Page 11 of Fragile Heart

Emily raises an eyebrow but takes the lead rope and ties out Phoebe. Before I can figure out how to make my legs work again, Melissa has Phoebe’s bridle off and in Brielle’s hands, and they’re ducking into the second storage room on the far side of the barn, the one with the equipment that isn’t used as often.

I finally manage to move, and I get Cottonwood tied out so I can get the saddle off and her brushed through.

“You going to explain what the hell that was?” Emily asks, her arms crossed. “Or am I cornering Melissa later?”

There’s no way she’ll actually wear Melissa down. She’s kept the secret for a decade, just like Mom. One night of pestering from Emily won’t cause her to break down.

I work through getting Cottonwood cooled down and then turned out to the pasture, ignoring my sister the entire time even as she mirrors me, turning out Phoebe at the same time. Melissa comes out of the storage room as we’re walking back into the barn. I ignore her, too, trying to get my body under control, and focus on grabbing my saddle to put away.

“Bri’s going to head back to her place,” she says to Emily, ignoring me completely. “She said she needed a shower and to work on unpacking.”

Unpacking?

Holy fuck.Brielleis the friend that’s moving into Emily’s guest house? The one that’s a widow needing a clean start?Emily’s been talking about her for weeks, her eyes bright with excitement. The entire damn town knows about the newcomer.

A lot of the guys at The Outpost have been putting bets on who can manage to snag a date with her first. Just the thought is enough to have me scenting again, the edge of it sour with my festering rage that’s entirely unexplainable.

Emily’s eyes bore into me, the curiosity so strong they’re practically drilling through me. I don’t bother to acknowledge her at all.

“Let’s go,” Melissa says, her voice wavering, responding on instinct to the change in my scent. “Lynn’s got lunch ready.”

Melissa pulls Emily from the barn as I disappear into the primary tack room. When I finally manage to leave the barn and start toward the farmhouse, the green SUV with Colorado plates is gone.

Chapter Six

BRIELLE

Iset the steaming cup of tea on the wooden railing beside me, watching as the surface ripples. With a sigh, I focus on the rising sun. Today, it paints the sky in purples and oranges, casting a warm glow on everything it touches. It turns the snow still clinging to the highest peaks an odd shade of silver. The prairie that surrounds the guest house sways in the early breeze. I tuck my nose into my sweater. It might be the beginning of June, but mornings are still chilly.

Three days I’ve been hiding out in my temporary living situation. Three days of Melissa checking that I’m really all right while Emily bursts at the seams from wanting to know what had clearly happened between me and her brother. Sure, I’d explained it away to Emily as just wanting to settle in. But it’s just a matter of time until she walks across the clearing and asks me how I know her brother.

Had I used the time to unpack and find places for the small amount of things I brought with me? Yes. Had I spent an entire afternoon doing the online equivalent of shopping untilI dropped? Absolutely. But neither of those were the reason I hadn’t come up with the courage to venture past the cleared pasture immediately surrounding the guest house.

Goddamn, it should be illegal for him to have becomemoreattractive over the last ten years. Seeing him in jeans and that black tee was a far cry from the formal suit I’d last seen him wear. And the barn where we were unsaddling our horses was just about the opposite of the funeral where I’d last seen him—with his newborn son in his arms and a delicate, shattered-looking strawberry blonde woman clinging to him as people offered their condolences for Brandon’s death.

And the fuckingtattoos? He hadn’t had a single one that summer I’d been tangled up with him. Now both his arms are complete sleeves, the black ink mixing with earthy tones, twisting around his skin in patterns I want to learn and trace and memorize.

Lavender explodes around me, thick and overwhelming, but I ignore it.

No, the reason I’ve been hiding out has everything to do with the man I convinced myself I had gotten over when he broke up with me ten years ago. Not even convinced, really. Ihadmoved on from him. Met someone else, married them, and built the urban version of the white picket fence and everything.

“All the good it did you,” I mutter. I palm the mug and sit on the railing, leaning against the support beam wedged up against the house. “At least his heartache was a clean break.”

Didn’t doctors say a clean break was better for healing?

Of course, not much really could be worse than the absolute bullshit that Brett put me through. Sighing, I close my eyes and let my head drop back. Fuck, I need to think about anything other than Brett. Half of why I moved out here was to move on from him, find a place that had never been touched by him, poisoned by him.

Against my better judgment, I let the picture of Ethan in the Monroe barn fill my mind again, trying to remember the details of his tattoos. At least it’s better than thinking about Brett fuckingher. Except all it seems to do is highlight that deep need sitting just below my skin, ready to overwhelm me with its itching intensity.

The aroma of my scent turns acidic, and I swallow the lump in my throat, letting the thoughts of Ethan fall away, too. Someone clears their throat, and I glance over my shoulder. And then blush when I realize it’s Emily. A young boy with bright blond hair holds onto her hand, his eyes a deep blue that reminds me of sapphires. His hair is nearly identical to Melissa’s. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who he must be. I wait to be introduced to him, though, just in case.

“You good?” Emily asks, leaning against the porch’s support column.

When I shrug, her eyebrows furrow and she frowns.

Before she can say anything, the boy pulls away from her and waves.

“Hi, I’m Cam,” he says. “I’m four. Aunt Emily said we were going hiking today while Dad looks at the horses.”

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