Page 92 of Love, Hate, Love

“I know Kade moved your things, and I moved them again to my cabin, now our cabin.”

“What—”

“Don’t you dare try to argue with me. You want to see stubborn? You haven’t seen anything yet.”

She steered me to her cabin and then shoved me in. In the corner, she’d already gotten another bed moved in.

“You’re staying here, and I don’t care what you say.”

I didn’t say anything as I walked over and sat on the bed. Finally, with a shaking voice, I said, “Thank you.”

She sat next to me, handed me a box of tissues, and then wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

“I locked the door. No one will know but me if you have another good cry.”

For only the second time in my adult life, I bawled like a baby.

Chapter41

Leah

I’d just finished bringingPrincess out to one of the pastures when Kade walked out of the ranch office, scanning the horizon. It was the first time we’d seen each other today. Our eyes locked.

He took a determined step toward me, and I was a big, mixed-up bag of emotions. I didn’t know if I wanted to growl or purr, cozy up to him or scratch his eyes out. Probably both.

He stopped in front of me, but not as close as he would’ve yesterday. We were back to acquaintance spacing, and it felt chilly, like the sun had ducked behind a bunch of gray clouds. I shouldn’t want the warmth he gave, but I did anyway. Logic wasn’t that comforting on a frigid day. Sometimes even when you knew it was wrong, you wanted to settle into the cozy heat of delusion and what could’ve been.

I swallowed, waiting to hear what he’d say. Was he going to beg forgiveness? Make a string of promises? Would I cave? Everything in me wanted to. I could already hear the excuses piling up in my head, prewritten for him. And maybe if he just put up enough of a fight, I could believe there was a chance for us.

“You had a call from your lawyer. You need to go call him back.” He tilted his head toward the ranch.

My anxiety quickly found a new source. Had someone at the wedding seen Kade and me? Did they know I’d slept with him? Were they pulling me out of here? Sending me to prison? Why else would he be calling me?

I dropped my gaze to the ground, trying to puzzle through what was coming at me before I dealt with the crash. I might’ve said I preferred prison last night, but now common sense had fully returned. I took a few deep breaths of cool air, enough to stop me from vomiting.

“It’ll be fine.” Kade lifted his hand toward me but dropped it back to his side, and then crossed his arms in front of his chest, as if he needed to remind himself not to touch me.

“You know what he wants?” I asked, ignoring our feud for the moment, my anxiety overruling my current anger at Kade.

“He didn’t sound as if it were bad.”

“You don’t know him. He might be happy if I go to prison.” My lawyer would probably bust out a bottle of bubbly.

“You’re not going to prison. I’d move you to some remote island before I’d ever let that happen.” There was steel in his voice, as if he had control of everything and anything he wanted via sheer determination.

It was one of the things I usually loved about him and yet found infuriating right now.

“You can’t fix everything,” I said.

“No. Noteverything.” As he stared at me, it was clear he was talking about us.

For someone who’d fought so hard for his ranch, he was giving up awfully easy on us.

There was no point in standing there and waiting for something that wasn’t coming. I nodded and then walked to the office, dialing my lawyer.

“Leah, I’ve got some good news for you,” he said, definitely in a cheery mood. “Your name has been cleared.”

“Cleared?” I repeated.

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