Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Atlas stops, pointing up into a tree. “See that?”
After a few moments, I find what he’s looking at. “The birdhouse?”
“It’s a camera,” Grizz says.
Further down the path, they point out another one that’s disguised with strategically-placed branches and pinecones. “Viper monitors them constantly,” Atlas says. “He’ll know if so much as a squirrel gives us attitude.”
Speak of the devil, Viper’s voice suddenly crackles from a radio I didn’t realize Atlas was carrying. “Heard that.”
Atlas smirks, his steel blue eyes twinkling. “Copy. You behaving?”
“Define behaving.”
Grizz shakes his head. “He’s always watching.”
A few weeks ago, that would have unsettled me. Now, it’s reassuring.
On a different path that leads back toward the house, I get too close to a low-hanging branch and am dusted with snow.
Grizz leaps into action, brushing the powder off me with his big hands. “Hold still. Gotta keep it from going down your collar.”
Atlas wipes some of the snow from my sleeve himself, but says, “Boyd, she’s wearing a coat.”
“Snow melts, and melting snow is cold,” Grizz says, finishing the job he started. “I’m preventing hypothermia.”
“Pretty sure I’m not dying of snow.” I tease him gently, mostly to distract myself from how good it feels to have their hands on me, even through all the layers of warm clothing.
“Not while I’m around.” He squares his broad shoulders in a show of pride, joining in on the joke, but something flickers across his eyes. Does he feel something, too?
All three of us are quiet for the next couple of minutes, just boots crunching on snow, a few sniffles, and distant sounds in the forest like birds and snow falling from branches.
A couple of other buildings are visible through the trees. “Are those part of your property, too?”
Atlas nods. “There’s a garage and some storage buildings. Further out, there’s a training field and shooting range, but they’re pretty much useless until the thaw.”
“There’s a small greenhouse beyond the workshop,” Grizz says. “The carrots we ate were grown in there, along with a few other things.”
“Wow, really?” It’s another surprising aspect of these men who are complicated yet straightforward.
Everything they show me and tell me reinforces the same message: We’re capable. We know what we’re doing. You’re safe here.
I’m starting to believe it.
As we walk on, Atlas speaks up suddenly, remembering something. “There’s an old cabin down the forest trail, too. Came with the property. We can make the trip when you’re even stronger.”
His choice of words doesn’t go unnoticed. Even though these men saved me and the baby from freezing to death, and even though they’re taking care of me as I recover, they don’t treat me like I’m weak or helpless.
Grizz tugs gently on a lock of my hair, like a schoolyard taunt, only tender. “Give it another week, our snow queen will be running circles around us old men.”
Heat floods my chest that’s so intense it nearly steals my breath.
I imagine, briefly, them not only helping me and protecting me, but wanting me to stay with them.
In some future where I’m not running.
I cut the thought off before it fully takes shape. That isn’t what this is about.
Preston’s shadow looms large over my life, and running from one relationship straight into another doesn’t seem wise. Especially when I’m carrying a child.
Maybe my feelings for these older men are only based on the fact that they saved my life.
But the idea of something more lingers like the afterglow of a struck match.
These men, so rugged and capable, are becoming the center of my world faster than I can process. And for the first time since finding out my fiancé was a monster, something that feels an awful lot like hope is stirring inside me.
I loosen my scarf because my throat has suddenly gone tight.
Mom, are you watching?
It’s easier to think that someone who’s watching over me guided me here than to believe in sheer coincidence and dumb luck.
Atlas gives me a questioning look. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Getting cold, I guess.” That’s one way to explain the tears prickling behind my eyes.
“Let’s get you inside.” Grizz wraps an arm around my shoulder, pulling me against him and rubbing his hand up and down my arm to generate heat. It has the intended effect, maybe in more ways than he planned.
They guide me back to the house, help me with my outerwear and boots in the mudroom, then lead me into the living room so I can warm up in front of the fire.
Warmth is blooming inside me long before Atlas pokes at the logs in the fireplace to stoke the flames.
Hope isn’t just stirring. It’s starting to take root here, under the snow. With them.
And I don’t think I want to stop it.
CHAPTER 11
ATLAS
Viper’s down in his office, multiple screens glowing and updating. Grizz disappeared into the workshop hours ago and is likely humming off-key while he welds or hammers away.