Page 25 of The Rancher's Addiction

No way in hell he’d tell her the truth.“I was in the neighborhood.”He turned and walked to his truck.

He caught a look on her face when she closed the door.He might be mistaken, but it looked a lot like despair, and it wrenched his heart, knowing he was partly to blame for it.

He decided to drive, park down the street, and see if she left.If she wasn’t out of the house in ten minutes, he was going back to check on her.His breath caught in his throat when she walked out the door with thirty seconds to spare.But it was the swollen red eyes and blotchy face that told him all he needed to know.She wasn’t as tough as she wanted everyone to think she was, and it deepened his feelings for her.

He followed her when she got into her SUV and drove off.He wanted to know if she had been telling him the truth about going to the clinic.He gritted his teeth when she drove by it and out of town.He put space between them so he had a better chance of not being seen, but not too much that he’d lose her.Mac stiffened when she was coming up on a ranch a competitor owned that was doing about as well as his.He exhaled when she drove by.The thought of her going to Patrick when she was upset made him furious.

“Where the hell are you going, Baby?”he whispered to himself.

Another ten minutes passed before she started to slow down.

“Oh, damn.The bluffs.”

The bluffs were a deep canyon with a shallow river at the bottom.It was about a half mile deep in some areas.A lot of people came to the site to rock climb or hike.

He pulled over farther back, behind the bathroom facilities, and watched.She had parked her car facing the ravine, but didn’t get out.He couldn’t see what she was doing and thought he’d best stay away and give her space because he’d caused at least part of her upset, and he didn’t want to make it worse.

Less than an hour later, she pulled out and drove back toward town.He didn’t think she’d seen him because her concentration had been on the road, but from what he could see, her face had looked ravaged and red from crying.He wondered for a brief moment why she came out here.

Then it dawned on him as he was following her back to town.Fuck, she came out here to be alone because she probably had people stopping by her house occasionally, so she had to drive somewhere and hide and give in to the pain.

Damn.He just wished he hadn’t been a part of it.He banged his head against the steering wheel after she’d gone into her house.

He needed to stay the hell away from her if he didn’t want to acknowledge his feelings for her because all he was doing was hurting her, and she didn’t deserve it.The more he got to know about her, the more he knew she’d been through enough without his input.

He’d leave her in peace.At least for the moment.

Chapter Eleven

Jenny followed Nicoleand Elise into the bar.They liked to go dancing on the town's outskirts on weekends.They usually tried to get Jenny to go with them, but she always had an excuse of having to work, but mostly she wanted to be alone and work on her house.

Jenny looked around the dim and crowded interior of the Western bar.“I can’t believe you talked me into this.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, quit whining,” Nicole retorted without looking at her.

Jenny laughed.She loved how they bullied her into things she normally wouldn’t do, and they weren’t intimidated by her at all.They were just her friends.Ones she had needed for a very long time.

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