Page 39 of A Forever Kind of Rancher

“Okay.”

“I can’t have you again tonight,” he said. “And I get that might sound outrageously selfish to you. But honestly, I’m not sure I have it together enough to be around you in front of the girls, or to... I just need some space.”

She was shocked by that. By the honesty. By the blatant truth that had just come out of his mouth, a truth that exposed deeper feelings in him that she had thought he would be comfortable betraying.

“Oh.”

She had wanted to be close to him because she felt needy right now. But he had a point. They needed to figure out how they were going to be around each other if the girls were in the middle of them.

And right now, they were on anything but normal footing.

“Okay.”

“I don’t want you to be hurt.”

She shook her head. “I’m not.”

“Don’t lie to me, Wendy. There have been enough lies all around us, there don’t need to be any between us. Not anymore.”

“Okay. I was a little bit hurt. I thought you didn’t want to be around me if you couldn’t have me.”

“Yes...but it isn’t like that. It’s not because I don’t have another use for you. It’s just because I don’t quite know what to do with myself right now.”

“Okay. That’s fair.”

And maybe a little bit more honest than she’d been with herself.

“I will see you tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Chapter Seven

Walking away from her had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. But he had work to finish, and she had to get her kids.

Being honest with her about why he needed a little space had been the other hardest thing he’d ever done. Because it came too close to admitting the truth.

This impossible truth that he had no idea what to do with now that they’d slept together.

He had felt like he was in love with her for a very long time.

But that love had been impossible to act on. So it had felt...safe in a way.

Or at least abstract.

The truth was, Boone didn’t know how to love somebody actively.

He knew how to do things for them. But he had no idea what being in love entailed.

He looked at the way his brothers had brought women into their lives, the way they’d rearranged themselves to have them. He didn’t like the thought of that. Not at all. Because he’d rearranged his life so many times.

And he just couldn’t take all that on right now.

Hell, more than that, he knew it was an impossibility. Wendy was going through a divorce. Wendy had kids.

There was something much heavier to the idea of trying to be with a woman who had been through so much, than if it was a woman he didn’t know.

He knew her. He knew how difficult all this was.

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