Page 6 of A Forever Kind of Rancher

And now she was giving it a second thought. And third. And probably fourth.

But for what it was worth...

He moved near her, and she looked at him like she wished he would disappear. He didn’t take it personally. She kind of looked like she wanted the whole world to disappear.

“Whatever you do,” he said. “Don’t regret that. Because it was damned incredible.”

And he meant it.

“I don’t have anywhere to go now.” She looked numb.

“Sure you do,” he said. “You can always come to me.”

Chapter Two

Three weeks later...

If there was one thing Wendy Stevens did not want to do, it was depend on another cowboy. She’d learned her lesson. Some fifteen years and two kids too late, but she’d learned it.

She tried not to think about that night. The one that hadn’t exactly covered her in glory. But it had covered the ground in shattered glass, and for a moment, it had made her feel satisfied.

For a moment, the images of her husband with another woman had felt dimmed, dulled, because all she had seen was the destruction she had caused to his truck. Technically, her truck.

Except you bought it with his money...

Well. That was the problem. She had given up her life in service to that man. She had acted as his agent, essentially, getting him endorsement deals and other things. He was good-looking. It had been easy to do. He was charming, that had made it easier.

Both of those things had likely made it easy for him to get women into bed too.

She was still reeling from the truth.

For a few days, she’d clung to the belief that he’d only cheated on her the one time. The time that had come with photographic (emphasis on the graphic) evidence.

She knew it was naïve. But it was deliberate. A form of protecting herself.

It hadn’t lasted long.

Because once the floodgates of truth had been opened up, more truth had kept on coming.

Fast and swift.

More women had stories. Texts. Photos.

He’d never been faithful to her. Never even once. Their entire marriage was a lie. Everything they’d ever built in their relationship was a lie. She supposed the one thing she had to be grateful for was that he had been judicious in his use of condoms. One of the first things she had been worried about was what hideous disease the man had given to her, but he had sworn up and down that he’d had protected sex with all those other women.

As if that earned him some sort of commendation.

I would never do that to you, he’d said.

She hadn’t even known what to say to that.

But she hadn’t known what to say for a good three weeks now. That was the amount of time she’d given herself to clear up her life and find another place to go.

She had given everything to that man. When his career in the rodeo had started to take off, she’d discovered she had skills she hadn’t known she possessed. She’d brokered all the endorsement deals that he’d gotten over the years. Her reputation was tied to his. Her career had been all about making money for him, and they’d put it all in one pot rather than having an official split because why would they ever need that? They were in love. They were forever.

The phrase all your eggs in one basket was suddenly far too clear for her liking, and yet there was nothing she could do about it.

Her eggs were in Daniel’s basket.

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