Page 58 of New in Town

“I mean that’s clearly not a thing anymore though. You’re very together.”

“It feels like it, which is both terrifying and wonderful. Grey is… being with him is like giving in to both the devil and the angel on my shoulders. He’s a seducing, motorcycle riding cowboy. And yet, he’s had the front row seat to my most vulnerable moments and has cared for me so genuinely through them.”

Her heart leaps in her chest as she vocalizes what she’s feeling for the first time.

“Have you told him?”

“No, we haven’t really talked about it,” she says, sliding down in her seat.

“I know I remind you of this a lot, but you set the rules. Maybe he’s respecting that, and you should start the conversation.”

She thinks back to the times Grey had left all the boundary setting, and subsequent crossing of the boundaries, to her. Jules has a point. “He’s everything I was raised to distrust.”

Jules sets her coffee cup down and shifts until she’s fully facing Maddie. “And yet, you know you can trust him anyway. Don’t you?”

“I do,” she admits, feeling the truth of it washing over her.

Satisfied, Jules picks her coffee back up, taking a triumphant slurp. The words ‘told you so’ wouldn’t have been as pointed as that slurp.

“I’m still scared,” she whispers, tears pricking the corner of her eyes.

“I know, and I understand why. But you can’t let it stop you. I’d hate to see you hurt and miss out because of it. You deserve to be happy.”

The tears threaten to escape Maddie’s eyes as Jules reaches out to squeeze her hand. When one spills over, she wipes at it and sniffles.

“Shoot, let me find you a napkin,” Jules says, looking around the cafe.

“My purse,” Maddie points to the coffee table before them.

They start to rifle through it. “Oh, I think I have something,” Jules says, pulling out a napkin. But Maddie doesn’t remember when she would have put napkins in there. She takes it and peers down at the rectangle in her hand. There’s writing on it. Grey’s writing, in fact.

“These are the rules,” she whispers. “From that first day in the diner, when we agreed to the arrangement and laid down the ground rules. See, he even signed it,” Maddie adds with a small laugh.

“Looks like he’s the only one who did. Apparently, this contract was null and void from the start,” Jules replies, a wide grin stretching across her freckled face.

The waitress came back before I could sign it, she remembers, looking at the blank space beneath Grey’s name. She would have felt silly signing it to begin with. Of course it doesn’t mean anything that her name isn’t on the napkin. Or maybe, the rules have never applied.

27

GREY

Dragging his hands down his face, Grey takes a deep breath. He needs to keep his mind clear, and so far, he’s been successful. More successful than most of the team, at least. He glances to his left to see Floyd on the verge of heart palpitations. On his right, Riley looks like he might be grinding his teeth down to nothing. Brett appears coolheaded, but that’s no surprise for the special operations veteran.

It’s a funny thing, how his anxiety works. When there’s not actually danger, such as grabbing a slice of pizza, he’s in distress. But in an all too real crisis, everything seems to slow down around him, and he’s focused and in control.

And their current situation can be considered a crisis. Coop is missing.

This morning, Floyd went to the stables to find that Cooper’s horse, Checkers, was gone. After a trip to his cottage and sweep of the compound, it was clear Cooper was gone as well. Why he’d gone riding alone was not so clear, he knew it was discouraged.

The team had spent most of the day covering various quadrants, the south all that remained as darkness closed in rapidly. Grey removes his Stetson and runs a hand through his hair. They are all drained, himself included.

But if Cooper doesn’t show up soon, the search will have to pause until morning. The thought of leaving Cooper out, potentially hurt or lost, makes him sick. As long as they have time, they’ll keep going.

He guides Bullet through a split in the trail, his eyes scanning the wooded landscape around him. He won’t let Cooper down, not when he already can’t shake the disappointment in letting down Maddie. Based on how low the sun is sitting, she would have been expecting him a few hours ago now. And he had no way to get ahold of her out here.

What did she think when he wasn’t on time? And what about when it became clear to her that he wasn’t coming at all? He can picture her expression, the pinched hurt and pursed lips. Maddie will understand, she has to.

As the trail breaks hard around a rocky outcrop, he spies movement up ahead. Increasing the pace, Grey can make out a figure through the pines. When it lets out a pained whine, he knows exactly what’s before him. Checkers.

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