Page 24 of My Rancher Valentine

“Great.” Daphne dragged her away from me.

“Wait.” I held her closer and brushed my lips across hers. “I’ll see you later.”

“Sure.” I watched her walk out with my sisters on both sides of her.

Chapter 9

Kat

What the heck was I playing at? I should have let Beau tell the Patchwork guys the truth, but there was something in his eyes when I walked into that stall that I had never seen before. Uncertainty. I had seen Beau Wynters cocky, flirty, sad even, but I had never seen that. I’m not sure I would have believed it was possible until a little while ago. Just seeing that made me want to protect him. To get him back to the jerk that I was quickly realizing he honestly wasn’t.

This whole thing was turning out to be way more than I expected. Beau wasn’t supposed to be this little boy trying to prove that he was more than people thought. He wasn’t supposed to be caring and protective. He was supposed to be wise-cracking and trying to get me into bed. He was supposed to flirt with the hostess who flirted with him and let me go as soon as his sisters walked in. I assumed he told them the truth. There was no reason for him to act like we were an actual couple around them, but the longer I sat with them, the more I questioned if they really believed the same lie we had told Randall and Leonard.

“I’ve read your articles.” Daphne smiled at me. We were waiting for the next set of riders, which included both Dallas and Beau, to get started.

“Really?” I remembered both Daphne and Hailey from school, but they were both older than Beau, and I. Hailey had already graduated by the time we got to high school, and Daphne was a junior, which meant she didn’t befriend lowly freshmen.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “They’re good.”

“Thanks.”

“You should join us some Saturdays for brunch.”

The invitation surprised me. Everyone in town knew about Saturday brunch for the sassy six. That was the nickname people gave to Daphne, Hailey, and their circle of friends.

“Yeah. That would be really cool. Especially now that Ginger moved. We need another girl if we are going to keep that nickname accurate.” Hailey winked with a laugh.

Daphne rolled her eyes. “I don’t know where that silly thing came from.”

“Probably from the fact that there are six of you, and you’re all pretty sassy.” I threw it out there.

Both of them laughed. “We just let people think that. Honestly, we’re just a group of friends that like to eat and gossip.”

If that was what she wanted to believe, but I wasn’t so sure. I knew Blair Cummings from the paper and Sunday from Cozy Chapters Bookstore. While Blair could be quiet, Sunday was about as sassy as they come.

“You should definitely meet up with us next Saturday.” Hailey nodded. “Unless you think you are going to be too tired from hanging out with our brother.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

Okay, they had to know. There was no way that she would say something like that unless she knew the truth. I looked around before leaning closer.

“You know, don’t you?” I lowered my voice.

“What? That you both are full of it?” Hailey whispered right back. “Absolutely. There’s no way Beau could keep something like this to himself. Not without our momma finding out.”

“And if she knew, then we’d know,” Daphne added.

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