Page 85 of Live, Ranch, Love

Damn, I think I might be in love with Aurora Jones.

I should tell her, right?

“Wyatt?” Holly snaps me back to reality, and she’s even closer, leaning towards me like she’s trying to figure out what’s going on in my head. All I know is I need to get her out of here, so I can go find Aurora. Nothing else matters right now.

“Sorry.” I shake my head. “Look, Holly, everyone gets doubts about big steps like this—it’s natural. You and Easton are good together, otherwise you wouldn’t have said yes. And you can’t compare what you have to what Aurora and I looked like that night because it was all for show—”

“So, you’re not together?” Holly’s blue eyes flare.

I sputter—because no, I guess we’re not technically together yet, but I’ll be damned if I spend another second with that as the truth.

I’m just about to stand and suggest Holly leaves, but a knock comes at the door. It’s enough to distract me when Holly lunges forwards, grabbing my face and crashing her lips against mine.

Just as the front door swings open.

thirty-six

Aurora

White hot rage burns through me. I can’t move. Not even as that rage continues to pound at my heart until it shatters into a million pieces.

I feel like I’m in a nightmare, reliving the worst parts of my life. Walking into his place, blissfully unaware of what he’d been doing whilst I was away. The beautiful blonde girl wrapped around him. The one that I couldn’t possibly compare to and instantly destroys the walls of self-confidence I’ve been building.

But this time it’s worse, because she’s not just a girl he follows on Instagram, she’s the girl he’s been heartbroken over for years. The one I stupidly thought I might have helped him move on from and actually believed he’d left behind, for me. I should’ve trusted myself last weekend when I found out he kissed me after he discovered that she was engaged.

I’m completely frozen, every inch of me seized up, unable to let go of the door handle. Partly through the fear that if I’m not holding something then I might crumble.

Why does this hurt so much?

It never felt like this when I caught Jake. It was painful and heart-breaking, but never like this. This feels like the betrayal has ripped me completely apart, torn me to pieces, gutted my soul. This feels like something that can never be undone.

I’d come here to apologise for getting so worked up about how he acted towards Jake. That it’s only because running the retreat is just an excuse to be able to stay here with him, even though it’s scary that I want that so soon. To tell him how grateful I was for him trusting me when I let Jake stay.

I’m such a fool.

I’m such a bloody fool.

This is what I get for jumping into bed with the handsome cowboy when I clearly wasn’t fully healed from my own heartbreak. When I’m lonely and lost. I should never have trusted the butterflies.

Wyatt shoves Holly away from him, yelling, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Then I’m finally in his eyeline. His eyes lock onto mine, flaring as his face pales and he jumps to his feet.

“Well, this feels an awful lot like déjà vu,” I laugh and immediately head back out, ready to slam the door—

“Aurora, it’s not what you think.” Wyatt grabs the door before I can shut it behind me, and I stumble a little as I whip back around. I’ve heard those words before. They mean nothing.

“You mean you weren’t just kissing your ex-girlfriend?” I snap, each word pushed through gritted teeth. My jaw is aching.

“She kissed me—not the other way around, I promise,” Wyatt insists, wild black eyes shining. He goes to step forward but halts when I shuffle backwards against the fence, needing something to support me whilst everything else starts to fall apart.

Because he said he’d always hold me up, but now it feels like he’s pulled the rug from beneath my feet.

I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to say. I trusted him, and he could be telling the truth, but all I can see right now are the torturous flashes of Holly on him and the girl on Jake. Everything’s so mixed in my mind, I try to shake my head, to see if it can separate the two instances.

“Tell her, Holly,” Wyatt demands, almost growling as he turns to his ex who just stands there and shrugs, opening her mouth but never confirming, or denying.

“Seriously?” he shouts at her, the word a thunderous rumble.

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