Page 4 of Risking it All

I didn’t care if I had a crush on him, no one would treat me like that.

He grimaced, running a hand through his hair. “Right, sorry. I wasn’t done talking to you, and I wanted to finish our conversation before you disappeared on me.”

Well, we did get interrupted…

Letting some of my irritation go, I crossed my arms and grumbled. “Fine, but next time ask if I want to talk. I don’t like being pushed around.”

He tipped his head in agreement, then silence stretched. When neither of us broke it after a minute, I raised a brow. “You said you weren’t done talking?”

Red dusted his ears again as he coughed, clearing his throat. “Right, yes. How are things with the clinic?”

The question felt scrambled, as if he hadn’t actually meant to ask that but it was the best he could come up with, and my brow furrowed. What was he doing?

Leaning back to better see him, I answered. “It’s going well. With any luck I’ll be able to hire some help soon. The ranch on its own keeps me pretty busy some weeks, so having an extra set of hands will be invaluable.”

He hummed, something strained lingering under the surface as he offered. “If you need help when you’re on the ranch, you can give me a call. As long as I’m not working, I’ll be happy to stop by.”

That was the second time I’d been completely blown away today, and it took me a second to regain my bearings.

“You…want to help with my veterinary work?” I asked, needing clarification. Not once had he ever shown interest in animals before, so why now?

He nodded, sounding more confident than he looked. “Yeah, Alice offers a hand all the time, so why can’t I?”

Because I don’t have a raging crush on Alice.

I kept that to myself, instead pointing out, “I’ve known your sister since we were in kindergarten.”

He huffed, crossing his arms and leaning back a bit. “You’ve known me for nearly as long.”

“Not really. You wanted nothing to do with your sister’s friend, remember?” I said and he hesitated, seeming to mull that over. A conflict warred behind his eyes and he shook his head.

“That was then, and this is now. Of course I avoided you two before, Alice used to play pranks on me all the time.”

I couldn’t help it, I snorted. “I happen to remember you turning both our hair neon green once, so those pranks weren’t just her.”

It’d taken forever to get that color out and he smiled, amusement clear. “That was a pretty good one.”

I rolled my eyes. “Tell that to the bullies who practically followed me around until the dye wore off.”

It’d been a rough few weeks, only Alice’s threats keeping the jerks at bay.

Now William frowned, something sharp cutting through his previous amusement as he straightened. “Hold up, people were bothering you after that?”

I shrugged, ignoring how tingly his protectiveness made me. “People did that with or without the dye. Having green hair just gave them an easy target.”

His jaw tightened, and I could all but see steam pouring out of his ears. “If you’d said something, I would have chased them off. I’m sure Alice told you I used to deal with her bullies.”

She had, on multiple occasions, but it would have been just another reminder that he only saw me as a little sister. I hadn’t wanted that.

Looking away, I huffed. “I had it handled. Besides they never got violent, so it didn’t matter.”

Looking back out over the crowd, I spotted George chatting with Dennis and Kimberley. “I’m going to see if George wants to dance again, talk to you later.”

I didn’t make it three steps before his hand closed on mine, pulling my attention backwards as he visibly struggled for words.

“If you want to dance that much, you could just ask me, I know how to.” He said, and I could only raise a brow to that.

“You know how to dance?” I asked, disbelief in every syllable. He tensed, a frown carving into his face.

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