Page 92 of Distress Signal

I chuckled. “We had rules in place to make it a little easier.Boundaries too. I’d never come this way before, mostly because West and I rarely went anywhere without each other?—”

“So nothing has changed,” she quipped.

“—but that day,” I pressed on, ignoring her, “I decided to go in a different direction instead of following his lead and sticking closer to the big house. I thought this was a thick stand of trees I could lose myself in.”

“It’s not?”

“It’s not,” I confirmed, breaking through the brush a moment later, directing Raider to the side and turning so I could see Reagan’s reaction as she took it in for the first time.

Straight ahead was a scene straight out of a fairytale. A small but mighty stream gushed over the edge of a fifteen-foot cliff face, filling a pond below with water so clear you could see everything below the surface, all the way to the bottom ten feet below.

Reagan’s jaw dropped, and she blinked rapidly.

“This cannot possibly be real.” She looked at me in awe. “It looks like some magical fairy pond.”

“It’s my favorite place to come and think.” I slid off Raider, gathering the picnic basket and a blanket from his saddlebags before walking toward the edge of the water. “And now it can be yours too.”

twenty-six

. . .

REAGAN

I was speechless,and tears welled in my eyes.

This man…there weren’t words for what sharing this meant to me, or whathewas coming to mean to me.

Lainey was always on my mind, sitting right at the forefront, commingling with any other thought I happened to have at the time.

But for a little while today, for the first time since I’d gotten the call about the body, it felt like I couldbreatheand simplyexistwithout the grief crushing me.

Finn didn’t press me to fill the silence as he spread out the blanket and our picnic, and I appreciated him even more for it. He was content to leave me to my thoughts, to let me enjoy this peace. To simply bask in this moment where the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders.

Too soon, we had to head back to the ranch.

We arrived back at the barn with only about ten minutes to spare until family dinner started. I wished I had time to go home and rinse the dust off, or at least change, but there was no time. When we walked the horses into the barn, Finn set to untacking Raider, and I did the same with Scamp, hanging up her saddle,blanket, bridle, and bit, then brushing her down quickly before leading her to her stall. A ranch hand appeared to feed her and get her bedded down, and after a final pat to her side, I left them to it.

Suddenly, I was dreading dinner.

Had I been grateful he’d taken me out today? That he’d spent time he could’ve been working by showing me around the ranch and treating me to a romantic as fuck picnic lunch? Of course. I’d made sure to thank him, and I had enjoyed myself more than I expected.

But my sister was still missing, and here I was, fucking around and playing house with him.

My head was a jumbled fucking mess. Living under the same roof as him was driving me insane. Going to bed knowing he was right down the hall, that all I had to do was walk the twenty or so feet and I’d be right there with him.

I was genuinely shocked, and possibly a little (a lot) dejected he hadn’t sought me out. He’d agreed to give me space, but I was starting to think there was such a thing astoo much, and Finn was too far on the other side of the line.

Maybe, I didn’t wantanyspace anymore.

Ormaybe, this whole thing—coming here, thinking I could help find Lainey—had been a mistake.

Finn and I met in the middle of the alley between stalls, staring at each other for so long we were sure to be late for dinner.

I didn’t know what he wanted from me, and I was starting to think I had no idea what I wanted for myself. Now was neither the time nor the place to answer those questions.

With a disgusted sigh—mostly at myself—I moved past him, ready to head up the hill for dinner. The last thing I wanted to do was keep Birdie waiting, and I’d never hear the end of it from the boys if I delayed their mealtime.

I only made it two steps before Finn’s hand caught my wrist.