Page 39 of If You Loved Me

“Tell me about her.” Something shifted in her gaze. Softness perhaps? Replacing that cold steel that had gotten her through all the losses in her short life.

I grabbed the leather work gloves from the back pocket of my jeans and slid them on. Silence took over me for a few moments, not knowing where to begin.

Then, finally, “She reminds me of the first flower to rise in spring after a long harsh winter. I can tell she’s been through a lot in her life. Maybe not similar to what you and I have gone through, but her own mess. Her own pain. Yet, she fights the grip of that pain and still chooses to be bright and kind and courageous.”

My sister stopped unwinding the chicken wire and shifted toward me.

“What?” I asked.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you speak about someone like that.”

I shrugged. The feelings inside of me became overwhelming. I didn’t know what to do with them all, so I remained quiet.

Callie Rose went back to unwinding the wire so I could nail it to the bottom board.

“Do you think she likes you?” This time my sister kept working, kept pulling hard against the metal.

I chuckled. “I hope so. She seemed to have fun the other night before—” I cut myself off, not wanting to talk about the asshole who’d almost ruined our first date. But more so not wanting to worry Callie Rose.

“Before what?” When I glanced at her, those eyes—our mother’s eyes—were trained on me.

Shit. There was no getting out of this one now that I’d slipped up. I could see it now. Spending the next several days under her fire of peppering questions until she finally wore me down and I told her what had happened.

Saving myself days of misery, I decided to tell her now. “There was a guy at the bar, drunk off his ass. When we walked past him and his buddies, he decided to put his hands where they didn’t belong.” I flexed my right hand, remembering what it had felt like for my fist to meet his face. “He paid the consequence.”

“Fucking hell, Ranger,” she spat. “What were you thinking?”

My spine stiffened at her tone. The fear that laced the anger.

My mouth popped open with a retort I knew I’d regret, so I slammed my lips shut.

“Do you have any idea how easy it would be to get sent back to prison after already being found guilty of a violent charge?”

Frustration zipped through me as I stood, no longer able to remain in the small space. “You don’t think I know that?Iwas the one sitting behind those bars, Callie Rose. I know the risk.”

She took a step toward me, anger crumpling her face. “Then why do it? Why take the risk for someone you barely know?”

“Because!” I threw my hands in the air and she flinched. Not because she was afraid, but because I’d always had a leash on my emotions. Always controlled. Always unfeeling.

My chest heaved from the cold air hitting my lungs. “Because for the first time since mom and dad were gone and I fucked up my entire life…I finally feel like there might be a chance for something more. And I can’t tell you why she makes me feel this way. But she does. And just like I’d lay my life down for you and Miles, I’d protect her from the evil of this world. Even if it meant sacrificing myself.”

She stared at the dirt for a long while until I wasn’t sure if she was going to respond at all. Then she turned to me and the look on my sister’s face nearly broke me as she said, “But who protectsyou, Ranger? We don’t live in a fair and just world where the good guy gets to walk away unscathed. Our world is fucked up. You’re not invincible. You can’t go around protecting everyone. Because when you do, there areconsequences. Veryrealconsequences.” Her voice broke, along with my heart.

“Maybe Sarah is everything you’ve ever wanted. Ever needed in a partner. And maybe it’s selfish of me to say this, but I don’t want you to be betrayed bythosepeople again. Sarah…she’s part of that world. She grew up as one of them.”

I shook my head. “She’s not like them, Cal. She’s not.”

She took another step toward me, taking my gloved hands in hers. “Maybe she isn’t. God”—she closed her eyes for a moment, her ebony hair shimmering as her head shook side-to-side—“I hope she’s not like them. But her parents are. What will that mean if you let this go on any further?”

I stared back at my sister. Seeing the pain of my decisions etched into the planes of her beautiful face.

Emotions. Too many emotions swirled through me. I’d learned to handle the anger. Deep breaths and all that shit. Butthis.

Everything Callie Rose said was right. Sarah came from a blue blood family and it wasn’t a secret just how far their prejudices ran against people like me. I wasn’t a lawyer or a doctor. I grew up nearly poor as dirt. I was a fucking cattle rancher for Christ’s sake.

Logic was barking at me. Warning me to stay away. To listen to my sister because even though that guy had just been a drunken bastard in a bar, he could have easily been someone of influence. Someone with more money and resources than me. It wouldn’t have changed what I’d done because any man who touched a woman without her permissionwas on my permanent shit list. But my sister was right. One punch could have landed me right back in prison.

The thought of gray stone walls and iron bars had me grinding my molars together. I couldn’t go back.Wouldn’t.

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