Page 27 of Peach Blossom Hollow

They were quiet for a long moment.

“Does love really matter?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Is it even real? Or is it a trick we tell ourselves? Some old instinct to keep us in the pack and increase our survival?”

“Wow. You’re jaded.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

Violet sat up straighter. “Wait. Have you never fallen in love?”

“I don’t fall in love, no.”

“Have you ever had a chance to?” She thought of the woman he’d dated on the rodeo circuit. The one who’d draped herself over him at the rink when Violet had been pretending to walk away, but had secretly been watching over her shoulder.

“Sure. I guess. Maybe. I don’t know.”

“How do you not know? It’slove.”

“I love my parents and family and would do anything for them. But romantic love is different.”

“A bit.”

They were silent with their own thoughts again.

“How would you describe falling in love?” Leo finally asked.

Violet pondered that for a long moment. “Falling in love is like taking a step off a cliff and trusting that the air will catch you. That you’re not just throwing yourself onto the rocks below, where you’ll get broken. It’s the most difficult thing, the biggest act of trust.”

They sat in thoughtful silence, Leo reaching across the open space on the couch, resting his hand there, palm-up, as if waiting for her to do something. She stared at the callused skin, the hand that worked so hard for himself, for his family. She glanced up at his face, then gently laid her hand in his.

Friends.

Leo lifted their hands, then set them down with a squeeze before releasing her. “Well, it’s a good thing I’m not going to do any of that.”

“Do what?”

“I’m not going to fall for Christine. I’m not going to break her heart and she’s not going to break mine.”

“How can you guarantee that?”

“Because I’m not the kind of man who falls in love.”

CHAPTER 5

Violet heard Leo in the kitchen, starting breakfast, as she climbed off the futon in his guest room. They’d stayed up late—way too late considering that tonight was a game night—chatting on the couch for hours. They’d bared their souls, and it felt like he’d told her stuff he’d never told anyone else. He’d poured out the whole story, in her opinion a heartbreaking one, of how he’d joined the pro rodeo circuit to save the family ranch. He’d given up scholarships and his dream of going to college, staying in the dangerous sport to ensure his three siblings could grow up on the same land he had.

Her growing crush on him certainly wasn’t going anywhere now.

And that spelled trouble, didn’t it? He was looking for Business Barbie to be his bride, and Violet was looking for a man who wanted to put down roots.

It was her friend Hannah’s birthday, and she gave her a quick call. Of course Hannah Murphy, back inSweetheart Creek, had somehow learned where Violet had spent the night, and between telling her son to stop chasing the dog, had drilled her with a hundred and one questions.

Just friends. Just friends. Just friends.

Was there a worse expression in the English language?

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