Page 60 of Taming the Billionaire Cowboy
“Is that what you really think?”
I shake my head, unsure. “I don’t know. I just… I can’t shake this feeling that he’s slipping away. He barely had five minutes to talk to me tonight. He was at some celebration, surrounded by his team, constantly being interrupted. He sounded… energized. Like he was exactly where he belongs.”
Ferris sets her glass down and takes my free hand in hers. “Have you told him how you feel?”
“How can I? I don’t want to be that person who makes him choose between his business and me. I’m not his wife. We’ve only been together a few weeks.”
“A few incredibly intense weeks where you both fell hard for each other,” Ferris reminds me. “And he’s crazy about Bradley. That means something.”
“Maybe.” I finish my whiskey in one swallow. “Or maybe he just got caught up in the romance of it all. Playing cowboy, having a ready-made family. But now he’s back in the real world, and…”
“And what?”
“And I’m afraid he’s remembering who he really is.”
Ferris refills my glass without asking. “Who do you think he really is?”
“A workaholic billionaire who built an empire from nothing. A man who’s driven and ambitious and whose life is in Houston, not some tiny town.”
“You don’t think people can change?”
“I think…” I pause, trying to organize my thoughts. “I think people can want to change. I think they can even try to change. But when push comes to shove, they go back to who they’ve always been.”
Like Bradley’s father, who swore he was ready to be a dad until the impending reality of a crying baby hit him. Like my high school boyfriend, who promised he’d wait for me but found someone new the minute he left for college.
“Not everyone leaves, Carly.”
“My track record says otherwise.” Even my dad left, though it was in a different way.
Ferris squeezes my hand. “You know what I think?”
“What?”
“I think you’re scared. I think you’re looking for reasons to push him away before he can hurt you.”
The words hit too close to home, and I pull my hand free. “That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?” Ferris raises an eyebrow. “You’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop since the day he arrived. Even when things were going well, you were holding back, waiting for him to mess up.”
“That’s not true.” But even as I say it, I know she’s right. I’ve been bracing for this, expecting it, maybe even creating it with my doubt.
“Talk to him, Carly. Tell him how you feel.”
“And say what? ‘Please choose me over your billion-dollar company’? I’m not going to do that.”
“How about ‘I’m scared you won’t come back’? Or ‘I miss you’? Or even ‘I love you’?”
I nearly choke on my whiskey. “I don’t?—”
“Oh, please.” Ferris rolls her eyes. “You’re in love with him. Anyone with eyes can see it.”
Am I? Is that what this feeling is, this constant ache in my chest, this fear of losing him?
“It doesn’t matter,” I say finally. “If he’s going to stay in Houston, then he’s going to stay in Houston. Nothing I say will change that.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” I set my glass down, suddenly exhausted. “I should probably get to bed. I have an early trail ride tomorrow.”
