Page 17 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

The mare stretched her neck and sniffed my hand. I felt the gust of her warm breath against my skin and smiled.

She was starting to trust me.

I couldn’t believe I’d told Booker what had happened to me yesterday. Talk about a show of trust. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t trust him with my story. I think it was more that I was ashamed it had happened. That I’d been stupid enough not to see the situation I was getting myself into.

But when I looked at Booker after my confession, he didn’t stare at me like I was the broken, pathetic thing I felt like. There was an anger in his eyes, and I liked it.

I liked that there were still people in the world who cared if I was hurting.

My hand came to my side, and I touched the faded yellow marks. It wouldn’t be long until they were gone now, and something about that made me sad. These were my reminders. The price I’d paid, and a part of me was afraid that once they were gone, I’d forget. I’d whitewash over the pain and walk straight into the same mistake again.

My mind immediately went to Booker. I should have been afraid that the past was repeating itself with him. After all, when I’d first met Camden, there was nothing about him that made me think he was capable of what he’d done. Not at the time, at least. Of course, there were signs. I’d just been too naïve to notice them.

What if I was making all the same mistakes again? What if Booker wasn’t the person I thought he was?

But then I looked around the barn and at the little mare who cautiously watched me and knew it couldn’t be true. Booker was exactly who he seemed to be. He couldn’t have created all this if he wasn’t.

“It looks like we’re both on difficult roads,” I said to the horse.

“Why are you talking to a horse?” a small voice asked from beside me, and when I looked down in surprise, there was a boy standing there. He had to be around ten, and I had absolutely no idea if he was supposed to be here.

“Erm.” I looked around, but there was no one else about. “I guess because I wanted someone to talk to, and she was here to listen.”

He nodded sagely. “That makes sense.” Then he looked me up and down. “Did she do that to your face? My mom says horses are demons and that no one should ride them because their feet are fitted with murder shoes.”

I snorted with laughter. Someone didn’t like horses.

“No. Someone else did this to me.”

He frowned, and then he reached up and took my hand. “That’s not very nice. But you’re safe here. We’ll look after you.”

“Do you know Booker?”

“Yeah! He’s my uncle. He’s so cool. He rescues horses, and he’s going to teach me how to ride one and buy me one, one day. And he has these amazing quads in the barns that we go out on, but I’m not allowed to ride one of my own yet. It’s still cool, though.”

“It sounds really cool. I’m Reece.”

“I’m—”

“Cade, are you in here?” a male voice called out, and the kid turned and grinned at me.

“We should hide,” he whispered.

“We could,” I whispered back, ducking down to talk to him. “But I’m too pretty to go to prison.”

He nodded again and then turned toward the barn doors, shouting, “I’m in here, Dad.”

Cade’s dad walked down the center of the barn, his face going from puzzled to happy to grinning in glee.

“Hi! I’m Trace.” He held out his hand for me to shake, and I took it. “You’re a girl.”

“You know, I think you’re the first person to ever notice,” I told him as he continued to shake my hand.

“But you’re so pretty!” Cade gasped, clearly not understanding the joke.

Trace laughed and wrapped his arm around his son. “She’s joking, kid.” He ruffled his hair and then turned back to me, nodding toward the barn door, so I followed him. “I can’t believe Uncle Booker has a real-life girl at the ranch.”

“I feel like I’m missing something,” I mumbled as we walked out into the sunlight where a woman was standing by an SUV I hadn’t seen before.

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