“Dixie.” My name was coated in concern and exasperation. He dropped his soggy T-shirt to the grass and reached out and pulled me to his bare chest. I was so stunned I didn’t immediately react because I couldn’t believe he was hugging me of his own volition. “Are you okay?”

I let out a shaky sigh and leaned into him. His skin was like warm silk stretched over iron and stone as I rested my cheek on his naked pec. I wrapped my arms around his narrow waist and let my fingers trace lazily over the twin little indentations that rested right above his backside. It was the best hug I’d ever had in my life, partly because I hadn’t had to ask for it, it’d just been given, but mostly because it came from him and I knew a few days ago there was no way that he would have willingly pulled me into his arms. He cared. He might not care the way I wanted him to, but he cared nonetheless.

“I’m okay. It shook me up a little and it made me nervous to have Elma in the truck with me on the way back here but nothing else happened.” At least nothing else happened that I was aware of.

“You know all of this is connected somehow, right? You almost getting run down, someone setting the good ole boys on me and getting Dalen instead. Someone is mad we left Denver and the more incidents that occur the more it seems like someone is downright pissed we left together. My drug dealer seems unlikely but Jules is going to check into him and I spent all afternoon looking for the boys that put a beating on my brother but they must have gone to ground, so there won’t be answers from them until I find them. This all feels like it might point to someone you rubbed the wrong way, pretty girl.”

I jerked back and looked up at him with wide eyes. “I don’t rub people the wrong way, Church.” In fact, I went out of my way to make sure I didn’t.

He grunted and lifted his hands so that he could tunnel his fingers through the damp spirals that were a kinky mess all over my head. He used his palms to tilt my head back even farther so that we were staring into each other’s eyes. “I know you don’t think you do but I need you to think back, is there anyone that gave you any kind of bad vibes lately? Anyone from the bar seem unusually irritated or annoyed at you? I know you’ve been online dating and there can be some real oddballs on the internet. Did any of your dates strike you as strange or off?” I wanted to squirm after he asked the question. I wanted to forget the disaster online dating had been and I wanted to forget the reason I had been so desperate in the first place was because of his irrational fear of getting close to anyone.

“There were only a handful and they were all pretty weird.” I let my hands fall from around his waist and went to take a step back but he wouldn’t let me go. His multicolored gaze kept me rooted to the spot as he told me to explain what I meant by weird. I groaned and raised my hands to hold on to his wrists while I talked.

“The first guy seemed nice enough but halfway through dinner I went to the bathroom and when I came back he was gone and so was my wallet. He took it right out of my purse and disappeared.”

“The fuck?” His outraged growl actually made me smile.

“Yeah well, I preferred him to the next guy, who never bothered to disclose that he was married and that he and his wife were swingers looking for a third to play with while the kids were out of town. He also used a picture that was wayyy out of date, because when I went to meet him I hardly recognized him. He was like … the same age as my dad.” I wrinkled my nose at the memory as Church swore again and tightened his hands on the sides of my head.

“The last guy was actually very nice. He was quiet. He was shy. I don’t think he’d ever been on a date before.” His eyes narrowed to slits and his mouth pulled down into a frown that I was sure had scared men that were far bigger and fiercer than I would ever be. “I might have given him a chance, or at the very least a second date if—” I paused as an animalistic sound rumbled loud and possessive out of his chest. “If he hadn’t brought his mother along with him. Our entire date was chaperoned and monitored, and while he was nice enough she was a shrew and a bully.” I felt my brows draw together as memories of that evening played through my mind. “In fact she was angry when I wouldn’t let them into my apartment for a drink. Way angrier than the situation called for. It was obvious that she was the one that set the date up and was the driving force behind it, so she was far more upset than he was when I pulled the plug.”

“You got a name on the mother and son duo? It may be a long shot but it’s as good a place to start as any.”

“But that’s crazy. It wasn’t even a real date. She couldn’t really have been so angry that she followed us down here and tried to run us off the road. Who does that?”

He leaned forward and kissed my forehead before stepping back and rolling his heavy shoulders. “You’d be surprised how little it takes to set someone off, especially if they’ve only got one oar in the water.”

I snorted at his very southern turn of phrase and pointed at him. “Better watch out, Church, your southern is starting to show.” It’d always been around in the sensual, sexy drawl but now that he was back where everyone sounded like him his accent was getting stronger and his speech was slipping into familiar phrases and patterns that I’d never heard him use back in Denver. “I’ll look at my phone and give you momma’s boy’s number and name. I meant to delete all those dating apps I downloaded but I never got around to it because you showed up and made everything go crazy.”