“That means yes.” Wyatt’s regret turned to fury.

“Let him go, Wyatt.” She admitted privately she wasn’t doing her best to pull him off the man.

“A father might swat a child’s backside for disobedience. But your daughter is a married woman. You lost any right to discipline her long ago. And slapping her so hard you left a mark on her face doesn’t count as discipline by anyone’s reckoning.”

Then, speaking slowly, as if addressing a very stupid, and slightly deaf, man, Wyatt said, “And as for Molly, there is no time ever when it’s right to leave bruises on your housekeeper.”

Wyatt shook him just a little. “You and Molly are not now, nor are you ever gonna be more to each other. You should abandon all your hopes, Oliver.”

Wyatt let him go with a tight shove that made him stumble back.

Mr. Hawkins coughed and covered his neck with his own hands. He backed farther away until the couch was between him and the rest of the room. He didn’t speak. Didn’t protest or try to grab anyone again.

But his eyes . . . all pretense of having hopes for something between them, all pretense of a boss treating his employee correctly, was gone, replaced by pure hatred. Molly would see his loathing for the rest of her life. The only real trouble was that he wasn’t looking at her with loathing. He was looking at Wyatt.

This man who lived near where Wyatt had been shot. Controlling a shudder, Molly tore away from watching him.

“Molly, do you have things to gather?” Wyatt asked, never looking away from Mr. Hawkins.

Molly was almost completely packed, having had plans to slip away tonight. “I won’t be but a minute.”

She rushed out of the room, partly hurrying to get her things. Partly running away from the deadly glare in Mr. Hawkins’s eyes. She grabbed her satchel, stuffed the few things in it that were still left out, and met her family in the kitchen. Her family. Kevin, yes. Win, after only a second of hesitation she thought, Yes, Win is my sister.

Wyatt?

Her heart warmed as she thought of how he’d cut off what might have been humiliating words from Mr. Hawkins.

And that’s when she realized something that made her eyes spark with pleasure.

Kevin was ahead of her ushering Win out the back door. Wyatt was behind her, but close enough he noticed the spark.

“What can you possibly find to like in this mess?”

Then they were outside. Wyatt had four horses tied at a hitching post only steps from the door. They were mounted up and moving before Molly got a chance to answer.

“Molly thinks something’s funny?” Kevin scowled at her, then looked at Win’s swollen, red cheek.