A Rancher To Love. Trish Milburn

daughter not far away. He’d seemed to take care with the child, so that indicated he was a decent human being, right?

      The cacophony of questions and concerns competing for primacy in her head made her want to scream for them all to shut up and just leave her alone.

      “You okay?”

      The sound of Tyler’s deep voice drew her out of her thoughts.

      “Uh, yeah. Just have a bit of a headache.” Not exactly a lie.

      Tyler’s gaze left her and scanned the room. “Looks like you got settled quickly.”

      “Yeah, the positive side of insomnia.”

      “Takes a while to get used to a new place, I guess.”

      “Have you lived here your whole life?” What happened to keeping her distance? But it would be rude to not try to converse with him, instead standing there not even acknowledging his presence.

      “Yep.”

      She searched frantically for an appropriate response, made more difficult by the simple fact he seemed to take up so much space. “You’re lucky. It’s a beautiful area.”

      “Yeah, it is.”

      They fell into a silence so awkward that she had to concentrate on not fidgeting.

      “Well, I’ve got work to do,” he said. “Let me know if you need anything.”

      She glanced toward him, meeting his eyes for a moment before he stepped out the door. After a few thuds of her heart, she moved to the window and watched Tyler’s retreating form. As his final words before leaving replayed in her head, a crazy response coalesced in her mind. In those couple of seconds when their gazes had met, a part of her mind whispered that she wanted him to be her protector, to banish all the darkness that haunted her.

      But that was weakness talking, and she needed to be strong. If she was to move beyond what happened, she had to find a way to banish the darkness and fear all on her own.