Addie hummed along with the song playing over the speaker at the general store. Seth happily slammed his sippy cup against the sides of the cart as she unloaded the groceries onto the checkout counter.
“I swear he grows every week,” Jen Delaney said with a smile as she began to ring up Addie’s items.
“It’s crazy. He’s already in eighteen-month clothes.” Addie bagged the groceries as Jen handed them to her.
It was true. Seth was growing like a weed, thriving in this life she’d built for them. Addie smiled to herself. After the horse poison and the fence debacle, things had settled down. She’d been here three months now. She had a routine down, knew many of the people in town and mostly had stopped looking over her shoulder at every stray noise. Sometimes nights were still hard, but for the most part, life was good. Really good.
Noah had assured her time and time again those two incidents were feud-related, nothing to do with her, and she was finally starting to believe him. She trusted Noah. Implicitly. With her safety, with Seth. Laurel had been right on that first car ride. Noah wasn’t always easy to read or the warmest human being, but he was a good man.
Which had created something of a Noah situation. Well, more a weirdness than a situation. And a weirdness she was quite sure only she felt, because she doubted Noah felt much of anything for her. On the off chance he did, it was so buried she’d likely not live long enough to see it.
“Addie?”
Addie glanced up at Jen. The young woman must have finished ringing everything up while Addie was lost in Noah thoughts. Something that happened far too often as of late.
Addie paid for the groceries, smiling at Jen while she inwardly chastised herself.
Noah Carson was her boss. No matter that she liked the way he looked or that she got fluttery over his gentle way with the horses and cows. And Seth.
She sighed inwardly. He was so sweet with Seth. Never got frustrated with the boy’s increasing mobility or fascination with Noah’s hat or beard.
But no matter that Noah was sweet with Seth, or so kind with her, he was off-limits for her ever-growing fantasies of good, handsome men and happily-ever-afters.
She glanced down at the happy boy kicking in the cart. Sometimes Seth gave her that smile with big blue eyes and she missed her sister so much it hurt. But it always steadied her, renewed any resolve that needed renewing.
She would do anything to keep him safe.
She pushed the cart out of the general store to where her truck was parallel parked, but before she reached it, a man blocked her way.
She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to move or say something, but he just stood there. Staring at her.
She didn’t recognize him. Everything about him was nondescript and plain, and still he didn’t move or speak.
“Excuse me,” she finally said, pulling Seth out of the cart and balancing him on her hip. “This is my truck.”
The man moved only enough to glance at the truck. Also a new skill for her, driving a truck, but Noah had fixed up one of the old ones he used on the ranch for her to use when she had errands.
The strange man turned his gaze back to her and still said nothing. He still didn’t move.
Addie’s heart started beating too hard in her chest, fear seizing her limbs. This wasn’t normal. This wasn’t...
She turned quickly, her hand going over Seth’s head with the idea of protecting him somehow. This man was here to get her. Peter had finally caught up with them. She had to run.
She could go back in the store and...and...
“Oof.” Instead of her intended dash to the store, she slammed into a hard wall of man.
“Addie.”
She looked up at Noah, whose hand curled around her arm. He looked down at her, something like concern or confusion hidden underneath all that hair and stoicism.
“Everything okay?” he asked in that gruff voice that suggested no actual interest in the answer, but that was the thing about Noah. He gave the impression he didn’t care about anything beyond his horses and cows, but he’d fixed up that truck for her even though she hadn’t asked. He played with Seth as if people who hired housekeepers usually had relationships with the housekeeper’s kid. He made sure there was food for Ty, room for Vanessa and Clint, and work if any of them wanted it.
He was a man who cared about a lot of people and hid it well.
“I just...” She looked back at where the strange, unspeaking man had been. There was no one there. No one. She didn’t know how to explain it to Noah. She didn’t know how to explain it to anyone.
The man hadn’t said anything threatening. Hadn’t done anything threatening, but that hadn’t been normal. “I thought I saw someone...” She looked around again, but there was no sign of anyone in the sunshine-laden morning.
“As in someone someone?” Noah asked in that same stoic voice, and yet Addie had no doubt if she gave any hint of fear, Noah would jump into action.
So she forced herself to smile. “I’m being silly. It was just a man.” She shook her head and gestured with her free hand. “I’m sure it was nothing.” Which was a flat-out lie. As much as she’d love to tell herself it was nothing, she knew Peter too well to think this wasn’t something.
She blew out a breath, scanning the road again. There was just no other explanation. He knew where she was. He knew.
“Addie.”
She looked back at Noah, realizing his hand was still on her arm. Big and rough. Strong. Working for Noah had made her feel safe. Protected.
But this wasn’t his fight, and she’d brought it to his door.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, closing her eyes.
“For what?” he asked in that gruff, irritable way.
Seth lunged for Noah, happily babbling his favorite word over and over again. “No, no, no.” Addie tried to hold on to the wiggling child, but Noah took him out of her arms with ease.
“Aren’t you supposed to be back at the ranch? You know I get groceries on Wednesdays. I could have picked up whatever for you.”
“It’s feed,” Noah said. “Couldn’t have loaded it up yourself with the baby.” He glanced at the grocery cart behind her. “We’ll put the groceries in my truck.”
“Oh, I can handle...”
“He always falls asleep on the way home, doesn’t he?” Noah asked as if it wasn’t something that he knew Seth’s routine. Or that he was letting Seth pull the cowboy hat off his head, and then smash it back on.
Noah moved for the cart, because you didn’t argue with Noah. He made a decision and you followed it whether you wanted to or not. Partly because he was her boss, but she also thought it was partly just
