“If you hadn’t forced the dam to be broken apart, I wouldn’t have found a damned body,” I reply.
“Carly,” my mom gently scolds.
“Mom, I’m sorry, but you can’t blame this situation on the fact that I want to keep working at the ranch. Or on the Bridger brothers because it was on their property. They only went to the dam because Dad was furious about the water rights.”
Lexie hasn’t said one word, and I don’t blame her.
“A dead body was found on Bridger land,” Dad says. “That’s bad enough. You need to quit.”
I solidify my stance, wishing I made a more imposing presence. “No, I don’t. I won’t.”
Dad’s jaw tenses. “Because of your…fling with Austin Bridger?”
Fling? What I have with Austin isn’t a fling. It’s… I don’t know exactly, but it’s more than what my father is assuming. But as much as Austin means to me, there’s another reason I won’t quit. One I desperately need my father to understand.
“No, because as I’ve told you over and over, I love my job. It makes me happy. Isn’t that what’s important?”
“You found a dead body.” Dad’s tone is final.
As far as he’s concerned, the matter is resolved.
But his concern isn’t the issue. Mine is. And I’m not quitting.
While I’m trying to figure out a way to tell my father this—
I drop my jaw and widen my eyes.
The Bridger boys come rushing in the station’s front doors—Chance first, followed by Miles, and then…Austin.
The walls—the ones I’ve had in place around my emotions since I first realized what I stumbled over in the creek wasn’t a rock—come crumbling down when I see Austin. I run to him. Miles steps out of the way before I knock him over.
Austin holds out his hand. I take it and walk into him, and he wraps his arms around me. I bury my face in his chest and breathe him in—all masculine spice and musk, all power and perfection.
His strength gives me strength of my own, and I revel in his hold.
Tears start to fall. I can’t help them.
“Carly.” My father’s voice.
Austin drops a kiss on the top of my head and then murmurs, “You okay, baby?”
I nod.
I shake my head.
I shrug.
I don’t know what I am…except in love. In complete and total love with Austin Bridger. I called him hours ago when he was far away. Now he’s here.
“She all done here, Sheriff?” Austin asks.
“For now. I’ll want to talk to the three of you as well.”
“Tomorrow,” Chance replies with enough authority that Bryant doesn’t say more.
“You’re coming with us, Carly,” my father says.
I turn my head to look at my parents, but I stay in Austin’s tight embrace.