“Yep. He’s acting weird.”

  A glass bowl nearly slipped out of her hands. “Oh. Really?” She fumbled with the dish, finally setting it down on the drying rack.

  “We know he hooked up with a woman at the party and now she won’t call him back or something.” Irritation flickered in his tone.

  Tess eased out a slow, controlled breath before answering. Unfortunately, she was working on the last plate in the sink and then she’d have no reason to continue hiding her face from him. “Why, um… why would you think that?”

  “Thatch heard someone in Silas’s hotel room.”

  She fumbled with the plate. Thatch had heard them? Oh God. She should’ve been quieter! “That’s strange,” she squeaked.

  “Not really,” her brother argued. “This is Silas we’re talking about.”

  Right. It probably wasn’t strange at all for Silas to hook up with a random woman he met at a party. But in those few hours it had felt like more than sex. At least to her.

  “He’s been moody as hell lately,” Aiden went on. “And then just now in the office he was talking about needing to get away for a while.”

  She spun, still holding the dripping plate. “Silas is leaving?”

  “I don’t know.” He sipped on iced tea, looking all calm and collected while her heart was doing triple flips.

  “I told him to go on a vacation,” her brother said. “Have a little fun, take a break, and get whatever this is out of his system.”

  Tess turned back around and dried the plate. Did Silas really want to leave Star Valley? Was it because of her? She found the courage to face her brother again. “So you really think he’s upset over a woman?”

  He shrugged. “It’s only a theory. But he did get pretty defensive when we brought it up.” His eyes widened. “Did you see him spending time with a woman that night?”

  “No!” Oops. She tried to rein in her tone. “I mean, I had to step out early too.” Pure panic flowed through her veins now. “I had to call the girls before they went to sleep.”

  “Ah.” Her brother nodded as though that made sense. “Well, I don’t know who this woman could be. Think it’s any of your friends who were there?”

  “Nope.” The denial ended in a burning cough. Her throat might as well have been smoking. “Uh-uh. I haven’t heard anything about anyone hooking up with Silas.” She happened to be the worst liar on the planet. One direct look at her right now and Aiden would know.

  “Maybe it’s Lyric,” her brother mused.

  She almost agreed but she couldn’t sell her friend out like that. “I know for a fact it’s not Lyric. We talk. She would’ve mentioned something to me.” The woman was one of her best friends in Star Valley Springs.

  “Well…” Aiden stood and threw the paper towel in the trash. “Whoever she is, this woman has clearly messed with our boy’s head.”

  Had she? Had That Night messed with Silas as much as it had messed with her? Because he seemed pretty unaffected, in her opinion. Tess rushed to the refrigerator and started to rearrange things so she could cool off her face. “He didn’t say anything about hooking up with a woman. Or having feelings for someone. Right?” She had to make sure.

  “No. He tried to deny hooking up with anyone but we know better.” Aiden grinned. “Hey, speak of the devil. Silas is headed this way.”

  “What?” Tess dropped a can of pop, which split open and started to spray everywhere. “Oh no!”

  “Here.” Aiden came to the rescue with some paper towels and nudged her aside. “You okay, Sis? You seem a little off too.”

  “I’m great! I’m—”

  The front door creaked open and Silas stepped inside, then hesitated at the threshold. “Hey. I was gonna head out soon. Wanted to see if you were still planning to go to the police station.”

  “Yep! Sure am!” Tess was all too aware that the words had come out overly loud, but she couldn’t seem to regulate her volume or her tone today. “We should go right now, as a matter of fact. I’ll drive.”

  The man studied her cautiously. “I could just meet you there…”

  “It’s no big deal! We can ride together.” She swept past Aiden and grabbed her purse off the kitchen table. They had to prove to her brother that things were completely normal between them, that they could ride in a car together with no problem so he didn’t suspect that she was Silas’s mystery woman.

  Or maybe she wanted to prove things were normal to herself. “No use in both of us wasting gas.” And they needed to discuss a diversion strategy so no one found out their secret. She traipsed past Silas and out the door, leaving him to follow behind.

