Page 61 of The Guy Who Stole My Ranch

“Fine,” I muttered.

William slowly removed my hat. As he did so, the heat from under it released, and a breeze prickled my scalp.

Why did it feel like he was peeling back my layers?

He offered me the hat, which I took, then stepped so close that I could feel his chest brushing mine.

“Tilt your head back.”

I swallowed and did as he said. The world lurched, and I leaned to one side.

“Maybe you should hold on,” he said.

“Right.” I gathered a fistful of his shirt in my free hand.

William gently brushed a lock of hair back from my eyes, causing a tingle to run across my forehead. “I’m not an optometrist, but I’m pretty sure this is what they’d do.” His thumb came to my cheek, and I felt him brush my lashes as he eased the bottom of my eyelid down. Another tear escaped. “Look up.”

I did as he instructed, very aware that parts of his body were now pressed up against mine, and my only line of defense was my hand between us.

The bottle came into my vision, and I blinked in anticipation.

“I’m not going to do it,” he said quietly. “This is just for show, remember?”

“Okay.”

As he moved to the other side, he wiped the tears from my cheek. His fingers were soft, the action so tender that it made me want to cry harder, but I managed to hold myself together.

“I’m sorry for whatever upset you.” He pretended to drop the liquid into my eye. “I hope you’ll tell me if it was my fault.”

I couldn’t talk. Not yet. Which was good, because part of me wanted to spill all my secrets to this man.

William squeezed my wrist when he stepped away. “I hate to see you sad.”

I nodded and wiped my eyes, which would look natural now that I’d supposedly been assaulted by eyedrops.

“Better?” Xavier bounded over.

Steeling myself against my traitorous emotions, I spoke. “Yeah, I think that did it.”

“Good, because we’ve got stomping to do.”

Chapter 16

-William-

It took me a few minutes to recover from the moment I’d had with Brooke.

Okay, not a moment really, since I had no idea how she felt about me, but seeing her vulnerable and her allowing me to help had brought the fluttering in my stomach to life. Not to mention being that close to her. It was a good thing Conner was keeping us busy, because all I wanted to do was obsess over Brooke.

Harvesting barley by hand was much more intense than I had imagined. First, we plucked it and put it in our buckets, then Conner had us pour that into what looked like a metal cow trough, and we each took a turn stomping on it.

At one point, Patrick had been picking Xavier up and putting him down over and over again as Xavier chanted, “Crush, crush, crush!”

The air smelled of dirt and dried plants. The sun had risen enough that it was starting to get warm.

Through all of this, I kept one eye on Brooke. Something had set her off, and I was pretty sure it had been me.

The trouble had started after I’d asked about her plans for the future. I hadn’t realized that Robert hadn’t warned his family about the sale, and since Brooke worked and lived here, I had to assume that this was going to be a big change for her. Maybe she didn’t have plans yet. Is that the button I’d hit that had set her off?

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