to fall for you, and admit that she’s what you want, she’ll be lonely out here. Maybe a few of us should get married. It is the next step.” He looked at Mac.
Mac slowly shook his head and tossed wire cutters into the back of the truck. “Don’t look at me, brother. I already had the only woman I’ll ever want.”
Trent wiped rain off his chin and studied him. “You could call her, you know.”
“She thinks I’m dead,” Mac returned. “She’s moved on, and that’s good. It was ten years ago, man.”
Zachary smoothly switched topics and drew the focus off his brother. Like always. “I think Austin is next.”
Austin tucked his badge more securely at his waist. “I haven’t found what I need in this town, and I don’t see it happening.”
Trent moved toward the truck. “Some ladies like a control freak, don’t they?”
Zachary shook his head while Zeke nodded.
“Exactly,” Austin said grimly.
Trent looked at his watch. “Hurry it up, brothers. I have dinner waiting for me.” If it was anything close to the brunch Hallie had cooked for him earlier, he might just have to up and propose to her. He grinned.
“Good. I’ll run her prints while you’re snacking,” Austin said grimly.
Trent lost the smile.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Hallie tried not to get lost in the blissful intimacy of cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes with Trent after a dinner of pot roast that had him praising her up and down. It was a simple pot roast, but the guy really did appreciate it. He was so sweet.
He poured two more glasses of Opus One cabernet, the good stuff, and motioned her outside to the fire pit to the left of the cement area. He’d already started a fire, which crackled happily into the chilly night. “At least it’s stopped raining,” he said, waiting until she sat before handing her the drink.
The wind had chased the clouds away, and moonlight glinted off the fields, making the rough grass sparkle like yellow diamonds in the distance. She accepted the glass and looked up at the full moon, its luminous orb brighter than the millions of stars glimmering through the darkness. Though she’d already had a couple glasses of wine, she let herself relax into the buzz. “It’s so beautiful here,” she murmured, feeling she could breathe for the first time in way too long.
He sat next to her, extending his long legs toward the fire. “The sky seems to go on forever. Sometimes I grab a sleeping bag and just crash out here, watching the stars until the sun returns.” He sounded thoughtful. Comfortable.
She took a sip and let the cabernet warm a path to her stomach. Intimacy wound around them, through her. She should be cautious, but the stark beauty around her, the potent wine inside her, and the handsome man next to her combined into a dream she didn’t want to shake. So she took another sip.
“Dinner was fantastic,” he said. Again.
She smiled, letting her gaze wander to the glowing fire. “It was okay. I only used what I could find in the kitchen.”
“It was the best I’ve ever had,” he said quietly.
The words shouldn’t touch her so deeply, but she couldn’t help the warmth spreading through her. “Hasn’t anybody ever taken care of you?”
“Nope.” He crossed his cowboy boots at the ankle. “My folks died before I was two, and I was raised by a grandpa who really didn’t want to raise a kid. We did okay, but I enlisted the second I turned seventeen.” He shrugged. “Guess I found my family in the military.”
“You grew up here in Wyoming?”
“Hmmm. Where did you grow up?” The wineglass looked small in his broad hand.
She swallowed. “I grew up all over, to be honest. My mom didn’t like to stay in one place for long, and I’m not sure she even knew who my dad was, so that was never an issue. We traveled a lot, sometimes in a car and sometimes hitchhiking.” She shivered.
He reached for her free hand and tangled their fingers. “Sounds scary.”
“Sometimes it was,” she admitted. “Other times, it was a great adventure. She died of breast cancer when I was seventeen, and I stayed in a home for a year. That’s where I met Paul.”
“Ah, Paul,” Trent said. “You mentioned he was in the service. Which branch?”
“Army,” she said quietly. It had been three years since she’d lost him, and the pain would always be there, but she could appreciate the good times now, too. “We