sit beside him, the way girlfriends rode in trucks with their boyfriends.

Shay hesitated for a split second, and then she did what felt natural to her: She slid across the seat and took his hand in hers.

“Have you thought any more about dinner?” he asked.

“Yes.” Her voice came out as a whisper. Did he know he’d been torturing her for a week because of that invitation?

“And?” He looked at her, the road in front of them deserted. He’d probably driven it a thousand times anyway.

“I’m still thinkin’ about it.”

Austin stiffened, an almost imperceptible movement, but Shay felt it in the length of his leg that was closest to hers. “What about church, then? We can sit by each other at church maybe.”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, even though only ten minutes ago she’d told herself that she would definitely not be sitting by him at church.

“Shane said we could have the money to fix up the decorations and get the additional ones we need.”

Joy filled her at the very idea that Triple Towers Ranch would be lit up for the holidays again. “That’s great.”

“He said we have to work on it on our own time,” he said. “We can’t fall behind in our other work.”

“Of course,” Shay said. “Believe it or not, I used to keep up with all of this stuff before you guys came along.”

Austin flinched as if she’d punched him, and regret filled her. He pulled his hand away and put it on the steering wheel with the words, “I know that. I wasn’t saying—a”

“I’m sorry,” she blurted out. “I’m…sometimes I—a” She looked at him, searching his face for any hint of how he felt. He wouldn’t look at her, and she supposed he shouldn’t what with him driving and all.

“I think I understand,” he said, his jaw twitching with how tight he held it. “You don’t like me or my brothers because we bought your ranch.” He glanced her way. “Am I close?”

She folded her hands into her lap. “Sort of.”

A half a mile went by before he said, “Tell me about it.”

And because he spoke in such a calming voice, and his fingers weren’t quite so tight on the wheel anymore, Shay breathed in deep and tried to calm her frantically beating heart. This time, it wasn’t jumping around because of his nearness. Or because of his tantalizing cologne. But because it was absolutely terrified she might have driven him away when she wanted to bring him closer.

Another deep breath, and she started. “By the time you saw the homestead, I’d hauled out ninety percent of what my father had filled it with.”

Austin jerked his attention to her. “Really?”

“He’s a hoarder,” she said simply. “It started after my mother passed away, and after I—” Her voice stuck in her throat.

Ran away.

That was what her father would say.

“Left for the Army,” was what Shay allowed herself to say. She stared out the windshield, the countryside blurring by as looked at it unfocused. “He spent every dime we had. Then more. It took me six months to go through the stuff in the house, sell it all, and get the place ready to sell. Six months.”

It was six months she never wanted to experience again. Didn’t want to think about or remember those days.

Austin slipped his fingers between hers again. “When did you start anger management?”

“A few weeks after I got back and saw what my father had done with the ranch.” The words flowed from her easily, and she realized that she trusted Austin.

In her world, she’d only trusted herself and those in her unit. They had her back, her very life if necessary. And she’d done the same for them. Just like her mother, she missed her unit in the Army from time to time. Perhaps not quite as deeply, and not quite as strongly, but she missed them nonetheless.

Her life had taken on a dreariness since she’d retired, with only her father to look after—and he didn’t even seem to know he needed looking after.

“I started because of my father too,” Austin said, a troubled note in his voice.

“Where is he?”

“He lives in San Antonio. We had a ranch just north of the city. I grew up there. Shane was set to take it over; it had been in our family for generations, like your ranch.” He spoke in a monotone now, almost like he’d removed himself from this painful part of his past. Shay didn’t like it, wanted the emotional, animated version of Austin to return.

“He did a bunch of stuff I didn’t really get at the time. I was only sixteen. What I remember is Shane and my mom talking a lot, behind closed doors. Then they sold the ranch, and my mom moved into a condo, and Shane took me and Dylan to work at a new ranch.” He looked at her, softening a little.

“Your ranch is a brand new start for us. Something we hope we can pass down through our families.”

Shay nodded, her emotion too much and flowing too fast for her to conceal it should she speak.

“He’s…he texts me the most. For a long time, I didn’t understand why my brothers didn’t like him. But he keeps…manipulating me. And it makes me really angry.” His fingers tightened against hers, and she squeezed back, about all she could do at the moment.

Austin fell silent after that, clearly wrapped up in his own memories, his own past. Shay let him go, because she needed the silence this drive provided, and she was glad he gave it to her, only the low warbling of the radio in the background.

By the time they arrived at the church, Shay had sorted through a few things and made one big decision. She put her hand on Austin’s arm as he started to get out of the truck.

He looked at her, right into her eyes, all the way past all of her defenses. “I’d like to go to dinner with you,” she said.

A smile burst onto his face, and he said, “Yeah?”

She grinned too, glad to be knocking down some of her walls. “Yeah.”