Page 25 of A Rancher's Bride
Secrets.
She closed her eyes and rested her head back, stretching her spine and trying to relax. When it came down to it, all of them had secrets.
Secrets were not necessarily terrible. They just were. Never in a million years had she dreamed as a fifteen-year-old sitting on a bus to the middle of nowhere that at some point she’d have the opportunity she had today.
Suddenly the need to tell Luke that grew bigger than she could hold back. She sat upright and faced him. “Thank you. Thank you for trusting me, and for bringing me along. I promise I’m not doing it just to get to work with Chili Pepper, but because I want the very best for Silver Stone, and for Emma and Sasha. I want this week to go really well.”
That was all true. It wasn’t all she had on her agenda, but…she couldn’t make herself continue. Not with him acting so weird.
His fingers tightened on the wheel, knuckles going white. “I know you do.”
He seemed about to say something else before his lips pressed together.
Okay, then. Someoneelse’sstress level was a wee bit out of control.
“You’re totally going to rock this. I mean, you know how to talk to these people. If I wasn’t already head over heels with Silver Stone, hearing you talk about her would impress the hell out of me every time.”
Babbling. She was babbling.
“Thanks, but I’m not looking for a pep talk.”
Kelli adjusted her position to stare out the front window as huge snowflakes swirled through the air. The next time she spoke, she wasn’t quite as cheerful. “Then you might want to take a couple Xanax before we get there, because right now you are not chill. Not at all.”
“I’ve got something on my mind.”
“Obviously.”
He growled.
Kelli glanced at him, and in spite of her own worries, a snicker snuck out. “Wow. I thought my nose was out of joint about not getting to wear jeans for the next week, other than the ones we’ve got on right now. Which, thank you very much for figuring out there was one event we needed to dress down for.”
He ignored her chatter and slid over to the side of the road, pulling into a rest stop. Then he jerked open his door and got out, slamming it shut behind him as he paced off a few steps into the whirling snowfall.
Well, it appearedsomebodywas more than stressed. Considering it wasn’t anything she’d done, it certainly wouldn’t hurt for her to try cool him off.
Kelli got out, and by the time she joined him, he’d stomped his way back. “Spit it out. I’ve never seen you this cranky.”
He dragged a hand through his hair before jamming his hat back into place. “I thought this was going to be no big deal, but the closer we get to the hotel, the more I realize I jumped to a few conclusions. And now we’re stuck, and I don’t know how to tell you.”
Okay, that was not sounding as positive as she’d hoped. “You’re starting to freak me out.”
He planted both hands on his hips and took a deep breath. He looked her straight in the eye. “I think you’re the best person to come to this event with me, I truly do. But I might have told the registration team that you and I have a slightly different relationship than what we’ve got in real life.”
She was doing her best to keep up, but he was not making it easy. “What kind of relationship did you tell them we have?”
“You got the part about me saying you’re the best person to come to this event, right?”
“The fact you’re emphasizing that makes me suspect whatever you said equals me wanting to kill you.”
Unflinchingly, Luke confessed. “I told them you’re mysignificant other.”
Kelli maintained eye contact. It was probably the most difficult thing she’d ever done in her life. Not even leaving her old life behind, abandoning everything except what she could fit into a backpack, had been this tough. That had been her and her alone. Doing what was right to make a better life.
Having him look at her, trulylookat her, with such utter misery— The first sensation in her gut was to want to fix it for him…
The second sensation was not quite so generous.
She’d spent years—years—hiding her attraction. Keeping the lines firmly in place because it wouldn’t have been right to step beyond them, and he went and lied without blinking and turned them into a…them?
