Page 8 of Finding Chloe

“Um, hi.” Chloe gave a small wave when I stopped in front of her. Her head tilted so she could look at me, and I could see a tiny hint of sun coloring her nose.

“What are you doing here?” we both whispered at the same time.

“I’m on the Kingston Equestrian team.” I spun my finger around, indicating the ranch. “You?”

Chloe’s forehead scrunched. “This is my hometown.” She glanced at her boots before turning her face up to me again. “I’m home for my final project for school.”

“Right. Your graduating project. You mentioned that.” I couldn’t drag my eyes away from hers.

Chloe was just as beautiful and captivating as when I first met her at the New York show in September. Her blonde hair was shining in the light like a halo, making her skin appear just as soft as I remembered. Her plump lips were asking to be kissed. Having Chloe standing here with me now felt like nothing else mattered. Everything was right again in the world. I’d finally found the woman who had stolen my heart overnight.

“Yo, Hunter. Atlas isn’t going to unload himself,” someone yelled, drawing me from my trance.

Right, we were supposed to be unloading from the last show.

“I have to help, but please tell me you’ll be sticking around for a while?” I squeezed her upper arm. I had so many questions.

“I’m not going anywhere. Go do what you have to do.” She smiled, but the warmth of it didn’t quite reach her eyes like I’d remembered.

“Okay. I’ll find you later.” I slowly backed away from her. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth and nodded.

My chest tightened when I turned away. I couldn’t fight the need to glance over my shoulder to make sure she was still there. The thought of her disappearing again was a constant fear humming below the surface of my skin.

I immediately unloaded Atlas from the nearby trailer and walked him to the barn. Kyle was already in his stall with Sapphire when I passed. Atlas nickered his greeting to Sapphire before heading straight for the fresh pile of hay in the corner. No doubt Matt and Gavin had made sure to have all the stalls fresh and ready for their return.

The muscles in my jaw ticked. As much as I liked the guy, I wanted to know what the hell Matt was doing with my girl.

“Who was that out there?” Liam, one of the other riders on the team, asked as he put his horse, Zeus, in the stall beside me. His French accent would have felt out of place to anyone else, but he wasn’t the only one with a European accent on the ranch. Four of the founders of King’s Ranch were from a small European country, Cosland.

“Chloe,” I said.

“That’s Chloe?TheChloe? The one from the show?” Liam peeked through the bars between our stalls.

“That’s her,” I sighed, making myself busy by topping off Atlas’s water bucket.

“Then why do you seem so miserable? Isn’t it fate that she is here after all those months of you pining over her?” Liam wasn’twrong. It should feel like fate, except it didn’t. Not when the first time I see her another man is kissing her. It hadn’t seemed platonic.

“Eeeee!”

I glanced over to see Abbey jogging through the barn door. Liam met her in the aisle, picking her up and spinning her around. We hadn’t been gone more than a few days, but by the way everyone who had relationships greeted each other, you’d think they had been off to war for a year.

My chest tightened. I may make fun of them to their faces, but in my heart, it was what I wanted too. I’d felt like a nomad for so long until the Kingstons took me in. I wanted someplace to call my own and settle down.

“Dulcinee, you’ll never guess who’s here.” Liam wrapped his arms around Abbey. Of course he would bring it up immediately to her. I’d talked to Abbey about the situation not long after she’d come to the ranch. She’d had hope for me finding Chloe, so I had to wonder what she would think.

“Who?” Her smile was infectious. My cheeks started to ache from fighting my smile. She was so happy to have Liam home. He shared her with Duke, but she hated when either of them was away—something she’d mentioned to me many times over the last few months.

“Chloe.”

Abbey gasped and turned around. “Oh. My. Gosh. That’s so exciting.” She rushed toward Atlas’s stall door. “Well, where is she? Was she excited to see you? What did she say?”

I held up my hand. “She didn’t say anything. I think we were both too shocked to see each other again for anything more than an awkward greeting.”

I palmed the back of my neck. I needed to talk to Chloe away from everyone else.

“It doesn’t help that she apparently knows everyone on this ranch, but no one around here could put two and two together and figure out she was who I’d been searching for this whole time,” I huffed, throwing my hands up. Atlas snorted behind me, and I took that as his way of politely telling me to get out of his stall.

Abbey’s eyes grew wide. “Wait?Chloe, Chloe?” She’d been here for the past few days and was just figuring it out. “Oh wow.”

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