Page 79 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

Booker kissed me again, and I felt him pour every ounce of emotion into that kiss. His thumb brushed against my jaw, and I had to remind myself that he was hurt as every part of me wanted to jump the man confessing his feelings for me.

“I’d never make you leave this place, Booker.”

He shook his head, and I could see him getting ready to tell me it didn’t matter. That he didn’t care. I could see the lie forming on his lips. We both knew it wasn’t true. The ranch was special, and it would be wrong not to share it with the world when Booker had finally figured out a way to do that.

But it was more than that.

I loved this place nearly as much as I loved the man himself. I’d found a place here. Not just with Booker, but in the beginning of a family I wanted to build, friendships I wanted to make, and a purpose that made it worthwhile to get out of bed in the morning.

This was the life I’d chosen for myself, and I wouldn’t let a man like Camden Carter take that away from me.

“If you really think we can deal with this together, then of course I never want to leave.”

Booker laughed for joy, peppering my face with kisses.

“Tell me again,” he whispered against my lips.

I could have pretended that I didn’t know what he was talking about. I could have teased him until he persuaded me with gentle kisses to whisper the words he wanted to hear. But Iwas done holding them back. Now that I’d admitted my feelings, it was impossible to hold it inside.

“I love you, Booker. I love you so much.”

“I’d get kicked in the head by a horse any day for you,” he said, kissing me one more time.

“And they say romance is dead.”

He laughed and shook his head while I dreamed of how this could be every night for me. Of how I’d slowly help Booker out of his clothes as I laid gentle kisses on his forming bruises. We’d slide between the sheets and sleep would be the last thing on our minds.

We should have been tangling ourselves in those sheets, whispering words of love as we came together in gentle movements and soft caresses.

This wasn’t how the night you first confessed your feelings was supposed to go, but as I laid my head on the pillow and looked at the man I loved, I knew in the grand scheme of life it didn’t matter.

Camden Carter was a temporary problem, and together, we’d deal with him.

Then we’d have a lifetime of nights to get lost in each other.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

REECE

Booker had been stomping around the ranch all day, and it was actually pretty cute, not that I’d admit it to his face.

I could tell he was hurting, but he was being stubborn and refusing to take any painkillers. Xander was just about ready to throttle him and was currently trying to threaten him into going back to bed for a nap before he took him to the hospital for his next appointment.

So I’d been hiding in the living room pretending to read a book as an excuse to stay out of both of their ways.

I heard the kitchen door slam, and then Xander appeared in the living room doorway wearing exactly the same expression that Booker normally did when things weren’t going his way.

They were so alike it was funny. The fact they clearly didn’t think they were made it even funnier still.

“I give up on him. His arm can drop off for all I care.” Xander huffed as he dropped into the armchair and put his feet on the coffee table, crossing his arms as he sulked.

I shoved the bookmark between the pages of my book and put it on the arm of the couch.

“Did you really think a nap was going to work?”

“He needs to rest.” Xander was practically pouting now, then he squinted at me with a calculating look on his face. “You could persuade him to go to bed.”

“Are you trying to use me as sexual bait, Xander Farrington?”

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