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you that.” The clench of his jaw mirrored the anger in his voice.
    “She was my mother and I loved her. I’ve done a lot of stupid things in my life, some selfish, but the rumors about this are wrong.”
    She felt his gaze on her cheek. The skin heated under his attention. She didn’t look at him because she doubted her ability to say anything coherent or maintain her control.
    His fingers tickled her chin as he turned her head to him. “You are a constant surprise, Cassidy Clarke.”
    “Is that a good thing?”
    “It’s not a bad one.”
    The tug, the pull. The intensity of the moment grabbed her hard. Shook her with enough force to rattle her bones. Whatever whirled around them blocked out everything but the bright fall sunshine streaming in through the mass of leaves above them.
    She stood up, breaking the connection before her common sense became a casualty of her pulsing attraction to this man. A second later he was right there next to her. So close she could feel his breath on her cheek and smell a hint of his mint shampoo. His shoulders blocked her view of the yard and his intense gaze never left her face.
    “So now what?” She whispered the question because talking in a normal voice seemed out of place.
    “I fight back the urge to kiss you.”
    His hands didn’t move. He didn’t even shift. Which was good because she doubted she would have been able to walk away if he touched her.
    “That would be wise.”
    Like that, the spell broke. The zap between them blinked out, taking the huge surge of energy with it. The bubbling promise left in its wake was not one ounce more comfortable or controllable.
    He must have sensed it too because he fell back on his flirty tone. “And I go plan some smart conversation for our date tonight.”
    “I don’t remember saying I would come.”
    He wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh, you’ll come.”
    She laughed before she could stop it. “Are still talking about dinner?”
    “Not really.”

Chapter Four
    Mitch brought the tractor to a stop next to a thick wooded patch on the property. This area had long ago been marked off for new growth. Spence and Austin’s father had started the nursery and continued to baby this spot despite his informal retirement. With the older man in Washington, D.C. for a few weeks doing some side work for the U.S. Forest Service with Austin, the area was empty most of the time. That’s why the call from Travis about an emergency had brought Mitch racing to get there.
    He jumped off the seat and walked over to join Travis in staring at the ground. “What’s wrong?”
    “I think we have a problem.”
    Mitch saw dirt, fallen leaves and broken branches. None of that amounted to a surprise thinking they worked on acres of land filled with trees. There were leaf blowers and wood chippers running all the time. “Spencer? Customers? Narrow it down to a topic for me.”
    “Trespassing.”
    Mitch glanced around and saw no one but the two of them for what looked like miles. “You’ll probably need to give me a few more clues.”
    “I found a rolled-up tent, some cooking supplies and a small bag.” Travis stepped over a fallen tree trunk with his sturdy work boots crunching on the ground beneath him and lifted an olive-green tarp. “Someone hid all of this here.”
    Mitch sat on the trunk and opened the top of the heavy canvass. Women’s clothes and fleece mittens. When he shook the bag, he heard a metal clanking. After digging deeper, he took out four pear-shaped rings that fit in the palm of his hand. He didn’t know much about sports that required ropes, preferring to keep his feet on the ground and his body at sea level whenever possible, but he recognized a carabineer. Had seen Austin use them in his work as an arborist when climbing trees. Knew serious mountain climbers used them. And there just happened to be an expert climber hanging around.
    Looked like it was time to have a serious chat with Cassidy.
    Mitch balanced the links in his