as he tugged on his boots that were sitting there.
What had happened? Why was she walking out on the ranch this late at night? Had he said something or done something to upset her? Had someone else?
Why wasn’t she talking to Kellie, who was in the same house as her?
He stepped out of the cabin, closing the door softly, and walked out onto the gravel, no other sound in the night but that crunching beneath his feet.
There was something oddly ominous about that, and his pulse echoed the feeling in his ears.
He slid his hands into his pockets, turning a little in the road, not sure which direction she would be coming from.
Then suddenly, she was there, wrapped in a long sweater, her arms tightly folded, walking quickly toward him, her eyes down. She was determined in whatever she was thinking, and he didn’t see any signs of the anxiety he’d noticed that day when he’d watched her surge in the pasture. Didn’t mean she wasn’t headed in that direction, he knew, but he didn’t feel quite so worried about that scenario.
She looked up when she got closer, and her quick smile settled his stomach, weak though it was. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he replied softly, looking her over. “You okay?”
She started to nod, then changed her mind and shook her head. “No. Not really. I mean, I’m happy to not be out of my head with rage right now, but I’m not sure this feels much better.”
“Need a hug?” he offered at once. He opened his arms in suggestion.
Brynn smiled again, and this one had tears to it. “I will, but let me see if I can get this out first.”
Ford nodded, hooking his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans.
She exhaled slowly, her knees locking and unlocking in alternating patterns. “I got an email from my ex. He’s not supposed to contact me directly; I have a ‘Do Not Contact’ order against him from when he wouldn’t stop harassing me in divorce proceedings. He’s only supposed to contact my lawyer. But he emailed my hospital account, so it got through to me, and . . .”
A snarl of hatred and disgust began to curl in Ford’s chest and stomach, but he said nothing and waited for her to go on.
Brynn snorted in derision. “He wants me to testify on his behalf as a character witness in a sexual harassment case against him. Since he always treated me well, he says, I could show the courts that he’s not the scum they’re making him out to be. Despite the fact that he is the scum they’re making him out to be, and now that he doesn’t have a wife, he’s free to sleep wherever and with whomever he likes without any stigma attached. Those are my words, not his. He says he’s completely innocent.”
Unbelievable, it was on the tip of Ford’s tongue to say, but, again, he wouldn’t say anything while she had more to share.
“I just . . .” She shook her head, swallowing hard. “I can’t believe he actually thinks I have any desire to help him. That he doesn’t see what he has done to me. That somehow my view of him would be an improvement on what any of these women accusing him see. I have no idea how many, but there’s gotta be more than one if I know Trent. He’s never been a guy who likes one-hit wonders. And that’s his wording, not mine. From the divorce proceedings. When he was actually admitting stuff to me.” She choked out a half-sob and looked up at the night sky. “Why can’t he just disappear from my life?”
Ford opened his arms and took two steps forward. “Come here.”
She scurried over and wrapped her arms around his waist, her hold clenching as she exhaled another sob against him. He wrapped his arms around her, cradling her into his chest and holding her as tightly as he dared, even as his heart raced with his own anger.
How dare this guy weasel his way into Brynn’s life again, especially to ask for a favor so incomprehensible. What possessed him to think she somehow owed him anything at all? He’d taken enough from her over the years, and now that she was trying to find a better direction for herself, he wanted more?
“I hate him,” Brynn whispered, shaking in Ford’s arms. “I hate that he still affects me in any way, and I hate that I actually thought about it for half