Page 14 of Forsaken Hearts
“We watch you because we care about you.” Her answer came too fast and easy to be a lie…yet it felt like more.
He straightened away from her, fingers clamping around the truck keys. “You mean like the military watches to see if you’re fit for duty.”
Her expression softened. Grew sadder maybe.
“No. Like family.”
The word lodged in his chest alongside the knot that wasn’t leaving until he got close to Summer—or farther away from her.
He gave Willow a short nod and walked outside, moving in clipped strides toward Willow’s truck. Even though he didn’t know how to respond to her claim that they cared about him like family, he was still grateful for her generosity.
The same way she’d seen what he needed in those early months after he entered the program, she saw his need for escape now—and provided it without pause.
The cold night air hit him hard after the heat of the bar. He climbed into the truck and sat there watching the Stockyard windows glow against the dark as thoughts kept circling in his head faster than he could shut them down.
Summer avoiding him.
Rhae assessing him.
Willow roping him into the big ranch family that wasn’t his at all, but she was more than willing to share.
As the night wore on, customers trickled out. Trucks started leaving the parking lot one by one but he stayed where he was,wondering why the hell he was waiting for a woman who was finished with him.
Eventually the thrum of music stopped. A little later, lights started blinking off inside the building section by section until only the glow over the exit and the neon sign remained.
Pope checked the time, then pushed open the truck door.
I’m probably crazy, he thought as he crossed the parking lot and went to stand beside Summer’s vehicle, settling his spine against it while he waited for her to come out.
* * * * *
By the time Summer flicked off the last of the lights in the Stockyard, her feet hurt, her back ached and her patience had been gnawed down to almost nothing.
“Night,” she called to the last two coworkers as they headed for the back door with their coats zipped up and their keys already in hand.
“Night, Summer.”
“See you Saturday.”
She lifted a hand, then stood for a second in the dim back hall, listening to the building settle around her. The bar always felt different after close, hollow where it had been packed with noise an hour before. The chairs were pushed in and the tables cleared, the kitchen shut down and the dance floor empty.
She hated closing, and even though it was only three nights a week, she never got used to it.
She could handle the fatigue of an extra-long day. Being tired was a fact of life, right there with bills and school forms and Ben outgrowing clothes faster than she could replace them.
It was the leaving in the dark that got to her. The back lot never looked the same at three a.m. as it did when she arrived for her shift. Shadows stretched too far and wind moved trashalong the fence. Every truck left behind looked like it might have a person inside.
There was a time when none of this bothered her.
When she counted on Vander to be waiting for her, to make sure she got home safe.
Drawing a deep breath, she stepped out into the cold and the door shut behind her.
The mountain air hit her face hard enough to wake her a little, cutting through the heat that still clung to her skin after hours of running plates to customers and hauling drink trays.
She tugged her jacket tighter around herself, the keys to her old car threaded between her fingers because that was habit now, and she started across the lot.
Then she saw him.
