“You know, instead of thinking about it I could bring one of those guys inside home.”

He stopped, everything in him resisting it.

He didn’t mind watching Sammy flirt. There was an ease to it that he had always admired.

But he had never watched her take a man home, and he wasn’t about to start doing it now.

“You do that,” he said, “and I will follow you and I will drag him right back out of your bed.”

Her lips twitched. “You can’t save me from everything, Ryder. Least of all myself.”

“But there’s no point to me if I don’t try.”

And in that moment they were at a stalemate, because she knew it was true. Because she knew as well as he did that she had told him all this to give him a chance to weigh in. That she was goading him and taunting him to see what he would do. And that if he did nothing she would be damned disappointed.

It was Sammy all up. It was part of how they were. Her father had hurt her with his fists. Her mother had hurt her by not protecting her.

Ryder in turn protected her. Kept her safe. Treated her like she was glass sometimes.

And there were times Sammy pushed for that, especially when she felt wounded.

This was coming from her fight with her mom. It was coming from her feeling injured and wanting a shield.

He could indulge that. It wouldn’t hurt him.

“I suppose that’s true,” she said, clearly pleased she’d gotten a reaction from it.

“No suppose about it,” he said, holding the saloon door open for her. She scrunched her face at him.

“Sometimes it’s a damn menace that you know me so well.”

“Well, you can still surprise me. Let that keep you warm tonight.”

Because God knew if another man kept her warm tonight he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

Mostly because he was worried she would go ahead and follow through with the pregnancy thing.

And not for any other reason.

As they took their seat back at the family table, joining everyone, who thought nothing of the fact that the two of them had slipped off for a few minutes of alone time, he cemented that fact in himself.

This was just a weird, crazy night. And that was all.

Nothing was going to change.

Nothing major. Sammy liked a shock, but that was it.

In the end, she would listen to reason. She always did, if only because he was there to act as the reason.

She might say that he didn’t need to protect her, but he knew the truth.

And that was what he would do.

CHAPTER THREE

SAMMY AND RYDER had a long-standing gentleman’s bacon agreement that she was seriously considering ignoring today. Still, she had woken up before dawn, which was when she had to wake up if she wanted to do breakfast with Ryder, and her body had automatically sensed that it was Saturday morning, and that there should be a bacon situation.