Black Hills

to pull on socks, watching as she slid into the bed he’d left warm for her. “Your hair’s wet.”
    “I don’t care. I’m tired.”
    “I know.” He rose, went to the bed. Leaning over, he pressed his lips to hers, as gently as he might to a sleepy child. “I’ll be back later.”
    He trailed a finger down her cheek before he walked to the door. “It wasn’t just sex, Lil. It never was.”
    She kept her eyes closed, listened to him go down. Waited until she’d heard the front door open, then shut behind him.
    And gave in to the turmoil he managed to set off inside her. As the rain pounded, she cried herself to sleep.
     
     
     
    IT RAINED THROUGH the morning, canceling scheduled trail rides and rentals. Coop dealt with the stock at the farm, and gave up cursing the rain and wind after the first hour.
    No point.
    With his grandfather set cleaning and repairing tack, and his grandmother hip-deep in paperwork—both in the warm and dry—he loaded two more horses into the trailer.
    “Plenty of shelter in the hills,” Lucy said as she packed up a lunch for Coop. “I pray that poor man found some. God knows how they’ll find him in this weather.”
    “We’ve got six horses out with volunteers. I’ll take these into town in case they want more. Flash floods are going to be a problem.”
    “So much trouble. Too much. It comes down like the rain.”
    “It’ll clear. If they need more men on the search, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, I’ll be back in a few hours.”
    “You’ll be staying at Lil’s again tonight.”
    He stopped, one hand on the door. “Yes. Until this is settled.”
    “And you and Lil?” She gave him her keen, no-nonsense look. “Are you going to settle that, too?”
    “Working on it.”
    “I don’t know what happened between you all those years ago, and I’m not asking. But if you love that girl, stop wasting time. I’d like to see you settled and happy. And, damn it, I’d like some babies around here.”
    He rubbed the back of his neck. “That might be jumping the gun.”
    “Not from where I’m standing. If you go with the search party, you take a rifle.”
    She handed him the sack holding his lunch, then laid her hands on his cheeks. “You take care of my boy, because he’s precious to me.”
    “Don’t worry.”
    Nothing to worry about, he thought as he dealt with the miserable drive into Deadwood. He wasn’t the one being stalked, or the one lost somewhere in the hills. All he was doing was what came next. Provide the horses, and another pair of eyes if they were needed. And for Lil? All he could do was be there.
    Did he love her?
    He’d always loved her. He’d done what came next there, too, and lived without her. And look where she’d landed. Exactly where she wanted to be—needed to be. Doing what she’d dreamed of doing. She’d made her mark, and in his way so had he.
    Now, well, he’d just keep doing what came next. The problem was, he didn’t know where he stood with her.
    Friend? Occasional lover? A port in the storm?
    Screw that. It wasn’t enough this time around, not for him. So he’d push, because that came next as he saw it. Then both of them would see where he stood.
    In the meantime, he’d do whatever it took to protect her. She’d just have to deal with it.
    Gull came out of the stables as Coop pulled up. Water poured off the brim of his hat, sluiced down the shine of his slicker as he helped unload the horses.
    “Haven’t found him yet,” Gull shouted over the thunder of the rain. “No way to track in this mess. Got flooding between the snowmelt and the rain. It’s bad up there, boss.”
    “They’re going to need more horses.” Coop looked toward the black and angry sky. Even if choppers could go up, what the hell could they see in this? Ground search, such as it was, would be the best bet.
    “They’re working on coordinating or some such on his cell phone. Trying to find the signal.” Gull led his horse into a dry stall. “I don’t know how they’re doing there. But if you don’t need me, I figure I can replace somebody who’s been out in this long enough.”
    “Take whichever mount you want and check in. You keep in touch with me, Gull.”
    “Will do. He’s got any sense he’s holed up in a cave on high ground. Don’t know if he’s got any sense. Everybody else, so I hear, who was up on a trail or camping, they’re accounted for. Just this guy from St. Paul.”
    “It’s a long time to be lost in this