  He paused at her truck. “You sure you don’t want me to drive too?”

  “I’m sure.” She watched Aiden walk down her porch steps and wave. “This way we can talk about our strategy… with the police,” she said loud enough for her brother to hear.

  “Ooookay.” Silas got into her passenger seat.

  Tess kept a smile pasted on her face until after they’d cleared the driveway and her brother could no longer see them. “Aiden thinks you hooked up with a woman at his engagement party,” she blurted. Oh God. They were going to find out. Everyone was going to find out about her and Silas and then they would all judge her for sleeping with her husband’s best friend. Tess peeled out onto the highway. “No one can know we were together that night.” Then nothing would ever go back to normal.

  “Yeah. I realize that.” Silas continued to stare out the windshield and she couldn’t see his eyes behind his aviator shades. “Your brother would probably shoot me. And like you said, it was a mistake.”

  His voice dulled on that last sentence, but his unreadable expression didn’t change. His face might as well have been carved in stone.

  “Maybe Thatch already knew it was me.” She tried to focus on the road. “Maybe he recognized my voice and he’ll slip and tell someone.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of Aiden and Thatch. They’re not going to find out.” How could he be so calm? Not one inflection in his voice. “So what’re you gonna tell the police?”

  Tess wanted to ask how he planned to keep Aiden from finding out about That Night, but he clearly wanted to change the subject, so she let it go. “I’m going to tell them someone shot a wild horse on my property and they’d better get their butts up there and figure out who before I do.”

  Silas finally turned to face her, his electrifying grin stretching across his lips.

  Warmth crept up her neck. “What?”

  “That’s what I love about you, Tess.” She could feel his stare, even through the dark lenses of his glasses. “You’re not afraid to tell it like it is.”

  Loved. He could’ve said like. She told people things she liked about them all the time. But he’d said loved. And he was wrong about her. She was afraid. Especially when her heart beat in this dangerous rhythm whenever she was close to him.

  “I’m not kidding. If the police won’t do something about this, I will.” She had to keep the conversation focused on the horses. Not on the things they loved about each other.

  Wait. Were there things she loved about him? The answer hit her much too quickly. His unyielding loyalty. His dedication to the things he cared about most. His smile. Definitely his smile. Oh God.

  “Easy there, Maverick.” Silas faced forward again. “You’re not doing anything alone. I said I’ll help and I will. So we’ll take on those assholes together.”

  Tess reached forward to turn on the air conditioning. Sure, it was only fifty-five degrees outside, but her body temperature kept rising. “Aiden said you’re thinking of going away? Taking a vacation?”

  Silas didn’t look at her, but she noticed a reaction in his posture, a straightening of his spine. “I don’t know. Maybe. But I won’t go anywhere until these horse bullies are brought to justice. I promise.”

  They rolled down Main Street and Tess slowed the truck, her gaze searching for an open parking spot in front of the police station. “Well, where do you think you’ll go if you take a vacation?” And how long would he be gone? She shouldn’t wonder. She shouldn’t care…

  “Don’t know.” His shoulders still seemed rigid. “I’ve never been good at taking vacations. I can spend about three hours on a beach before I start getting restless. I like to be busy, on the move. I like to work.”

  “I used to feel the same way.” Tess parked along the curb. “But that was before my daily life felt like so much work.” Before having kids. Before becoming a single mom. While it was her favorite job ever, raising kids was intense and exhausting sometimes. Full of blessings but also stress and fear. Especially doing it on her own. “Nowadays? I could use a week at the beach.” She laughed… not that she’d been joking.

  “Then you should go.” Silas unclicked his seat belt and got out of the truck, waiting for her to join him on the sidewalk outside the police station. “Why not? You have a whole army of people who’d take the girls. Go do something for yourself.”

