He hesitated while holding the door. Not because it was a strange place and it felt odd just going in, because Cutter had made it quite clear he was if not welcome, at least expected. No, he hesitated because he had the strangest feeling that stepping through that door was going to change everything. That being face-to-face with Amanda again was going to shatter what he’d gained by going home and spending long days riding the Palouse. He hadn’t found absolution there, for it wasn’t to be found, but he had achieved a rather fragile peace. And she was the one person most capable of shattering it.

Cutter’s head came back out the door, as if to ask why he wasn’t already inside.

“You’d better come in,” Quinn’s voice called from inside. “He won’t give up until you do.”

Adam looked down into Cutter’s dark eyes. There were the gold flecks he’d noticed yesterday, giving the dog’s stare a depth he wasn’t used to seeing in an animal. But he read the truth of Quinn’s words in the intensity of that gaze.

He stepped inside. And was startled. Because the bottom floor of this rather industrial-looking building was anything but. Instead it looked like the massive great room of a home, with comfortable seating of four chairs and a sofa in a square around a thick rug laid out before a gas fireplace that was burning merrily, no doubt supplying the warmth he could already feel. At the back on the left was a small but efficient-looking kitchen, on the right was a door open just enough to see it was a bathroom, and another door beside it that was closed.

He noticed all this as if he was taking inventory. And he knew it was to avoid looking at the three people seated in front of that fire. Quinn and Hayley in the armchairs on one side, and in one of the chairs on the other side, the one closest to the fire... Amanda. He didn’t have to look to verify it was her, he could feel it.

He noted he was on a tile floor, and there was a long row of hooks on the wall, so he guessed this was essentially a mudroom to shed wet things. His jacket definitely qualified, so he pulled it off and hung it on one of the hooks. There was a mat to dry his feet, so he used that, as well. Noticed also a stack of towels in a basket by a bench where he guessed you could sit and take off boots and shoes if they were wet enough. He didn’t think his were from just that walk from his truck.

Cutter sat next to the basket, just watching him.