The next morning Shay woke early. After quietly dressing, she listened for the sound of Josh leaving for his morning run. When she heard the front door close, she crept down the stairs and made sure he was gone before stepping onto the front porch. With a last check to make sure he wasn’t lurking about, she hurried toward the barn.

When Shay had climbed in bed the night before, her mind had whirled with what-ifs as panic had built inside her. What if he was a dangerous criminal? What if he got caught and they were both sent to prison? What if she got caught in the middle of a firefight?

She hadn’t been able to fall asleep until she’d made the decision to get inside the barn and find out for herself what Josh was hiding.

Now, as she reached the barn’s man-door, she was surprised to find it locked with a keypad underneath the handle. Why was the security on his barn better than the security on his house? Then again, if he really was a financial consultant, he probably had a computer in there, along with sensitive client files. That would warrant good security.

Sighing, and with no idea what the code was, she frowned, then walked around the perimeter of the huge red barn, on the look-out for some other way inside. There were a few windows, but the blinds were drawn, and short of breaking the glass, there was no way to open them from the outside.

Huffing out a breath of frustration, she turned and made her way back to the house.

She’d been prepared to go inside and snoop around, even though she didn’t really want to, but she believed she had to for her own safety. She had to look out for herself. No one else would.

With no way to get inside the barn, she decided to work in the garden, and after carrying flats of vegetable seedlings out to the garden area, she got to work. Thrusting the trowel into the soft dirt, she made a hole before setting a tomato seedling inside, then she filled the hole and firmly patted it down.

As she worked, she considered ways to find out what Josh was hiding. She had to know. She wasn’t normally a nosy person, but whenever she asked him about his job, his body language told her that he was lying. Why? What was it he really did and why wouldn’t he tell her?

She had to get inside that barn. Maybe when he was working in his barn office she could go out there with some excuse and he’d let her in.

With the beginnings of a plan in mind, she turned her focus to planting the seedlings, and by the time Josh returned from his run, she’d completed two rows.

“That looks great,” he said as he walked over to where she knelt on the ground.

Looking up at him, she smiled. “Thanks.”

“It actually looks kind of fun,” he said, then he chuckled. “I liked playing in the dirt when I was a kid.”

With a smile on her lips, she stood and faced him, then held out the trowel. “Give it a try.”

He gazed at her, making her heart do an unexpected flip. He was sweaty from his run, but still oh so attractive. The man was super-fit—not an ounce of fat on him. More than that, his rugged good looks and confident demeanor drew Shay in. Hating the idea that he was lying to her, she consoled herself with the thought that she would find out the truth. Soon.

* * *

Josh couldn’t tear his gaze away from Shay’s face. Her emerald-green eyes sparkled and her rosy cheeks glowed.

He was glad she had found his cabin and had taken refuge with him, glad that she would stay right there with him.

Guilt crashed over him at the thought. He was being selfish. It would be better for her if she had a home, a place where she felt safe. It would be better if this man named Will wasn’t trying to find her.

There was a reason he was having those selfish thoughts—because his attraction to her was becoming more and more powerful, almost too powerful to deny any longer.

“Sure,” he said. “I’ll give it a try.”

Wiping his hands on his shorts, he looked over the garden, then took the trowel from her outstretched hand. “Where do you want me to start?”

She pointed to the end of a row. “Plant the carrots over there.”

He nodded. “Okay, boss.”

One side of her mouth lifted in a smirk. “And when you’re done you can start on the radishes.”

He laughed. “We’ll see.”

Laughing, she said, “Okay.” She paused a beat. “Hey, do you want me to make you a smoothie?”

Liking her thoughtful nature, he smiled. “That would be great. Thanks.” He watched her turn and walk toward the kitchen, her slender hips gently swaying, her hair in a high ponytail, her smile on his mind.

* * *

As she made Josh’s smoothie, Shay kept glancing out the kitchen window to watch him. Seeing him work so hard on the garden made her smile. Maybe he wasn’t really hiding anything at all. Maybe he was telling her the truth about what he did.

She hoped so, because she really, really didn’t want him to be a dangerous criminal.

Later that morning, after Josh had planted the carrots, Shay stood outside with him as he told her he was going to shower then go into his office to work.

“If you need anything,” he said with a smile, “there’s a doorbell by the barn’s main entrance.”

Knowing her chance to get a peek inside would be coming soon, her heart began to race. She didn’t want to give him any hints that she would be using that doorbell, so she played it cool. “Okay, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

His lips lifted into a confident smile, his gaze steady on hers. “I’m sure you will.”

The way he looked at her made her heart race harder, but for a different reason, and as she watched him walk away from her and into the house, she tried to push away the image of Josh as a bad guy. She really needed him to be one of the good guys, and she was counting on having her fears allayed that day.

* * *

Josh ran his fingers through his hair as he leaned back in his desk chair. He loved football, he always had, but at that moment he wanted nothing more than to go outside and work with Shay in their garden.

Wait. Their garden? It was his house and his yard, so really it was his garden. Then again, if it wasn’t for Shay there would be no garden at all.

He pictured her beautiful face, the way her eyes sparkled, her smile, and wondered why that man was angry at her, why he’d said he was done being reasonable. What did that mean anyway?

With a shake of his head, he forced aside those thoughts as he stood and went to the couch that faced a large screen TV mounted to the wall. Grabbing the remote, he plopped onto the couch and pulled up the recording of the game that he’d been planning on studying.

Much to his chagrin, after only twenty minutes Josh found his focus wandering back to Shay, and as hard as he tried to push the image of her out of his mind, she refused to go away.

Grabbing the remote from the table beside him, Josh gave up, jabbing the power button with his thumb. The screen went black and he leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling.

What was going on with him? Never before had a woman captured his attention the way that Shay had. It had been less than a week since he’d found her in his bed, but already he was finding it hard to imagine being at the cabin without her.

But that was ridiculous. Soon enough she would go on with her life and he would head to training camp. That’s how it had to be. That’s how it was supposed to be.

The doorbell rang. His head jerked up. It had to be her. No one else was supposed to come over, and he’d specifically told her that if she needed anything, to ring the bell.

His lips lifted in a smile as he made his way to the door.