She hadn’t expected this.

      Boone should be in the background, quietly observing. And yet here she sat with her bodyguard and his family, talking of cattle and fixing fences.

      A hand settled on her back. She glanced at the man next to her; his dark eyes crinkled at the corners and his mouth quirked, revealing a dimple in his left cheek.

      He opened his mouth as if to say something, but a heavy knock on the front door interrupted. He pushed away from the table.

      “I think I’ll get that.” His gaze landed on Kayla. “You stay right where you are until I say otherwise.”

      “They wouldn’t come here,” she said.

      “We don’t know what they would or wouldn’t do, because we don’t know who they are. Stay.” He walked away.

      Kayla avoided looking at the people who still remained at the table. She knew they were looking at her. She knew that her life had invaded theirs.

      And she knew that her bodyguard might seem like a relaxed cowboy, but he wasn’t. He was the man standing between her and the unknown.