Page 45 of Rocky Mountain Devil

“I remember how busy it would get for you in the fall.” She stroked her fingers through his hair, patting it into place with a satisfied smile. “I’ll email you my schedule for the week—it changes a bit every day. Call or text when you can. No pressure.”

“I will. But plan on Friday. Dancing at Traders, if you’re okay with that.” It was the one place there was sure to be a gathering of the Coleman clan.

Laurel nodded. “I’m helping move Troy’s stuff tomorrow, but other than that, I’m yours.”

He liked the sound of that. He liked it an awful lot.

They straightened themselves up and headed back to his truck, Rafe ignoring the sensation of his briefs sticking to him best he could.

Distraction helped, like stealing a few kisses after he’d lifted her to the seat next to him. A few more after they pulled up to the sidewalk outside her place, and a final few standing with her in his arms on the concrete slab outside her door.

“I’m going too fast,” Rafe muttered, lips brushing together as he let her up for air.

“You don’t hear me complaining, do you?” Laurel pointed out, smoothing her hands over his chest as if she couldn’t bear to let go either. “It’s not as if we met for the first time two days ago.”

Another sweet moment, tasting her briefly before shoving his hands in his pockets to stop from grabbing her. “Those weren’t years of foreplay, Sitko.”

“No, but they were fun, weren’t they?” she said, unlocking her door and slipping inside. She offered one final smile. “Thank you. It was a good evening.”

“A great evening,” he insisted.

He waited until she’d closed the door and put on the safety chain before heading back to his rooms over the garage.

The place wasn’t home. It was a bare space, with boxes stacked in piles. Gabe was right—he needed more than this, and he wanted a place Laurel would feel welcome.

The leftover bag from Tim Hortons Jeff had left behind stuck out of the garbage box, reminding Rafe he might have a fight on his hands down the road. Not for Laurel’s affections—she’d made it pretty clear who she’d choose between the two of them.

A small trickle of doubt slipped in. They’d been friends forever, and were learning to be more. But they’d both experienced life during the years apart. What if—

Fuck it all, he wanted what was best for her, and what if he wasn’t it?

Damn Jeff to hell for putting thoughts into his head. If the man did come back to Rocky, Rafe was going to do everything he could to make sure Laurel didn’t have to put up with any bullshit. What would that look like? Hopefully he’d figure it out as they went along.

In the meantime, finding a new place to live moved up his priority list.

He headed to the shower with a whole lot on his mind, his thoughts returning to a certain blonde-haired woman who’d moved decisively in his mind from thefriendscategory tofriends plus more.

He’d been a hundred percent right—the entire week was a sweat-inducing mess from sunup to sundown and beyond. Forget having time to look for a new place to live, he barely had time to drag off his filthy clothes before falling into bed exhausted.

All the time behind the wheel that summer had made him soft, it seemed, and he dove even harder into work, not wanting to let his brother down.

Gabe and Allison had things well organized, and the half-dozen workers they’d hired to do the simple tasks were great, but the Angel spread was a big chunk of land to care for, even with the combined Coleman efforts.

He’d bumped into what looked like a clan meeting one morning, rounding the corner in the barn to find Gabe chatting earnestly with their cousins Blake, Steve and Karen.

They stopped talking when they spotted him, which wasn’t completely out of line—he was sixteen years younger than Blake, and all of them except Karen were in long-term relationships. They didn’t have that much in common other than being family, but usually that was enough. To find them hunkered down in the middle of the week seemed as ifsecret thingswere going on.

“Troubles?” Rafe asked.

“Just making some plans,” Blake answered. “Gabe will fill you in when he can. I wanted to talk to you, though. Daniel’s boys were helping at the Six Pack ranch over the summer, but they’d like to come out here for a bit.” He grinned. “You have more interesting animals or something. Gabe says it’s okay. What do you think?”

“If Gabe says it’s okay, don’t know why you’re asking me,” Rafe answered.

“You’d have to help supervise them,” Gabe explained. “I didn’t want to volunteer you without asking first.”

“No problem. Will they catch the bus after school?”

“Yeah.”