Page 137 of Knot my First Rodeo

There it is, the real problem.

Not whether she's our scent match, or that I want her, or she wants us. It's the possibility that she wakes up one day, and realizes Virginia fits better, Hunter needs her, that her life back home makes more sense than this one.

I drag a hand across my face.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out to see Tripp’s name. I look at it for a long moment. The phone vibrates in my hand, a second buzz, then a third. I think about letting it ring, about turning it off and watching the weather report and pretending I didn't hear anything.

But I swipe the screen anyway.

"Yeah."

“Hey.” His voice is low, a little breathless but not gloating. “Autumn thinks she saw someone outside our window watching us fu–” he pauses. “Watching us cuddle.”

I sit up immediately. “What?!”

“Yeah, said there was a man in the window, watching through the shitty sheer curtains. She’s spooked. Can you check? See if anyone is out there? If there is, they won’t expect you to come from next door.”

I'm already on my feet. "Hang on."

I walk to the window and pull the curtain aside. The lot is empty, minus a single car under a flickering light. I scan the edge of the building, the sidewalk along the front, the dumpster near the corner. Nothing.

"Nobody here," I say. "I'll go outside and check though."

"Thanks. Let me know."

He hangs up.

I hold the phone in my hand for a second, then I pocket it and grab my jacket from the chair. I step outside far enough to look in both directions.

Nothing.

No person standing near the windows, no shadow disappearing around the corner, no sign anybody had been there at all.

I put my phone back to my ear and call Tripp.

"Nothin'."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

A pause, then I hear Autumn's voice in the background.

"I know what I saw." Even muffled through the phone, she sounds irritated.

"Autumn—"

"No. I do. I turned my head after you double-knotted me, and there was somebody standing there."

I close my eyes, of course that's the detail she focuses on.

"Go ask them for the security tapes."

"Sweetheart, we ain't the police."

"Then pay somebody."

I hear Clint laugh. "That's not how motels work."