Page 79 of Wild Sanctuary

“June Hartley.”

“Get in the truck, honey.” I can hear the self-satisfied smile in her voice as I do what I’ve been told.

Her truck is warm from sitting in the sun. We drive back mostly in silence, which is the comfortable kind that doesn’t need filling. The valley opens up ahead as we turn off the highway, and Glacier Ridge sits on its rise the way it always does. The cedar-shake siding is silver-gray in the afternoon light as the wraparound porch catches the sun.

There’s an extra truck in the yard. I clock it before June does, and my stomach somersaults.

“Oh good.” June pulls up alongside it. “They’re back.”

She says it with the simple satisfaction of a woman whose family is complete again, then gets out of the truck while I sit there for half a second longer than I should before following her.

The kitchen is full.

Colt is at the table. Maggie is on the counter with Beau at her feet. Rhett is leaning against the far wall with a coffee mug, quiet in the way he always is. And Wyatt is standing at the sink with his back to the door, hat off, sleeves rolled, and the particular stillness of a man who has just walked back into a room he owns.

He turns when the door opens.

June looks at him for one long second from across the kitchen. Then she crosses the room and wraps both arms around his middle, and he puts one arm around her and holds on for a second in that way he has, brief and complete. Over her head, his eyes move through the kitchen.

They find me, and I don’t look away.

I stand in the doorway with nowhere useful to put my hands, and for one unguarded second we just look at each other across the kitchen.

Then he looks away, picks up whatever sentence we interrupted, and the kitchen reassembles itself around him. Colt cuts in. Maggie says something from the counter. Rhett nods once from the wall.

“I need to grab my things from the office.” My words are a mumble for no one in particular, and I quietly slip out before anyone can comment.

I do a quick sweep of the office, straighten the shelves and line up the chair properly. Then I close my laptop, stack my files, and set the rest of the office back to rights.

I’m about to leave when I hear footsteps in the hall, too heavy to be June’s.

Wyatt fills the doorway and stops when he sees me. “Sorry.” His voice is rough. “Didn’t realize anyone was in here.”

Of course June didn’t ask permission.

“June set me up in here while you were gone.” I keep my tone even. “I’ll get out of your way.”

“You’re not in my way.” The words are soft but his voice gives me nothing.

He crosses to the corkboard, slides a key off its hook, and is gone again before I can think of anything to say. I stand there a moment longer, then shoulder my bag and make my way toward the front door.

I’m almost there when I hear Wyatt’s voice drifting out of the kitchen.

“Why was Daisy in my office, June?”

The answer comes in a saccharine sweet voice. “Because she’s family, Wyatt. And family doesn’t sit in a cabin with a folding table when there’s a perfectly good desk goin’ unused.” The sweetness sharpens. “You’d know that if you’d been here.”

I pick up my pace.

My hand is on the door handle when June’s voice stops me.

“Daisy.”

June is in the hallway, arms folded, smiling at me like she hasn’t just eviscerated her brother in the kitchen on my behalf.

“The auction dinner. Tomorrow night. Seven o’clock at the Blackstone Inn.”

She says it gently, reading my face the way she reads every room she walks into.