Page 18 of The Cowboy's Best Friend

“I read it.” His lip curled. “It’s a joke. You’re not leaving me, Sierra. Where would you go?”

“I’ve already gone.” She held his gaze. “I’m taking the summer off, I guess you could say. I quit my job at my dad’s already. I’ll be reassessing in September.”

Though now she added amaybeto that. The reassessment had seemed critical when she was getting the nerve to leave. Now she couldn’t imagine why she’d bother.

“No,” her husband said.

Sierra felt frozen again because the way he said that was so stark. But he was looking at her in that same friendly manner of his and the disconnect seemed to blare inside of her, like reverb from a speaker.

Her coffee drink was making her hand ache, it was so cold. Sierra took that as a sign. She held his gaze, lifted the straw to her mouth, and took a loud, slurping gulp of it.

And that was better, because his gaze flickered. A vast improvement on that fake friendly face he liked to wear.

“I think you’re misunderstanding me,” Sierra said, after another outrageously long pull on her straw, even noisier this time. “I’m not asking for your permission.”

“That’s fine,” Matty said nonchalantly. “You can either get your ass back home, stop acting like the moron you are, Sierra, or we can file for divorce. Immediately.”

This wasn’t the first time that she’d been in a position like this with him. In high school, when she heard one too many rumors and had confronted him, he’d said something a little too much like this.Break up with me, then.

She hadn’t.

During their long distance college years, when she’d tried to move on because she was sure that he had but once again, he’d pulled her back.If you’re ready to turn your back on all our history, Sierra, just say the word and you’ll never hear from me again.

She hadn’t called his bluff.

When they were engaged and he had still been up to his same old tricks, and she’d called him on it, he’d leaned in close. He’d played with the ring on her hand as he’d said, pitilessly,go right ahead and call of the wedding, then.

It had been three weeks away. She hadn’t.

Over and over again, he had done exactly this. No conversation. No discussion. She could either leave and he would never speak to her again, or she could suck it up.

But the only thing Sierra was sucking today was the straw of a coffee drink. A deliciously sugary coffee drink that tasted like heaven. She took another gulp, even though it made her temples throb with an ice cream headache.

The pain reminded her that she’d walked away from their life this time. She wasn’t asking him for anything. She was done.

Finally, after all this time, she was done.

And she felt something then, all right, but she was pretty sure it was a celebration.

“Great,” she said, staring right back at him. “Just let me know what I need to sign.”

And then, buoyed up by caffeine, sugar, and the fact she had Boone’s perfect barn to go home to, she threw open the door to his ostentatious Range Rover and walked away.

This time, it would be for good. She understood that in her bones.

Because for the first time in their entire history, she’d called his bluff.

Better yet, she’d meant it.

And all Sierra could think was that she couldn’t wait to tell Boone.

Chapter Five

June was thebest month of Sierra’s life.

When she got home that Monday morning, she dove right into the dairy. She settled into the space in the office that Boone had prepared for her in the barn and started mapping out what she thought the dairy needed and what she knew about artisan projects in this area—which was a lot, because almost everyone she knew in Marietta was obsessed with farm-to-table food and local everything else.

She was very pleased when her mother called the very next day to tell her that there was a hand-delivered letter waiting for her at her childhood home. It was worth the drive back down to Marietta to pick it up and see that Matty had clearly used his influence to process a dissolution of marriage petition as quickly as possible.

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