Constant Risk. Janie Crouch

his head. “Believe me, you two are so gooey, the whole town knows. Don’t make the proposal more complicated than it needs to be.”

      They both finished their meal and pushed their plates toward the center of the booth. “I’m not making it complicated. I just want to make it perfect.”

      They both got up from the booth and walked over to pay the bill.

      “It’s on me,” Noah said. “I want to be the one who buys you your last meal as a single man.”

      “I’m trying to keep this under wraps,” Tanner muttered. “You know how the gossip mill is around here. I—”

      Tanner stopped talking as Mrs. Andrews came back through the swinging kitchen door.

      “You boys done?”

      “Yes, ma’am,” Noah said. “I’d like to buy my brother’s lunch.”

      “How about lunch is on the house.” Mrs. Andrews winked at them. “As long as Tanner doesn’t take too long asking Bree to marry him.”

       Damn it.

      He gave the older woman a tight smile. “I’m trying to keep that on the down low, Mrs. Andrews. I don’t want Bree to figure it out.”

      “My lips are sealed. And you know Bree, this is all so new to her she’ll never see it coming.”

      But was she ready? Tanner didn’t have any doubt about their love for each other, but was this the right time to even ask this of her? Maybe she needed more time. A chance to be on her own without anyone chasing after her, trying to trap or kill her. It was all she’d ever known.

      Tanner was ready to start their forever right away, putting all that behind them.

      “Where you heading now?”

      “I’m supposed to meet Bree and Cassandra over at that abandoned office building on the south side of town.”

      “What are they doing over there?”

      “Honestly, I’m not 100 percent sure. Bree just said Cassandra had a plan for expanding.”

      Noah looked at him with concern as they walked out of the diner.

      “You don’t think she’s planning on having another baby, do you?”

      Tanner shook his head. “It’s our sister. Hell if I ever know what she means.”

      “I’m coming with you. In case you need backup.”

      Tanner chuckled. Cassandra had certainly talked the two of them into a number of stupid things over the years. Backup wasn’t a ridiculous idea.

      “Well, for God’s sake don’t mention the engagement ring to Cass,” Tanner said. “You know how close she and Bree have gotten. And Cass definitely can’t keep any sort of secret.”

      Tanner never would’ve thought that his sister and his hopefully soon-to-be fiancée would ever get along so well with one another, particularly after their rocky start a few months ago. Cass, when she found out about Bree’s computer skills, had immediately demanded Bree teach computer classes at Risk Peak’s women’s shelter.

      Bree had laughed at her.

      Cassandra hadn’t understood Bree’s complicated history with computers. How she was both so good with them and terrified of them at the same time.

      But Bree had agreed to try.

      She might’ve been frightened to teach classes at the beginning, but there was no doubt she was incredibly talented when it came to sharing her skills with others. It had basically become her full-time job over the past few months. And Cassandra had become one of Bree’s best friends.

      Risk Peak was not that big, and it didn’t take Tanner and Noah long to walk from the diner to the office building. The building itself had sat empty for nearly a year since the owner had died right at the end of construction, causing legal hassles as the property was left to his children, both of whom were going through a divorce.

      Tanner had no idea what his sister could have planned here.

      “There he is,” Cassandra called out when he and Noah entered. “And he brought my other favorite brother.” Cass stepped closer to Bree and nudged her with her shoulder. “Probably because Tanner felt like he needed backup.”

      Cass and Noah immediately started joking with each other but Tanner ignored them. All he could see was Bree and her soft smile. He walked over to her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

      “Hey,” he whispered. Had it really just been a few hours since he’d seen her last? Noah was right. He did have it bad.

      “Hey, yourself.” She pressed closer. “I missed you.”

      “Cass is right though. I did bring Noah as backup. You never know what sort of craziness is going to result when Cass announces she has news.”

      Bree smiled. “This is pretty good news.”

      “Okay, lovebirds, keep it in your pants until you get home,” Cass called out.

      Tanner rolled his eyes, but stepped away—slightly—from Bree. “Mom didn’t discipline you enough as a kid.”

      Cass hooked a hand on her hip. “That’s because she was too busy chasing around after you two hooligans. Besides, I was an angel.”

      Everybody broke out in laughter at that.

      “All right, so what is the big expansion surprise?” Tanner asked.

      “This is,” Bree said, stepping away from him and spinning around with one arm out.

      “Are you guys going to open an office?” Noah asked.

      Cass smiled. “No, even better. We’ve gotten a grant and approval to renovate this building and use it as a long-term women’s shelter.”

      Tanner stepped away from her, looking around, trying to picture it. It wasn’t difficult. Tear out some of the walls, add more bathrooms... The place was already in great structural shape overall.

      But doing this would be a much-bigger commitment for Bree and Cassandra than the shelter. He looked over at Bree. “So someone will need to be living here full-time?”

      Was that what she wanted? She seemed to love the ranch, but maybe it was too isolated for her. For the first time in her life she was starting to make friends. Maybe she didn’t want to be thirty minutes away from the town and the people here.

      “We’re still working out the details of that,” Cass said. “But the point is, we’re going to be able to help a lot more women.”

      He wanted to argue, to ask for details, demand how this was going to fit into the life he’d been envisioning, but realized how unreasonable that would be. Especially given the excitement on both Bree’s and Cassandra’s faces.

      Teaching these classes and helping these women was important to Bree. She knew what it was like to live in fear and not have many options.

      Far be it from Tanner to try to limit her empowerment by stopping her from empowering others.

      “I think it will work great,” he finally said.

      “Really?” Bree studied him, obviously picking up on some of his initial hesitation. “I think it could really be amazing.”

      “Absolutely.” He gave her a nod.

      “See? I told you.” Cass said, turning to Noah and Tanner. “Bree didn’t want to make any decisions until after Tanner had seen the building.”

      Tanner walked back over to Bree, feeling the engagement ring in his pocket as he reached to put his arm around her. If this was really what she wanted, maybe engagement was going to have to wait.

      Maybe a long time.

      Damn it.