Page 39 of The Rancher's Unrequited Love

Ethan's grimace was all the answer she needed, and she choked out another laugh.Hopeless, she thought helplessly.This moment was years in the making, and yet neither of them could even say the words out loud.

Maybe they needed something to kickstart things?

Ethan reluctantly let go when Anah suddenly started wriggling out of his hold, but when he saw her head straight for the fridge—-

Déjà vu,Ethan thought with a smile, recalling the last time they had a similar confrontation, and he had started heaping food on her plate.

When Anah turned back to face Ethan, cake box in hand, she saw Ethan already setting plates on the kitchen island, and she burst into laughter. "I was only planning for us to have cake!"

"But what if our conversation outlasts the cake?" Ethan asked pragmatically.

"Maybe, but—-"

"We should heat the pasta, too."

Anah found herself grinning like a fool at the way Jackson Hole's once-infamous heartbreaker was turning into a domesticated god right before her very eyes. The pasta he had spoken of was already in the microwave, and Ethan was now busy turning his two mugs of coffee into iced coffee jelly.

Oh well.

She had only planned to plant last year's candle on top of the cake and declare this day as their official first day as a couplein love,but they didn't have to do that right away, really. Since Ethan was going all out with his preparations, they could just have the cake as the dessert.

But first...

"Do you have a lighter?" She had already seen last year's candle in one of the kitchen drawers, but she hadn't any luck finding any lighter or firestarter around the house.

"I left mine in the pick-up's glovebox," Ethan answered absently.

"Oh."

Ethan glanced at Anah over his shoulder. "You need me to get it?"

Anah couldn't quite answer right away. Three years ago, he had asked her to grab something from his pick-up's glove box, and a pack of condoms had fallen out the moment she opened it.

Ethan turned around at her continued silence, and when he saw the uneasy look on her face—-

A memory flashed in his mind, and his jaw hardened.

Fuck.

He strode to her in the next moment and cupped her face when she refused to meet his gaze. "Anah..."

"I know I'm being silly—-"

"It's not there," he said gently. "Not a single of trace of the past is there."

Anah bit her lip.

"And it's been like that for over a year."

Her eyes widened.

"But don't just take my word for it," Ethan said lightly. "I want you to see it for yourself. And afterwards..." He took a deep breath. "We'll talk." Because it was time for her to know the truth.

Ethan watched Anah walk away and the sight had him fighting against a sudden urge to call her back. Cold sweat had broken out from nowhere to bathe his skin, and breathing had become a struggle for some inexplicable reason.

His instincts started ringing wildly inside of him.

There was something he had forgotten.

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