Page 40 of Unforgettable Cowboy
She gave an audible sigh.“Good.”She swallowed and then leaned her head against his chest.“Will you go home with me anyway?”
“That slides directly into the stupid-questions slot,” he muttered, and he felt her shake with what he hoped was laughter.He leaned back and tipped her chin up, telling himself he wasn’t going to kiss her, no matter how badly he wanted to.Not the time.“Let’s go see what’s what.”
And then he’d talk her into coming back to the Tree Fork with him because there was no way he was letting her spend the night in a trailer on her isolated homestead.
*
The trailer wasjust as she’d left it.The jewelry she’d been polishing was still beside her lawn chair.The piece she’d been engraving was still in the ball vise and even her phone lay untouched on the counter near the mini fridge.There was no sign of a revenge rampage and that made Bailey almost more nervous than coming back to a trashed trailer.
“Glad he didn’t pee in here or anything.”She was only half joking.
“Maybe his nuts were too sore.”
Then her eyes strayed to the panel in the wall beneath the table, which was now slightly ajar.
“Oh no.”
“What?”Hayes was instantly on alert, his hand settling on her shoulder as he waited for her to explain.
She knelt down and crawled beneath the table to pull the panel clear, revealing the narrow and very empty compartment behind it.
“No.”She whispered the word as her head dropped.Hayes dropped down to crouch beside her.She couldn’t breathe.Couldn’t think.Months of work.Gone.
“You kept your silver in there?”
She didn’t know if she could answer.
“Bailey?”
Jenna wasn’t a crier, and neither was she…but Chance Meyers had found a way to break both of them.
She backed out from under the table, bumping into Hayes, who took her hands and pulled her to her feet, wrapping his arms around her.She, who didn’t need anyone, needed someone.She was glad it was Hayes.
“He knew about the compartment?”
“Jenna owned this trailer before me.I bought it when they got a newer model.”
She closed her eyes, drawing in Hayes’s scent.His arms tightened.He was there.She was okay.Except for her livelihood.He’d stolen her silver.She had only the pieces that were in her polishing box.Half a display maybe.
All that work.Gone.
“You’re not staying here.We’ll move the trailer to the Tree Fork.”
She pulled back.“Chance will—”
“I don’t care.”
Bailey was about to push the hair away from her face when Hayes beat her to it, his touch gentle.She closed her eyes and a second later his lips touched hers in a tender caress.When she opened her eyes a second after his lips left hers, his expression was one of action.He took hold of her elbow and together they got to their feet.
“Do you want to call the sheriff and report the burglary as well as the suspect?”
Bailey thought about it, then shook her head.
“He knows I won’t.”How could she?It would be a he-said, she-said situation.He stole my silver.She stole my horse.
To her surprise, Hayes didn’t argue with her.
“Let’s hook up this trailer and get it over to my place.You can sleep in it there as well as you can sleep in it here.”
