This week was mighty clear compared to the last few, according to everyone. It was hard not to be cheerful when summer was around the corner, but the air was still cool enough to enjoy the whole day outside.

Orion whistled as he took his mid-morning walk up the muddy lane toward the road. He hadn’t stolen any more kisses from his kinda-sorta-lover since last weekend, but he’d been goddamn tempted.

He kept reminding himself not to push it, though. Gabriel had a lot on his mind, and pressuring him would only lead to… what? What was he afraid of?

No time to think of that, he told himself firmly. He was just about at the stall now, close enough to hear voices.

Close enough to identify them both, and the truck parked to the side.

Orion’s steps unconsciously sped up, but he wouldn’t have stopped himself even if he’d wanted to. He didn’t feel easy having Chad around, but he couldn’t exactly stop Gabriel from seeing him.

When he rounded the corner of the tent, his training kicked in. He took in the scene for danger in one practiced scan of his eyes. After all, you couldn’t be too careful in a state with this many guns.

Gabriel was sitting next to the long trestle table of vegetables, that sketchbook closed on his lap, gripping his pencil tightly—more like a weapon than a drawing instrument.

Chad leaned on the edge of the table, looming over him, clearly using a posture planned to intimidate him.

Chad’s voice was oily and loud—he wasn’t expecting to be interrupted on foot, perhaps counting on hearing any cars pull up. “You know, it could be better. If you moved in with me, huh?” Orion liked Chad less every time he saw him. He wasn’t helping his case here.

Gabriel sighed and glowered up at Chad. It didn’t take an observational expert to see his annoyance. “I said—”

“Is there a problem here?” Orion watched Chad closely, noticing that he seemed to be leaning on the table heavily, not mock-casually. Maybe there was something else going on.

Chad reeled and staggered in surprise before catching himself on the edge of the table and straightening up. Another hint that he was high or drunk. “What are you doing here?” His speech was clear, but some people were good at hiding it.

“I don’t know—you tell me. What am I doing here on my family’s farm, checking in on my family’s place of business?” Orion threw the question back at him.

Chad sneered and looked back at Gabriel. “We were discussing something private, if you don’t mind.” His expression was disdainful at best. Luckily, Orion was very practiced in handling people who wanted to be disruptive. The last thing he was going to do was take the bait, especially when it was Chad’s goal.

He probably wanted a fight—not that he would have been able to last a minute against Orion. And that wasn’t bragging, it was just fact. His training was a big advantage.

“All right.” Orion walked behind Gabriel’s chair and headed for the cashbox and checked it, then rearranged a few crates of vegetables behind the table, counting the stock levels.

Throughout this, there was silence. Chad was no longer looming over Gabriel, but he still lingered nearby.

Orion, now crouched behind the table, smiled up and over at Chad. “Don’t let me stop you.”

“Oh, fu—” Chad started to swear at him. The situation was escalating, but Orion’s blood pressure didn’t even rise. Treating it like work made him less furious than taking it personally.

He just had to try to forget who was at the center of this conflict: Gabriel, who cut Chad off by standing up and clearing his throat. “I’m fine for stock, thank you.” He gave Orion a pointed look, and implied was the I’m fine with him.

Orion really doubted that, but he had to respect Gabriel’s boundaries. Even if he was trying to protect him, his intentions were irrelevant. If he didn’t respect Gabriel’s wishes, he’d just be trying to control who could talk to him—which would make him no better than Chad.

“All right. I’ll be up again soon,” Orion said lightly. As he passed Chad on his way out of the tent, he offered a bland smile in response to Chad’s gloating one.

We’ll see who he goes home with at the end of the day, asshole. Even as he finished thinking it, he mentally added, Oh, shit. That wasn’t just his protective instinct.

It felt a hell of a lot like jealousy.

It was way too soon to be getting jealous of anyone else around Gabriel. Not to mention their relationship was too casual. Maybe it was just overprotectiveness. Yeah, that had to be it.

If the universe was flashing a big neon sign that said HE’S THE ONE, Orion chose to ignore it.

Instead, he walked briskly back down to the farm, dialing a number on his phone.

“Erik here.”

“Hey, buddy,” Orion greeted his old friend. Private investigators and security guards didn’t always mingle, but he’d helped Erik out of several pinches. “I need a favor, if it’s all right.”

Erik sounded surprised. “Ryan? Yeah, of course. Any time, you know that.”

