Page 54 of Since Day One

This wasn’t happening, was it? There was no way that big logo with that fake, too pearly white of a grin was staring back at me. Emily’s blonde hair, curled to perfection like a rodeo queen, draped around her slender face. Bright red lipstick stained her plump lips and every potential wrinkle she should have had being in her late thirties were botoxed out of her forehead.

What the hell was she doing here? And why in the world, was it just my luck that I ran into the very woman who took first because of my damn cinch?

The white fifth wheel with living quarters rattled, and I quickly stepped away, pressing my back flush with the side of the arena and stared at the open field in front of me. The door beside me flew open, but Ruger had steam coming out of his ears and didn’t notice me as he stomped away, clearly frustrated by something.

Something that was now the least of my concerns as her laugh floated into the clear sky. Footsteps blended, and I couldn’t tell which was Ruger’s marching angrily away, and which were hers approaching the barn as everything swirled around me. Absolutely torn in confusion, I waited until the sound of her boots echoed inside the barn, no longer crushing snow but dancing over dirt, and then slipped back around the corner. My heart rate shot up and thundered in my ears.

“Gunnar!” Emily’s shrill voice filled the arena, stopping the sound of hooves pounding over sand. Glancing around the corner, but remaining hidden, my heart stopped. Rob and Carsen were resting casually off to the side as the brief tension in Gunnar’s face slipped away and a strange look coated his features. Surprise with a mixture of excitement? Sweat coated the buckskin he was standing next to, the horse breathing hard, a testament to its exertion.

He didn’t say a word as Emily jogged right up to him and flung her arms around his neck. Looking up at him, she batted her long lashes, her makeup done perfectly, and slid her fingers across the collar of his shirt. All too familiar, all too much like an old lover would do, and I stared in horror.

“Hey, baby,” she said, sickly sweet like candy baked with too much sugar, and kissed his cheek with total familiarity. “I have a situation with a horse.”

Gunnar cocked his brow and lifted his free hand that wasn’t holding the reins as I flung myself away from the garage. Slinking back against the siding of the barn, a wave of nausea curdled in my throat and my bottom lip trembled. Was she his ex? Not the fiancée, but the one girlfriend he had after her? Tears blurred my vision. I knew I didn’t have the right to feel this upset, this jealous about something that might be nothing and I wasn’t even sure about, especially considering how closed off toward Gunnar’s early advances I’d been.

If they even were advances? Was everything we shared just a lie for him while he waited for whenever Emily showed back up? She was older than me, more experienced than me. She was everything I wasn’t. No baggage, loaded with money, had a supportive family. She was his age.

Why the hell did I care so much about that?

Bumping my head back against the siding, her shrill giggle filled the arena again, but it was the deep chuckle that followed that tore my heart to shreds. He was laughing with her. I stepped cautiously back toward the garage, knowing I shouldn’t, but my self-deprecating doom still tugged me forward.

Gunnar shook his head, cutting his chuckle short, and rolled his mischievous eyes. “No, not even Princess,” he said.

“Hold on,” she began as I ripped myself away from the entrance, not needing to hear anything more.

Pri-pri-princess? But I thought…

Everything around me shattered, and I stumbled anywhere that wasn’t there. Rational thought told me to ignore what he said, deny that it happened and just pretend like nothing was going on. This would be a perfect time to stand up to Emily. But all I could focus on was the one sentence that shattered my soul.

“No, not even Princess.”

The last four words Gunnar spoke. One of those words I thought was supposed to be just for me, but maybe it was because he couldn’t remember my name or he wanted me to be her. What was I supposed to do now? Tears spilled over my cheeks, crashing hot and wet down my neck.

And as soon as my family found out, this would add more fuel to the fire.

The air was knocked from my chest as I rammed into a wall of something and collapsed on my back on the snow. Lifting my eyes, I realized I had connected with Ruger’s back. Slowly, he turned away from the gate that he was in the process of shutting, a few sandwiches plopping onto the ground.

“Well, thank you for not watching where you’re—“ he immediately stopped talking the moment his gaze met mine. “Are you okay?”

Wiping the back of my hand across my cheeks, I nodded. “Yes, I’m fine.” Pushing myself from the ground, the wet snow left a stain against my bum as I brushed some flakes from my jeans.

“You look like shit.” He crossed his arms. “Why are you crying? Did my numbnut of a brother do something dumb?”

I shook my head. It didn’t matter, I had no claim over him now. It seems I never did.

“I didn’t mean to leave him pissed like that. I mean, I just want a rodeo this weekend. We host rodeos all the time during the winter, so I can’t believe he took it out on you.” Ruger sighed.

“Oh, we haven’t talked or anything. It’s fine. If you’ll excuse me,” I whispered and turned away.

“Willow,” Ruger said, clamping a hand around my arm. “Fess up. I would’ve never pegged you as someone to cry over nothing.”

“Who’s Emily to Gunnar?” I blurted out.

His fingers tightened around my arm, stitching his brows together. “Emily Patterson?” The words creaked out as if coming from a tunnel full of cobwebs, as though he’d not thought of or spoken that name in years.

“Yeah, she’s here and is acting very friendly around him,” I mumbled, another tear sliding down my cheek. “Too friendly.”

“That’s whose trailer that is?” Ruger loosened his hold and glanced back toward the arena.

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