  Why? Did he want her to leave? He wasn’t smiling as much as he used to in her presence. And he hadn’t tried to make her laugh all day. Everything was different now. So messed up. “Yeah, maybe I will go away somewhere.” She could use a vacation from him right about now. “Anyway, let me do the talking in here.” She soldiered on to the door but Silas hurried to open it for her before she got there.

  “I wouldn’t dream of talking for you, Tess.” He followed her inside. “I know better.”

  Before she could ask him what that was supposed to mean, Terry Gladstone, the receptionist, came around the desk to greet them. “Tess! I haven’t seen you in forever. How are those girls of yours?”

  She hugged the older woman. “They’re doing really well, thanks.” The blessing of being able to say that was never lost on her. For all the girls had been through, they were resilient and thriving. And much of their recovery after losing their dad had to do with this community they were a part of. “Is Chief Holbrook around by any chance?” While she loved Terry, she didn’t want to get into one of their half hour–long chat sessions right now.

  “Sure. You can go on back.” The woman moved from her to Silas. “Do I get a hug from my favorite SEAL too?”

  “Come on, Terry. We all know I’m not your favorite,” the man teased. “I heard you made a batch of your oatmeal raisin cookies for Thatch last week.”

  “Yours are coming, sugar,” Terry said with a wink. “And I’ll add in some chocolate chips to prove you’re my favorite.”

  Oh please. Tess openly rolled her eyes. Silas had all the older women in town eating out of the palm of his hand. He was too much of a charmer for his own good. Or for her own good. She should remember that.

  Leaving him behind, she walked down the short hallway to Natalie’s office, shaking her head the whole time. Tess paused outside the half-open door and knocked.

  Natalie lifted her gaze away from her laptop screen. She was young for a police chief—barely thirty—but Tess had always respected the woman. She had a unique blend of compassion and badassery. No one ever wanted to mess with Chief Holbrook, but people also often came to her for advice.

  “Hey, come on in.” She gestured for Tess to sit in the chair on the other side of the desk. “What can I do for you?”

  “We’ve got a wild horse with a gunshot wound at the ranch right now.” No point in beating around the bush. She was on a mission here. “I was out for a ride in the high meadow when I heard gunshots coming from the west.” She sat on the edge of the chair while Silas came to stand behind her. “Then the horses flooded my property. Dreamer spooked so I had to ride home. When Silas and I went back up to check on the herd later, we found a young mare with a hole through her nose and head.”

  “But she survived?” Concern gathered at the corners of the chief’s wide blue eyes.

  “Yes. But the bullet narrowly missed her brain.” And now the horse was suffering, scared, confused, and without her herd. And Tess had to foot the bill to take care of her.

  “Did you see the perpetrators?” Natalie refocused on her computer screen, clicking around, likely starting a new report.

  “No.” If only Tess could’ve gotten a look at the UTV they were driving. Then they might have something to go on. “When we got back up there, whoever had been firing was gone.”

  Natalie nodded, her lips tight. “Well… I can take a ride up there later and alert the Bureau of Land Management.”

  “In other words, you can’t do much.” Tess had expected to hear that, but disappointment still weighted her heart. She knew Natalie didn’t have the manpower or resources to patrol the public lands and open spaces around here. That wasn’t even necessarily her job. “There has to be something we can do.”

  The woman sighed and smoothed some of her dark hair back toward the neat bun sitting on top of her head. “If you give me some coordinates, I’ll look around for evidence, but you know as well as I do that an investigation isn’t going to go anywhere. I mean, the shooters could’ve been from anywhere. People come all the way up from Jackson to ride the trails around here.”

  “All due respect, Chief…” Silas stepped forward. “Random tourists aren’t going to shoot a horse for no reason.”

  Yes! Tess shot him a look of appreciation. “You’ve heard the talk around here lately, same as I have. Some of the ranchers are fed up with the wild herds. They think they’re doing too much damage.”

