Page 3 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

“Look, you’re obviously in trouble. And if I had to guess, you’re not exactly in a position to get that car fixed. How bad is it?”

Part of me wanted to tell him it wasn’t his problem. To say something so scathing that he’d wash his hands of me and leave me at the side of the road. But there was just something about him. I should have been scared of this enormous man, but he’d been nothing but gentle with me. He’d even called his dog over to me when he could see that I was spiraling. Something about him made me think that he’d understand.

So, instead of running, instead of acting like a crazy person to get him to leave, I sighed. The fight leached out of me, and I looked at the stranger in front of me, desperately needing to think that he could be someone I could trust.

Trust.

That had come so easily to me before.

I ignored the pinch in my heart and the ache of my bruises, and I made a decision.

“I’ll be fine. I’m heading into town to find a job, and I’ll get back on my feet. The car can wait. I don’t have the money to fix it right now, but I’ll figure it out. That’s what you do, right? You figure it out and just get on with it.”

He squinted in annoyance. It might have been the truth, but it clearly wasn’t the truth he wanted.

I wasn’t an idiot. I knew what he was really asking me. He wanted to know why I had bruises on my face, why I couldn’t quite stand completely straight. The thing was, I didn’t know why he’d care.

The me from before would have just told him the truth. Any truth he wanted to hear. Because that’s what you did, right? People were concerned because they wanted to help.They weren’t trying to assess your vulnerabilities so they could manipulate them in whatever way they needed for their own benefit.

I’d never seen the potential for bad in people. I’d always believed that, deep down, everyone was at least decent.

And that was the thing he’d taken from me that I hated him the most for.

So I sank down deep inside myself, and I pulled the Reece I used to be back to the surface, and I smiled.

I knew it didn’t reach my eyes. Not yet, at least. But I was working on it, and even if I had to pretend for a little while, I’d find that version of myself again one day.

“No,” he growled, squinting at me as his massive hands landed on his waist.

Holy crap, this man might be part giant or something. I was getting a crick in my neck just from staring up at him and trying to hold this look of fake confidence on my face.

“No?”

He sighed, and I could have sworn I heard him swear under his breath. Honestly, the fact that he was so annoyed by either me or his own concern for me was getting amusing.

“No, you don’t just figure it out. I’m not leaving you on the side of the road with no clue about where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.” He glared at me again, and then he pulled his cell out of his pocket. With a sigh of annoyance, he did something on the screen and then held it to his ear. “Dex, I need you on the road out to the ranch… No, we’re not playing paintball. I need you to come and pick up a car and fix it… Just do it.”

He abruptly hung up on whoever Dex was and shoved the phone back in his pocket. “Idiot,” he grumbled.

“Erm, while I appreciate all this, I don’t have the money to fix my car. It’s a piece of junk, anyway. It’s probably time for it to go to the scrap heap in the sky.”

He looked at me like I was insane, and for a second, I shuffled awkwardly on the spot. This was honestly the strangest situation I’d ever found myself in, and this was coming from the girl who once got her foot stuck in the automatic doors at Target and had to be cut free by firemen.

“I own the ranch up the road. I need some help.”

I stared at him and watched as his scowl grew deeper. “Is that a job offer?” I asked.

Obviously, it was, even if it had been done in the strangest way, but I was wondering just how deep this guy’s scowl could get.

“Yes. Or you can stay here and die on the side of the road.”

“That sounds awfully like a threat,” I pointed out.

I wasn’t dumb. I could see this guy was trying to help me out, even if it seemed like it wasn’t something he was all that used to.

“Considering you were about to set yourself on fire, it’s more of an observation.”

“I would have gotten out eventually!” I protested.

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