Chapter 4
ELODIE
For a split second after I woke, panic flared. My body braced for cold vinyl seats and stiff joints, but then I shifted and felt soft sheets beneath my hands and caught the faint scent of wood smoke lingering in the air.
Garner’s cabin.
I sat up slowly, blinking as my eyes adjusted. Late morning light filtered through the small window. I must’ve slept for hours.
A quiet knock sounded at the door.
“Hey,” Garner’s voice came through softly. “You awake?”
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood. “Yeah.”
He waited until I opened the door before speaking, giving me space even now. “I’m heading out to check the site. Thought I’d see if you wanted to come with me.”
I hesitated. “The construction site?”
He nodded. “Normally, I’d go alone, but…” He paused, clearly choosing his words. “There’s been some trouble lately, so I’d feel better if you stayed where I could see you. Especially since you were there last night.”
My instinct was to insist I’d be fine on my own. That reflex had been built over the years. I’d learned the hard way not to be a burden. But something about the way he looked at me, concerned without being overbearing, made me rethink my answer.
“Okay,” I replied after a moment. “I can come.”
Relief flickered across his face before he masked it. “Good. We’ll have a snack first.”
“Oh, I don’t need—”
My words broke off when he rubbed his flat stomach. “You’re not going to make me eat alone, are you?”
I shook my head with a soft laugh. “I guess not when you put it that way.”
As he turned away to give me time to get ready, it hit me how strange it was to be included without having to ask. And comforting.
We had a quick—but not small—snack before we got in his truck to head to the site. I was surprised by how easily I left my car behind, as though I trusted his neighbors to watch over my most prized possession while we were gone. But I kept my backpack with me.
The construction site looked different in the daylight. Stripped back to dirt and timber, with excavators and bulldozers I hadn’t noticed last night.
Garner walked a few steps ahead of me, unhurried but alert, his gaze constantly scanning the ground.
“These flags mark the property boundaries,” he explained, gesturing toward a row of bright survey markers stretching along the tree line. “Equipment stays inside them, same with the access roads.”
We rounded a slight bend near the edge of the site, where the ground sloped gently toward the trees.
That’s when I noticed one of the survey markers was tipped over, its bright flag half-buried in mud. The soil around it looked disturbed, churned more than the rest of the ground, like something heavy had passed through recently.
Garner must’ve spotted it too because he veered in that direction. The change in him was subtle but unmistakable—every muscle going still as his gaze locked onto the marker. He crouched beside it, careful as he inspected the ground, his expression unreadable.
He pressed the marker back into place, testing its resistance. It held firm under his hand.
“Storm wouldn’t do this.” He glanced back at me. “Too deliberate.”
He wasn’t alarmed, but he was intensely alert. And somehow, that worried me more than if he’d cursed or raised his voice.
Garner moved through the site with an easy confidence that made it clear he belonged here. He checked the excavator first, running a practiced hand along the metal housing before climbing up to peer inside. He made a few notes on his phone, then moved on without fuss.
I stayed a few steps back, not wanting to get in the way, but I couldn’t stop watching him.
Something was mesmerizing about the way he worked.
I noticed the strength in his hands as he tested bolts and controls.
The way his attention sharpened when he focused on a problem, his brow creasing slightly before smoothing again once he’d figured it out.
Everything he did felt deliberate and controlled.
“This one’s fine.” He glanced back at me. “But I’ll have maintenance check it anyway. Better safe than sorry.”
As we walked farther along the site, he pointed things out without being asked. He explained why the ground needed time to settle, how the drainage had to be redirected after the storm, what signs he watched for when something wasn’t right.
No one had ever included me like this before, not without expecting something else in return.
I’d always been on the outside of other people’s lives, peering in without being invited. But Garner spoke as if I belonged here. As if my curiosity mattered.
Watching him work, I understood something that unsettled me more than the potential sabotage ever could.
I didn’t just feel safe with him. I felt seen.
A sharp metallic shriek split the air, followed by a grinding thud that vibrated through the ground beneath my feet. I startled hard, my pulse spiking as the excavator behind us lurched unexpectedly, its arm jerking sideways with a groan of stressed hydraulics.
“Garner—”
I didn’t even finish the word before my heel slipped on loose gravel. The world tilted, my balance gone as I stumbled backward.
Firm hands caught me instantly, hauling me back against a solid chest before I could hit the ground. The impact knocked the breath from me. Not from pain, but from how fast everything happened. One second I was falling, the next I was held tight, my back pressed flush to Garner’s front.
“It’s okay.” His voice was rough. “I’ve got you.”
His heart hammered against my spine. I could feel it through his jacket, fast and furious, like he’d just sprinted a mile. His hands tightened for a split second before sliding down my arms as he turned me gently to face him.
“Are you hurt?” His eyes searched my face, a muscle jumping in his jaw.
“I-I’m okay,” I managed, fisting my hands in the front of his jacket. “I just got startled.”
He scanned me anyway, his gaze sweeping from my feet and back up to my face. When he was satisfied, he let out a slow breath through his nose.
“I don’t know how that happened.” He twisted his neck to look back toward the machine. His body stayed angled toward me, like he was shielding me without thinking about it.
The excavator sat still now, its clawed scooper resting on the ground as though it had been there all along.
Garner’s hand lingered at my elbow. “I need you to stay close to me.”
“With as quick as your reflexes are, I’m not going to argue.” My voice was steadier than I felt.
Garner didn’t move right away. Neither did I.
For a suspended heartbeat, the world narrowed to the space between us. His arms were still around me, and my palms rested against his chest where his heart thundered beneath my hands.
I tilted my head without realizing it, my breath catching as his amber gaze dropped to my mouth. The air between us felt thick. Electric.
Awareness burned hot under my skin, gathering low in my belly in a way that left me dizzy.
I didn’t understand it. I only knew I didn’t want him to let go.
His hands flexed, his fingers tightening at my sides like he was fighting himself. For one impossible second, I thought he might close the distance between us. That he might kiss me.
Then he stepped back, and I felt like I lost something more important than his warmth.
“I’m sorry you were startled.” His voice was rougher than before.
“It’s okay.”
My response wasn’t brilliant, but it was all I could come up with at the moment.
“Machines don’t just move on their own,” he murmured, switching back into business mode. “I’ll shut the site down until I know why it did.”
I nodded, though my thoughts felt tangled and confused.
As he turned away, a strange ache settled in my chest—an unfamiliar disappointment I didn’t yet have a name for. I only knew I wanted him closer again. And I didn’t understand why.