Page 75 of Always Meant for You
I’m done pretending I don’t feel it.
We talk this out tonight. Now.
I get out and shove the door closed behind me.
“Mabel,” I call, her name cutting from the center of my chest. “I’m coming with you.”
Chapter Fourteen
CAL
Thunder lashes the sky, loud and unforgiving.
I break into a jog. “Slow down, Mabel.”
She doesn’t turn around. “I need a minute. Wait in the car,” she calls, breath uneven. “I’m looking for cougars.”
I pick up my pace. “It’s coyotes. We don’t get cougars here. You know that.”
She throws her hands in the air. “Fine. Coyotes. Mountain lions. Jackals. Whatever. Big predators eating helpless little things.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or worry. “You’re going to scare off everything in a five-mile radius with that yelling.”
She doesn’t stop. “Consider it my first act as a town employee. I’m protecting Elverna’s livestock by announcing my presence.”
She strides up the pitted road at a breakneck pace, as if more distance might help her breathe.
“Mabel, stop. It’s dark. You don’t want to fall.”
She turns, too quickly, and loses her footing.
I lunge and catch her before she hits the gravel. She stumbles back against me, and in one second, I’m no longer thinking about the road, or the dark, or predators of any kind.
Her breath catches. My hands settle at her hips. She fits against me, soft and warm and steadying. She doesn’t move. Neither do I.
This contact is enough to shift my entire world. My chest tightens, but it’s not from the run. It’s her. Every inch of her pressed close. Every beat of her heart trembling against mine.
“Cal?” she whispers.
The sound of my name on her lips scrapes something loose inside me.
“Yeah.”
She turns slowly, slipping from my hold. “If we’re going to work together, we need boundaries.”
I nod, but I can barely focus on her words.
“And you need to understand one thing,” she continues.
“What’s that?” My voice comes out lower than I mean. Rougher.
She glances toward the quarry. She knows where we are. That tree isn’t far.
She steps closer. “You work for me now.”
I stare at her.
She’s not joking.
