He literally lifted me up into the passenger seat and buckled the seat belt around me like I was a little kid. He opened the back door and tossed the black bag on the seat next to another one that I noticed was already there. He made his way around the vehicle, and once he was settled into the driver’s seat, he finally turned to look at me.

“Poppy came and got your car when she brought me that bag for you at lunch. Since you’ve been avoiding me all week I’m taking you somewhere where there is absolutely no place for you to run and we’re going to figure this shit out. If you want to ignore me for two more days that’s fine, but you’re going to be bored out of your mind.”

He turned to look out the windshield and I noticed a tic thumping in his strong jawline.

“I told you I was ready to talk.” I crossed my arms over my chest because I didn’t like being ambushed and I hated feeling chastised.

“You also told me you weren’t going to bail on me again and that’s exactly what you did this week.”

It was true and I couldn’t deny it.

“I just needed a minute, Rowdy. I didn’t go anywhere. I was here the entire time.”

He swore and cut me a hard sidelong look out of the corner of his eye. “You were here but you couldn’t have been farther away if you tried.”

The SUV pulled onto the interstate and headed north. I watched the city fade into the background and asked him again where we were going.

I could tell he was debating if he wanted to tell me or not just to spite me but eventually his innate kindness won out.

“Phil owned a cabin out in the woods on a private lake in Boulder that he passed on to Nash. Nash keeps it because he can’t bear to sell it, and I think he wants to convince Saint to take time off this winter and hide out with him for a week or two since they are both so busy working all the time. He told me I could borrow it for a few days until we get our shit straight. There’s no electricity and no modern amenities, so all there is to do is fish, f**k, and talk.” He lifted an eyebrow at me with a leer. “I didn’t bring any fishing poles.”

I looked out the window at the rapidly darkening sky and muttered, “I can’t believe my own sister helped you kidnap me.”

“Something has to give, Salem. Either we’re doing this or we’re not, but I have to know one way or the other. Poppy just wants you to be happy. Hell, she just wants me to be happy after all this time and the road to that place for both of us runs right through you.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that but I did know one thing that was stunningly, perfectly, absolutely crystal clear to be after the last few days without him. “We are definitely doing this, we just might not be doing it right all of the time, and that road might have a speed bump or two.”

At least the tic in his jaw died down after I said that and his hands loosened some on the steering wheel. It must have appeased him some because he turned the radio on and the HorrorPops filled the silence instead of us snapping and griping at each other.

Boulder wasn’t really far outside of the city limits, but once we started to head into the mountains and the roads gave way to things that looked like barely there trails, I realized it was going to be well into the night before we got wherever it was we were going. It was still warm enough out that I could roll the window down and listen to the sounds of the forest and smell the things that made Colorado such a beautiful place to be. The pine, the hint of fall in air, the way everything felt so untouched and natural, even the dust the tires kicked up made it feel like someplace I had never been before and was lucky to be now. The night crickets and the call of the animals in the surrounding woods were lulling and almost enough to put me to sleep, but I didn’t want to miss any of it. I wasn’t a nature girl but the peacefulness and serenity of this place was really welcome after a week spent on the edge of doubt and confusion.

When Rowdy finally stopped over an hour and a half later, I decided calling this place a cabin was being generous. It looked more like a wooden shack in the center of the woods and I would bet my best pair of heels that no woman had ever been inside the ramshackle building. All I could think was that if it looked this bad at night, I really didn’t want to see it in the daylight.

Rowdy climbed out of the SUV and took our bags to the stairs and dropped them in front of the door. He moved around to the back of the vehicle as I climbed down out of it and I watched as he muscled out a big cooler and went to deposit it by the rest of the stuff. He looked at me questioningly, so I sighed and delicately made my way to where he was waiting, careful not to break an ankle on the uneven ground in my tall heels.

“I’m not exactly dressed for this, Rowland.”

He smirked at me and got the door open and ushered me inside the tiny space. I almost turned around and ran back out the door. There was nothing there. Four walls, a woodburning stove, no lights shining, which led to everything being cast in creepy shadows. A beat-up chair that looked like it had dropped from the back of a garbage truck and an old-style army cot were the only furnishings. I balked and turned to tell him flatly, “I’m not sleeping on the floor and there better not be bats.”

He laughed out loud and hauled all of our stuff inside. He disappeared to the back of the SUV again and brought in a giant Rubbermaid container that he set down by me with a thud. He popped it open and pulled out a couple of lanterns that he lit up right away and an air mattress that had an adapter to blow it up off the cigarette lighter in the car. He also produced several blankets and offered to let me dig through the supplies he brought to find something to eat. There was plenty of beer, some bottles of water, and stuff for sandwiches and breakfast. I had to give it to him, he was superprepared for this venture.

Once he muscled the inflated air mattress back inside and made up the makeshift bed, he kicked off his cowboy boots and flopped on his back to stare at the ceiling. He put his hands behind his head and just lay there in silence, so I took my own shoes off, grabbed a couple of beers, and went over to join him. I set the cans on the floor and sat next to his hip on the squishy bed.

“How are you going to survive not having junk to put in your hair for a couple of days?” I playfully poked at the slicked-up blond strands.

He caught my arm in his hand and brought it down to put a kiss on my fluttering pulse on the underside of my wrist. He lifted an eyebrow and tilted his chin down so he could look at me.

“I brought my cowboy hat.”