“Thanks. I need a background check run on a guy, when you can. Chad Allaback.” He spelled the last name for Erik. “He’d be about twenty-six. Born and raised in Hidden Creek, Texas. As far as I know, his info is listed. I doubt he’s the type to hide any of it. I can give you his truck license plate, too.”

“Go for it.”

Orion recited it from memory—having seen it a couple times, he’d naturally filed it away mentally in case of a future need. “If you need anything else, let me know.”

“Aren’t you on a break, man?”

“Yeah,” Orion said and chuckled. “Call it a personal project.”

“Huh.” Erik sounded curious. Orion didn’t volunteer any additional details yet, and he added, “Well, I won’t pry. Make the most of your time off, man. I bet Joe’s looking forward to having you back.”

The mention of his boss at Lockstone Security made Orion wince. He was having a good time pretending his job didn’t exist, like this was an extended vacation. But he was gonna have to get authorization if he wanted to take another month off, and it looked like Gramma’s recovery would be slow—she was eighty next year, after all.

“Thanks for the reminder,” Orion grumbled.

Erik laughed. “No rest for the wicked. Especially if you’re taking on personal projects while you’re off.”

“Busybody,” Orion scoffed playfully.

“You wouldn’t have called a P.I. if you didn’t want a busybody,” Erik retorted. “We have our uses.”

“That you do. Thanks, man.”

“Of course. I’ll get back to you ASAP,” Erik promised. “Take care.”

“You too.” Orion hung up and pocketed his phone, frowning as he approached the farm outbuildings. The sound of machinery told him that everyone else was hard at work.

And here he was sitting around, not even able to do his own job informally. Gabriel wouldn’t let Orion protect him—which was fair since Gabriel didn’t know dick about him, really.

Could he do it another way and install security cameras? Having some crazy drunk stalker up there all the time was a security risk for the farm, not just Gabriel. But where the hell could he put them?

He couldn’t use a county phone pole. The tent was permanently erected, but not a subtle place to hide one. Gabriel might take it the wrong way. And that all cost money, especially if he went for a high-quality system like they’d need to catch any evidence of the bastard being… well, a bastard. They weren’t rich. Cattle kings were the rich ones in the farming world down here. Their kind of farming fed the town, though.

He could pay for it personally, but that took him back to where and how to install it so Gabriel wouldn’t mind. If Gabriel was determined to handle Chad himself, he couldn’t see a way that wouldn’t offend or upset Gabriel.

And, to really brighten up his day, Gramma wasn’t in the comfortable chair where he’d left her.

I can’t even do my not-job properly. Orion scanned the large tent that they’d set up to shelter her from the sun, but she was nowhere within sight.

Once again, a glance at the greenhouse showed where she’d made her way. Clearly, she needed some kind of work to keep her hands busy—it made sense with her personality. She was still easily tired, but her body was used to being on the go all the time.

He was going to have to find some real work for her, not just Sudoku and crosswords.

Orion strode up the path to the greenhouse and knocked. “Come on, Gramma. Let me bring the work to you.”

“Oh, you’re not coddling me and telling me to take a vacation now?” She looked pleased as she looked up from pruning basil. A pile of clippings lay next to her.

“No,” Orion sighed. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have been coddling you. But—that’s a hell of an injury. You can’t just aggravate it.” Not at your age, he didn’t want to add.

She wryly smiled back, reading his expression. “I know. But you know me. I’m crawling out of my skin, Orion.”

Hearing his full name made him smile, thinking of how Gabriel was using it now, too. He still went by Ryan as a safety precaution and for convenience at work, but he didn’t mind it—not from Gramma or Gabriel.

“I know,” he said gently. “How about I help you take a walk around and see how things are going? Then you won’t feel so out of the loop.” Gentle exercise was fine, if it was supposed to be limited, and he sneakily hoped it would tire her out enough for a nap. “As long as I stay with you and we go slowly.”

She agreed to his terms, and soon she was leaning on him as they made their slow way between outbuildings. It was almost excruciatingly slow, especially when her cane got stuck in a muddy patch or she stumbled on uneven ground. Her balance had been affected worse than either of them expected, judging by her creative curses that he, like a gentleman, never mentioned.

Maybe that was something Orion could do—fix up the walking paths. But that would be a huge job, and the very farm equipment he used to smooth it out would chew them up again before long.

This lifestyle was born and bred into his family, but it wasn’t friendly. He couldn’t see a way for Gramma to really integrate into her old life until she was healed, and the more she fussed about being out of it, the longer it would take until that happened.

Between Gabriel and Gramma, the day felt like an ugly catch-22 with no way out.