  “Listen, I get it.” Natalie leaned back in her chair. “This is awful. I hate it every bit as much as you do. Trust me.” Tess knew the woman loved horses and had a whole stable full of her own. “But we don’t have the manpower to spend time tracking these guys down. I can put out the word to the county and to the Bureau of Land Management and ask for more surveillance, more flyovers, maybe…”

  Which they wouldn’t do. The county was too cheap to follow up on one horse getting shot.

  “And I can keep my ears and eyes open too. If someone around here did this, they’ll talk to the wrong person eventually. And we’ll find them.”

  But probably not before they injured or killed more of the horses. “Fine.” Tess rose from the chair. “I understand.” She understood she would have to take matters into her own hands, after all. “Thanks for your time.”

  “You bet.” Natalie walked them to the door. “I really will look into this. I’ll do my best.”

  “So will I,” Tess assured her before saying goodbye.

  After another quick exchange with Terry, she and Silas stepped out onto the sidewalk.

  “So what’s the plan?” He caught her in a knowing gaze.

  “Well… first we need to go pick up the girls at school. They had a special art class but it’ll be over soon. Do you mind?” Tess climbed into the driver’s seat.

  “Uh, I don’t know.” Silas slid into the passenger side. “Maybe that’s not a good idea. Me going with you to pick up the girls.”

  No. Oh no. He was not going to do this—back out of their friendship now. A month ago, he wouldn’t have thought twice about picking up the girls with her. “Why not?” She had an inkling about where his hesitation was coming from, but she wanted to hear him say it.

  “Because.” His shoulders slumped. “You said it yourself. People might start to speculate. We’re not acting normal around each other. I’m trying but…”

  “But what?” She started to lean toward him but that was as close as she dared get.

  “I don’t want things to get complicated, that’s all.”

  No surprise there. This was Silas, after all. He liked his hookups quick and straightforward. No strings attached. He probably didn’t have to see most of the women he slept with ever again. “Things don’t have to be complicated.” What, did he think she had some expectation that he’d actually settle down with her or something? That was laughable. “I still need my friends, Silas. That hasn’t changed because I slept with you. We both want things to go back to normal.” And that would only happen if they could power through this awkward phase and get to the point where they could hang out the way they used to.

  “All right. I’ll pick up the girls with you.” He clicked in his seat belt. “Normal, here we come.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Tess started the engine of her truck wearing the same determined expression Silas had come to recognize over the last year whenever she’d faced an obstacle or a difficult client at the ranch. Yes, she wanted to take on whoever had shot Legacy, but she seemed just as driven to make everything go back to the way it had been before they’d ended up in bed together.

  Only he didn’t know if that was possible.

  “We’ll have a town meeting.” She slipped on her sunglasses and gave him a no-nonsense glance.

  In the two years he’d lived in Star Valley immediately following Jace’s death, Tess’s facial expressions and her mannerisms had embodied the marks of grief in between fleeting and rare smiles. But these days… he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen such strength in her.

  “Great idea.” He would do his part. He would agree with her. He would support her cause. Outwardly, he would do everything he could to play the role she wanted him to play. Friend. Even if he spent every minute in her presence internally tortured by desires he didn’t want. “We could call a meeting at the café,” he suggested, trying to distract himself from how her lips had pursed the way they did when she was deep in thought. He shouldn’t want to kiss those lips. “Louie and Minnie would be happy to help.” The owners of the finest eatery in Star Valley would be all over a cause like this.

  “Yes! Good thinking.” She pulled the truck out of the parking spot and flipped a U-turn. “We’ll talk with everyone in town about the wild horses, about how important it is to protect them, and then we’ll try to gauge who in the crowd is opposed to having them around.”

  “Exactly.” They could bait the people who had a vendetta against the wild herd into showing themselves. “And at the very least, we can inform everyone about what happened to Legacy and maybe even start our own patrols.” Hell, he wouldn’t mind riding up to the high meadow a few times a week to watch out for the horses. Aiden and Thatch would be on board too. “The police and the Bureau might not have the time to keep an eye on things but that doesn’t mean we can’t.”