Page 19 of In Full Bloom

Though, Katie doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who wouldn’t handle it herself. She’s shown me repeatedly she can handle herselfandmy bullshit. I like that about her.

As much as the thought of Katie reporting that moment stresses me out, a tiny, optimistic part of my brain recalls the moment she almost leaned into the touch, when she asked what I meant by me saying I couldn’t handle her getting hurt.

Ireallyliked the look in her eye then and I have to extinguish the spark of hope that flares every time I think of those brief seconds.

I watch Katie go, then turn to Max, who’s standing there with his hands in his pockets, smirking like a class-A asshole.

“What the hell was that about?” I manage to say, trying to keep my voice casual and not like I want to throttle him for being an ass and scaring her off.

He pats me on the shoulder. “Like I said, watch out for that one. She’s a pain in the ass, total trouble maker. Screws upeverything and then bails, leaving total destruction in her wake.” What he’s saying should sound like a joke, but he’s got a dark look in his eye that makes me think he’s deadly serious about this. “Olivia will never turn her away, so I guess she’s come back crying victim again. Just be careful, especially with Sadie. You don’t want her getting hurt.”

By the timeI get back to the farm, Katie has returned the ute, but she’s nowhere in sight. Violet tells me she’s at the function venue when I call into the main house to say hello to Sadie and drop off the lunch I bought in town for them.

I skid my motorbike to a stop outside the refurbished barn and stride inside.

I’ve been simmering on what Max said the whole way home, going around and around in circles. His warning about watching out for Katie and protecting Sadie from her, doesn’t sit right, not after seeing Katie interact with Sadie, Olivia and Violet over the past two weeks. How she interacts with me is another story, because I’m pretty sure the night we met, I leaned into a persona she actually can’t stand, and now I’ve been permanently branded with that.

Occasionally the memory of brushing my fingers against her skin in the barn earlier pops up. It pays not to think about it, but the feel of her skin isn’t so easy to ignore. The memory of it makes me simmer in a whole different way.

What the fuck was I thinking?

I hadn’t been. That’s the wholeproblem.

I was freaking out that she could have gotten seriously hurt, and then she got all feisty and up in my space. I couldn’t resist it.

Then I really stuck my foot in it when I said I wouldn’t be able to bear her being hurt. She questioned me with a mixture of scepticism and something I’m refusing to believe was hope, but looked a lot like it, in her face.

It was seeing that emotion that snapped me out of it. Because Katie isn’t hoping for more. She’s probably hoping I fall into a hole and she never has to see me again.

She definitely isn’t hoping for me to touch her, or care about her, or want her more than I’ve ever wanted anything.

She doesn’t need to hope for that anyway. Me wanting her more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life is a foregone conclusion.

Katie’s inside the function centre building, unstacking and arranging chairs and tables. She barely glances up as I approach.

“Want to tell me what the hell happened in town?” I ask. I don’t mean for it to come out as harsh as it does, but once the words are out, it’s too late. I should be trying to apologise to her, not having another go at her.

“Not really,” she says, then reaches for another chair.

I grab hold of it, stopping her from sliding it into its correct position. I take a breath and force my voice to soften. “Why’s he warning me to watch out for you, especially when it comes to Sadie?”

“That fuckingbastard,” she mutters under her breath. Then to me she says, “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

“When it comes to Sadie, all I do is worry. So please tell me what happened?”

She turns on me, eyes blazing. “All you need to be concerned about,cowboy,” she says, slinging the nickname like a slur, “is how well I do my job. You don’t need to know a single thing about my personal life.”

The way she speaks to me, with that fire in her voice, takes me straight back to night one. “Oh, come on, princess, what’d he do? Break your heart? Or did you break his?” I can’t help it, but I love the way she flares up when I call her princess. It’s so dumb, and it’s one hundred percent a dick move, but when her eyes flash and she takes a deep breath, standing taller with her hands fisting on her hips, it’s such a turn on.

“Neither, you asshole. If you must know, I dated his brother,” she snaps.

“His brother?” I didn’t know Max had a brother. A younger sister, yes, but I’ve never heard mention of a brother.

Katie nods, face grim and eyes dark. “His twin.”

Woah, okay. I try and put pieces of the puzzle together, but I’m missing too many, and Katie is glaring at me like she’d like to kill me with her eyes.

“I didn’t know he had a brother, let alone a twin,” I say eventually, hoping she’ll indulge me with an explanation.

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