She turned on the truck’s engine and then drove around the circle, jockeying her truck and trailer. Within minutes, thanks to Sloan’s hand signals, she had her trailer parked. By the time she got out of the truck, he had lifted the trailer hitch off the truck and had it standing and ready for the next time she would want to hook it up.
“You’re going to spoil me,” Dev said, smiling up at him. “Thanks.” She saw that gleam come to his eyes again, and she swore she could feel his care and protection once more.
“Horse people always help one another,” Sloan said, shrugging a bit. “What building and apartment are you in, do you know? There are three units to The Pines.”
Frowning, Dev pulled out a note from her jacket pocket and opened it up. “It says ‘unit two, apartment 224.’” She saw his brows rise, and a surprised look come to his face. “Why? Is this not a good apartment?”
A grin edged Sloan’s mouth. “You aren’t going to believe this, but I’m in the same unit and my apartment is directly across from yours, 225.”
Her lips parted and Dev wasn’t sure she felt good or bad about that news. “Well...uh...this is really something, isn’t it?”
“I guess so,” Sloan said, shaking his head with amusement. “Look at it this way. If you need to borrow a cup of sugar, I more than likely will have it on hand. It’ll save you a trip to the grocery store.”
“At least I’ll know one person in Jackson Hole,” Dev said, stunned by the development. When Sloan smiled that slow, lazy smile of his, heat flooded her lower body. The reaction surprised the hell out of her. The man was not flirting with her. He was simply being a gentleman, trying to help her out, her heart told her. He was a ranger, and so was she. Sloan was just doing his duty was all. But the heat in his gaze for a split second unnerved her. Dev wasn’t even sure she’d seen it. Maybe she wished she had? God, she didn’t know—her emotions were still a tangled mess within her since Gordon’s attack.
“Come on,” Sloan urged. “I’ll get you over to the manager’s office at The Pines and then I’m going to skedaddle down the road to go shoe those Triple H horses.”
Without thinking, Dev reached out and briefly touched the sleeve of his jacket. “Thanks...really. I truly appreciate the time and care you’re giving us, Sloan.” Her fingertips tingled slightly and she saw his expression darken for just a moment, as if he hadn’t been expecting her to reach out and make physical contact with him. Maybe she had overstepped her bounds with him? “I’m sure your wife can also loan me anything I need,” she added.
Sloan said, “Not married. I’m divorced. Me and Mouse are the only ones in that apartment and I don’t think my dog, as smart as he is, is up to pouring you a cup of sugar.” He cracked a grin.
“Point taken.” She saw Mouse with his head hanging out the passenger window of Sloan’s truck. “Pretty dog. What breed is he?”
“Belgian Malinois,” Sloan said, slowing his pace for her sake. “He used to be my combat-assault dog when I was in the Army.” Hitching his shoulder, he added, “But that’s another story for another day. We got places to go and people to see right now.”
The first raindrops plopped around Dev. She glanced up, seeing the clouds had lowered and become dark and threatening. “Good timing. Looks like it’s going to pour any minute.”
“Oh, it’ll turn to snow up here real quick.” Sloan gestured south as he opened the door to her truck for her. “Jackson Hole will more than likely get rain because it’s a thousand feet lower in elevation than where we are here. Follow me?”
Dev climbed in. Bella whined and tried reaching across her to smell Sloan, but he left too quickly for her to get a friendly and curious sniff. As she petted Bella, the yellow Lab placed herself on the passenger side, her brown eyes alight with excitement. “Soon, we will have a new home,” Dev promised her dog.
Bella thumped her tail, watching Sloan climb into his truck. Her eyes, though, were on Mouse, who was craning his neck out the partially opened passenger-side window, staring intently at her.
“You already have an admirer,” Dev teased Bella, putting her truck in gear and slowly following Sloan out of the barnyard. And she almost added that she had an admirer in the form and shape of hunky Sloan Rankin. Did she really want that kind of attention? No. Not right now. Dev was still sorting out the assault, trying not to take every male she saw as a potential attacker. It was a terrible thing for Dev to see her once overly trusting self shattered and destroyed by one man. Gordon had changed her life in those moments. Forever.
* * *
SLOAN TOLD HIMSELF to slow down with Dev. What the hell were the chances they’d meet on a highway and then find out their other connections with one another? It was almost scary. Certainly surprising. As he drove through Jackson Hole at a crawl, tourists everywhere, he told his body to settle down. There was nothing to dislike about Dev. His mind churned over things she’d said. Damned if she hadn’t looked relieved when he told her he was divorced. Why? Was he misreading that look? Was Dev personally interested in him, man to woman? Or was it wishful thinking on his part, because he was lonely and craving a serious, healthy relationship with a woman once again?
Mouse sat on the seat, his nose stuck out the open window, sucking up all the scents he could find. Sometimes, Sloan wished life was dog simple. They ate, slept, exercised and slept some more. Human lives weren’t so straightforward. Because he’d worked with his dog for two years in Afghanistan, Sloan had developed a powerful intuition. He could sense people even if their faces were completely unreadable. Sometimes, he could feel Dev wanting to warm up to him. And then, she’d retreat for some unknown reason. He’d sensed her wariness about him, too. Not that he’d given her any reason to distrust him.
Something was going on and damned if he could figure it out. Yet. And because he was drawn to her, rightly or wrongly, Sloan wanted to know why Dev’s reactions and signals toward him were mixed and confusing. He’d already figured out she was either single, divorced or widowed because the apartment was for her and Bella, her dog. There was no man with her. Sloan knew he shouldn’t be happy about that realization, but he was.
Mouth thinning, he took a left turn and drove down a street that would lead them out of Jackson Hole. It would be a mile down the road and another left to where the newer condos and apartment buildings were located. The rain was splattering more heavily now and the gray pall hung over the hills clothed in evergreens in the distance. The beauty of the area always lulled him and made him feel relaxed. He drove by a huge power pole on his right. Up on top of it was a huge osprey hawk nest and there were two adults in it. Soon, they would have eggs to sit on, and would raise another generation of fishing hawks that would ply the nearby Snake River for food.
His body was heating up and Sloan groaned inwardly. Dev was pretty, no question. He was eager to see her without that big down-filled coat, see her hips and her upper body hidden beneath it. He was such a fool. Suddenly, his body, which had been pretty much dormant since the divorce, was coming back online with a vengeance. All he had to do was look at Dev’s soft mouth, that winsome smile that had tugged at the corners, and a sheet of burning heat flowed powerfully through him. She wore no makeup. Her black hair was straight with slightly curled blue-black tips. He liked her oval face, those high cheekbones giving her large eyes a slightly exotic look. Sloan had a lot of questions for Dev and found himself starving to sit down over coffee and ask her them. But that would be rude. His parents had taught him better than that. He needed to give her space to acclimate to a new apartment, new area and new job first.
Glancing to the left, Sloan
