Page 40 of A Forever Kind of Rancher

He knew about her life, about the things that she’d been through. And about the responsibilities she had.

And he took all that shit very seriously.

So he decided to go out. Decided to go to the bar. And wasn’t surprised to find his brother Jace there, since Jace’s wife was working tonight.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey yourself.”

“What brings you out on a weeknight?”

“I need a drink.”

He could confide in his brother.

He could. He was still considering it when Jace looked at him just a little too keenly. “Woman trouble?”

“You could say that.”

Because he had been considering telling his brother about it unsolicited, so he sure as hell didn’t have it in him to lie.

“Wendy?”

“Yeah.”

“You know, this just isn’t a great time for her, I would imagine.”

“It was a fine enough time for her to sleep with me.”

“Oh. Well. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised about that.”

“It’s not a surprise,” he said. It really wasn’t. They wanted each other too badly for too long for it to be a surprise.

“What’s the problem?”

“Life is just really messed up,” said Boone. “I don’t know how you ever let go of that enough to be with someone. Especially when everything they’re going through is as equally messed up as the world around you. It was easy. To carry a torch for her knowing I could never have her. But the rest of it...”

“Yeah. I get that.”

“She’s in a bad space,” he said.

“So you said,” Jace commented.

“It’s true though. And it’s important I remember that. I don’t want her to feel obligated to me.”

“Bad news,” said Jace. “When you have a relationship with somebody you do often feel obligated to them. It’s not a bad thing. I think that’s somewhere in line with basic human connection and empathy.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want this to be transactional.”

“Fine. I can understand that. But if you do something for her and she wants to do something for you, that’s not transactional so much as it is a relationship.”

“She doesn’t need one of those right now.”

“And that’s up to you to decide?”

He snorted. “I didn’t say that. But I don’t...”

“Listen to me, and trust me. I say this as a man who talked himself into thinking he knew better what the woman in his life wanted than she did. That way lies disaster. If you actually care about her, you need to give her some respect. The respect that she knows what’s going on in her own mind. At least that.”

---