Page 133 of Bloom

“The ranch isn’t going anywhere,” Lux counters, and I hate how guarded I feel, how my mind tries to convince me she wants me to leave when she just confirmed the opposite. “And you can find another Bloom.”

“I…” I don’t think I could. Leave, that is. I think the mere concept isterrifying. I think I’d get two towns away before turning around. I think leaving feels an awful lot like defeat. I think… “I don’t know.”

“That’s okay.” She squeezes my knee gently. “Just think about it, okay?”

“I will,” I promise, and even that makes me itch.

“Stay here until you make a decision.”

“I—”

“Can,” Lux finishes for me, squeezing again as she adopts her stern mom-face. “You can. No arguments.”

I hear Hunter before I see him.

The front door slamming jolts me awake, leaving me momentarily disoriented until I recognize the shadowy lump curled up beside me as Lux. I frown through a yawn as I try to make out what’s not quite shouting, but not exactly quiet conversation either, coming from the kitchen. Scrubbing sleep from my eyes—and wincing as I accidentally graze my cheek too roughly—I start to sit up when the door to the spare room creaks open.

Surprisingly stealthy, a big body slips inside. Pausing in the doorway for a moment, Hunter creeps across the room to my side of the bed. He lifts the covers, and before he’s even really settled atop the mattress, I’m crawling on top of him and burying my face in the crook of his neck—stinging be damned. What’re you doing here?”

Fingers trace the length of my spine before settling on my hips. “Jackson called me.”

I tense, and I know he feels it, because his grip tightens in return. “What did he say?”

“Just that you needed me,” the whisper brushes my temple, lips close behind. “What happened, honey?”

I give it a minute. A long, long minute laying there, soaking in the quiet comfort of his presence, steeling myself for a conversation I’m so not looking forward to before oh-so-gracefully clambering off of him. I keep my head down as I get up, careful not to jostle Lux too much, and tiptoe out of the room. Hunter follows me down the dark hallway, into the dim kitchen only lit by the porch light perpetually left on, his anxiously concerned energy only feeding mine.

“Honey, what’s going on?”

Fingers dancing against my thighs, I gulp down as much air as my lungs can take, fix a watery smile into place, and turn around. “It’s not that bad, okay?” I find myself insisting on autopilot as I watch his face fall, the hardening of his expression so much more severe in the shadowy light. “It’s just a scratch.”

I blink and Hunter’s in front of me. I feel his fury like a hot gust of wind, and for a split second, it frightens me. It makes me want to cower instinctively, and when his hand rises, I almost flinch.

Until I realize it’s shaking.

His hand isshakingas it cups the slope of my neck, his thumb on my jaw gently urging my head to the side so he can get a better look. It’s a trick of the light, it must be, but I swear those beautiful, burnish eyes are pitch black as they flit between myscratches.

What feels like a lifetime passes before Hunter exhales harshly. “Your dad?”

I nod.

“He turned up at Bloom?”

I drop my gaze. “I went over there.”

His breathy, “Caroline,” isn’t quite a chastise, but it’s definitely something akin. Mostly concerned, though. Confused, too. Questioning.

“He left me a voicemail,” I tell him—I tell the floor, really, because I can’t bring myself to look up yet. “It was… I got worried.”

Another utterance of my name, just south of exasperated, makes me wrap my arms around myself, and I shake my head. “He didn’t sound okay. What was I supposed to do? I can’t just ignore him.”

“Yeah, honey, you can.”

“I can’t. He’s mydad, Hunter. He’s… I don’t have anyone else.”

Two fingers crook beneath my chin and tilt my head upwards. “How can you say that?” Hunter asks quietly. “I’m standing right here. I’vebeenhere. I told you I’d help you, that you could come to me. I asked you not to go over there alone.”

“You knew?”

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