Page 33 of Some Cowgirls are Worth Protecting

Rachel frowned. “I’m really tired and just want to head to bed.” She moved to get past him, but he sidestepped and blocked her again.

He hated the way she looked at him. He could see the blame in her eyes, and he just wanted her to put him out of his misery. “What do you want from me? To tell you I’m sorry? Because I’m not sorry.” His words even surprised himself. “I’m not sorry that I finally got it off my chest. At least now you won’t have to ask me why I’m in a rotten mood.”

She huffed. “I’m not mad at you because you told me you have feelings for me. That would be lame. I’m mad at you because you threw your confession at me and ran away like a coward. You didn’t even give me a chance to respond.”

“You have one now,” he shot back. “So do your worst. Tell me that I’m not good enough for you and that we come from two different worlds. Go ahead. I’ve already come to terms with it. I just need to hear you say it.”

Rachel shook her head. “You really are an idiot.”

“There. Does that make you feel better?” It surely didn’t make anything better for him. He couldn’t breathe. As much as he thought he’d prepared for this, he hadn’t been fully ready for the pain of her dismissal.

“No, you’re an idiot because you can’t see what’s right in front of you.” She threw her hands into the air. “You want to know the most ironic part of this? I thought you hated me. I thought that a relationship between us would never work because you wouldn’t lower yourself to dating an outsider. Well, guess the joke’s on you. Because I’ve started to fall for you. I don’t know what you think is so impossible about a relationship between us working out, but I can tell you right now that it’s not because of me.”

Hudson stared at her like she’d just told him that she’d decided to purchase the entire United States of America and bring back the monarchy. He didn’t have a chance to react before she took a page out of his book and marched off.

16

Rachel

Rachel’s heart had never pounded so hard as it did in that moment. She’d held onto his confession, telling herself that to share it with Athena would only make things more complicated than they had to be.

When Henry and Athena had shown up on her doorstep, at first she’d thought that whoever had wanted to do her harm had returned. Hudson would have come right in, but her sister and future brother-in-law had knocked.

The relief she’d felt over seeing them through the spy hole had disappeared just as quickly as Hudson had earlier in the day—because now she knew he might not return.

Even now as she marched up the stairs to her temporary bedroom, she was reeling from everything that had transpired in the last twenty-four hours. It felt like so much longer. From the break-in to getting the dogs, to Hudson’s confession and now hers, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to sleep at all.

The second she opened the door to her bedroom, her puppy came barreling out. Rachel couldn’t help the smile that touched her lips as the creature circled her legs and yipped to be picked up.

Okay, maybe she’d be able to sleep as long as she had the ball of fluff close by.

Rachel picked up the pup and rubbed her face into her fur. She still hadn’t picked out a name. Nothing sounded quite right. Well, that wasn’t true. There was one name that had stuck with her, and she couldn’t decide if she was happy about it or not.

She pulled the puppy from her face and held her up to get a better look at her. “Are you a Cookie?”

The puppy yipped, and her small pink tongue lopped out of her mouth.

Rachel let out a little laugh. “I really hope I’m not going to regret naming you that. It’s sorta ridiculous.” Except it was the name that Hudson had come up with, and for some reason, it was the one that made the most sense.

Cookie squirmed in her hands, and she put the puppy down. It was getting to be time for bed anyway. They’d bought all the necessities for the dogs on the way home from Mateo’s, and while Hudson had been gone, Rachel had set everything up.

From the bed to the food dishes, to the pee pads for potty training, she’d gotten everything ready. Cookie jumped onto Rachel’s ankles and yipped again. While Rachel knew it wasn’t a good idea to get the dog used to sleeping in her bed, she couldn’t deny that she wanted it just as much as the dog.

Scooping Cookie up with one hand, Rachel let out a sigh. “I know I’m going to regret this. But you get to sleep with me tonight.” She placed the pup on her bed, then reached to take off her shoes.

When the second shoe hit the floor, there was a knock on her door.

Cookie immediately went on high alert and spun toward the noise. She yipped and barked in her small voice. Rachel rubbed Cookie’s head and then got up from the bed. Without opening the door, Rachel called out, “What do you want?”

“Can we talk?” Hudson’s voice sounded even more tired and defeated than it had when they’d been in the kitchen.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she called back, leaning against the door.

There was a lull, a moment when she thought he had left. But then he spoke again. This time it was quieter, as if he didn’t know whether he wanted her to hear him or not. “You were right.”

She turned toward the door, her hand resting on the knob. It was getting harder to ignore the voice in her head that told her to let things be. The attraction she had for him had only grown since he’d shown up on this land unannounced, insisting that he was going to keep it safe.

It was a bad idea to give in to that voice. She was going to regret doing so, and she knew it. But that wasn’t right now.

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