Page 24 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

It didn’t matter.

I was going to save us all.

I heard Booker coming back with the hay net and asked, “Do you have a computer I can borrow?”

He hesitated for a second, reaching around me and securing the net at the stable door. “I’ve got an old laptop you can borrow. It’s old and slow, but it works. Wi-Fi should reach the cottage.”

“Good.”

He turned around then, leaning against the side of the stable and crossing his arms again as he watched me carefully. “What are you up to?”

“I’m going to find a way to save her.”

I could already tell from his eyes that he was trying to let me down gently. To explain to me that the world just didn’t work that way.

“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t tell me it’s not possible. Just help me find a way.”

Booker’s tongue ran across his bottom lip as he weighed his options, and then finally, he nodded. “Fine. But if you’re going to save her, then you’d better give her a name. Doesn’t feel right to keep calling her, ‘her.’”

“Will you show me how to clean her sores, too? Show me everything.”

He nodded, pushing away from the barn. “Let’s get to work.”

CHAPTER TEN

BOOKER

This was a feeling I was totally unfamiliar with, and while I grabbed another beer from the fridge, I couldn’t help but look out the window toward the cottage.

The lights were on, illuminating the yard between us with a soft, inviting glow.

And I actually wanted to go over there.

Damn it.

Reece was a complication in my life that had blown in here and knocked me sideways. I’d never been the type of person who would have left her stranded. But when I offered her a job, I never thought it would be this distracting to have her on the ranch.

I stalked back into the living room, dropping into my favorite chair with a huff of frustration.

I’d tried avoiding her. Tried acting like nothing was different, like she was just a regular employee.

But I couldn’t.

I had an itch just beneath my skin that screamed at me to go over there and talk to her.

Talk to her!

This was me. I didn’t do talking. Not to people, at least.

Everything was different when it came to Reece, though.

I wanted to see the smile that came to her lips whenever she thought of something she wanted to share. The light in her eyes that always followed her smile.

When I closed my eyes, I could feel her against my body again. Her soft curves pressing into me, the smell of her coconut shampoo.

Everything about her overwhelmed my senses, and I wanted it so bad I couldn’t sit back and do nothing anymore.

So I drained half the beer in my hand, kicked my feet up onto the coffee table, and grabbed the book I’d been reading, feeling like a total idiot. It was the same sappy romance novel that Reece had bought at Books and Beans, and I’d gone back to get my own copy for some stupid reason.

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