“When I’m ready, I’ll listen, but not for a while. Just tell him I’ll call him when I’m ready to talk and to please not try to find me.”

Brian held out his hand. “I’ve never seen that man in love with a woman until you.”

“I’ll listen later. Thank you, Brian. Take care.”

She ignored him, trying to get her attention again, got in her car, and drove off.

Her thoughts were so chaotic that she about drove off the road twice. She shook herself.Just get home, she repeated over and over.

Sara exhaled when she pulled into her driveway. Instead of parking in the attached garage, she hid her car behind one ofthe barns. She guessed he’d probably try to find her unless it was a joke and he’d had all the fun he could with her.

She made her way into her house and locked the door. She greeted the dogs and grabbed a glass of water before walking out onto the back patio. The memory of them fucking on the lounger and the hot tub slipped into her mind and made her want to turn around and walk back in. But the patio had always been a place of solace for her, and she wasn’t going to let him take that from her.

She moved the chair into the shade and sat. Watching the dogs play kept her attention until a wave of remorse slammed into her. A sound close to a wounded animal slipped from her mouth.

She pressed her face into her hands and wept for a long time. Her dogs felt her anguish and came to her, trying to console her the best they could. When she finally calmed down, she stood to get a box of tissues and went back out into the yard.

She had no idea how much time had passed when she heard a truck pull into the driveway and then pounding on her door.

“Sara, goddammit, where the hell are you?” he yelled.

Sara sat still and waited for him to leave. She was in an area hidden by bushes, so he’d have to come into the backyard and around the line of bushes. Her stomach dropped when her phone rang inside. She remembered putting her purse on the counter, and she prayed he couldn’t hear it.

She didn’t hear anything for a long time and then relaxed when she heard his truck drive away. She knew she was acting like a coward, but she just needed a few days to gain back her strength and get her emotions under control.

A few hours passed before she looked around and saw the shadows of the night starting to grow and her dogs whining to get fed.

“I’m sorry, guys. Let’s get you taken care of.”

She fed them and then took a shower. She kept the lights off as much as she could. As the water hit her back, more tears came. God, the pain was excruciating. It felt even worse than what she felt when her husband died. Maybe because she’d given everything to Grant, and they’d had a bond she’d only read about.

After taking the tie off and combing her hair out, she pulled on a nightgown she hadn’t worn in a few months because he had forbidden it and crawled into bed. The only light was from the moon coming into the window and the nightlight in the hallway. Everything else she kept off.

She didn’t think she’d be able to rest, but with the emotional heartbreak she’d felt, her body and mind were exhausted, and she fell right to sleep.

Chapter Fifteen

Grant pulled into his driveway and up to the barn. He looked around and didn’t see Sara’s car, but he wasn’t worried. She was just running a bit late.

“Hey, Boss,” Brian yelled and came toward him.

Grant knew something was wrong by the expression on his foreman’s face.

“What’s up?” Grant asked.

“Sara was here.”

Grant nodded. “Okay. She was supposed to be.”

“I’m not sure how she found out, but she knows who you are now.”

Fuck. This is what he dreaded for months. So many times he started to tell her, but something interrupted them and stopped him. The fear that he could lose her always popped into his mind. It was irrational because the longer he kept it from her, the harder it would be.

“I should have told her months ago,” he said.

“What are you going to do?” Brian asked.

“Go get her.”