Page 23 of Bad Decisions & Back Roads

A laugh burst out of me.“Apparently not.”

Then I forced myself to sober.“Maybe he’s exactly what I’m looking for.A fun time.Sounds like he’s got a lot of experience.”

“You want to do that with Deck?Youwantto end up raising a kid alone?”He sucked in his cheeks and blew out a breath.

“Got the boots for the fun part at least, don’t I?”I shrugged.My eyes snagged on his shirt again.I shouldn’t be staring.“I haven’t had, uh, a lot offunsince the divorce last year.Perhaps, it’s about time I got back in the game.”I took a sip of water.“You still look like someone who understands the value of high-qualityfun.”

He emitted a strangled noise.Then he checked his watch like he could bully time into moving faster.“What the hell is taking Deck so long?I have to get to the church.”

“You’re going to church inthat?”I tilted my head, dragging my gaze over him slowly on purpose.Wednesday was prayer group.

“What?”He glanced down at himself, distracted.

“I mean…” I pressed my lips together, already smiling.“If you’re trying to tempt some poor woman into sin, you’ve got it nailed.”The words slipped out before I could stop them.Heat crawled up my neck anyway.

Color hit his cheeks hard and fast all the way down to the stubble of his jaw.His eyes jerked back to mine, then dipped, but not subtle nor quick enough to pretend it hadn’t happened.When those dark blues came back up, there was something tighter there.He looked me over until his gaze cooled.“Why are you wearing long sleeves?It’s ninety degrees outside.”

My stomach dropped.Wrong direction for this conversation.Verywrong direction.

“The air conditioning is cold,” I said as lightly as I could manage.“You wouldn’t understand since you’re hot blooded.”

His gaze had already moved.Hunting.“No,” he said, quieter now.“That’s not it.Gia?—”

Shit.

I shifted my arms to hold my hands under the table, but it was too late.He’d seen enough to know where to look.

I warned, “Rye?—”

He reached out.Not rough.Not gentle either.Certain.

His fingers caught my left wrist before I could pull away, pushing the fabric up just enough.I jerked back, but it was a second too slow.The bruises bloomed into the open air between us.He pushed the sleeve up further, beyond the finger marks to where I had blocked my father’s slap.My damned pale skin showed everything.

Silence crackled between us despite the restaurant noise.

His eyes lifted slowly to mine and locked onto me in a way that made my pulse stutter.He’d gone dangerous in that quiet, controlled way that was always worse.

His voice dropped, rougher and lower.“That wasn’t there this morning.Did you go out to your dad’s place?”

“I had to get stuff for Misty.”My throat tightened around everything I wasn’t going to say out loud.I pulled my wrist out of his hand and rapidly pulled the sleeve back into place.

“I’m back,” Deck cut in, all noise and movement, like he’d just won something.“Here are the keys to the build, Timothy.I grabbed them out of my truck.”He held them out.

Timothy didn’t acknowledge Deck.He didn’t blink.His focus stayed pinned to me, as if I might disappear if he let it slip.I could feel that pull toward him in my chest, low and traitorous.That awful, aching flicker of something warm spooked me.

I chanced looking into his eyes again.

Oh, God.

He sawme.No one ever really did.No one could see through my shields to what I hid from the world.Not even Justin had ever seen me.Even after a long, terrible day at work or after I’d been yelled at by a client or kicked by a horse or on days when things stacked up until I stopped noticing the weight…Justin never saw it.He accepted not looking beyond what I gave him.Or maybe he’d never cared to look further.But Timothy never accepted the surface.I hated how much I wanted that from him.I hated myself even more that I’d been the one to break what had been between us all those years ago.Even if I hadn’t had a choice.

“Timothy, are you trying to steal my date?”Deck grinned like the idea was a joke and there was no version of the world where Timothy would choose me.

Timothy still didn’t look at him.He said low and controlled, “You shouldn’t have come back, not with…thatstill a problem.”His eyes flickered to my arms.

The words twisted deep into my chest.

“I didn’t have a choice.My sister…” My voice came out steadier than I felt.I held his gaze, searching it, trying to read which version of him I was sitting in front of.Was this the Timothy who never forgave me?Or the one who’d seen my wrist and was barely holding the line?“She’s dying.I’m the only one she’s got to see her through the treatments.”