Page 101 of Pretend To Be My Cowboy
She swallowed hard. “That was always the plan. You know that.”
He nodded, glancing at her. “I guess I thought maybe things had changed.”
She bit her lip to keep from crying but her throat was too tight to speak. She couldn’t admit how much she wished he was right.
But things hadn’t changed. Not in the ways that counted.
She’d be boarding a plane Tuesday morning and there was no stopping that.
“You going back inside?” he asked.
She shook her head. She couldn’t even talk, how was she supposed to smile and dance and make small talk the rest of the night?
Cody nudged her elbow with his. “You want a ride home?”
Home. The word hit her chest like a hammer and she felt her heart reverberate from the impact.Home.
He was talking about the ranch, and that was exactly what it had come to feel like. Her home. The house, the land, this town, her new friends…
And Nash.
Nash most of all. He’d come to feel like home.
She pressed her lips together, but it was no use. She was already starting to blubber like a fool again.
“Yes, please,” she managed through her tears. “If you don’t mind.”
“Of course not,” he murmured. “Let me grab my keys and I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, swiping at tears as she waited. She should tell Nash where she was going, but she couldn’t go inside looking like this.
And she couldn’t bear to see the sympathy in Nash’s eyes again if he caught sight of her crying over him.
“Ready when you are,” Cody said when he stepped back outside.
She liked all the guys who worked on the O’Sullivan Ranch, but right now she was grateful it was Cody who drove her back to the house, because she wouldn’t have been able to bear it if she’d been riding with someone who thought they had to cheer her up or pester her with questions.
Cody dropped her off with a few murmured comments about how she ought to get some rest and how he’d make her excuses to Nash and the rest of the family.
She nodded, waving him off and waiting until she was inside before bending forward at the waist as a heaving sob choked out of her. She covered her mouth but it was no use.
Thank goodness no one was home.
Her sobs seemed absurdly loud in the otherwise silent, empty house. She headed toward her bedroom, but caught sight of the folder which had been plaguing her stay and turned right back around.
She’d spent what felt like weeks working so hard to find her sisters so that they could sell, and now she was having second thoughts. She fell onto the couch where she’d spent evenings relaxing with Nash, talking and laughing and feeling more comfortable than she could ever remember.
She leaned back and looked up at the high ceiling. Yes, this place had come to feel like home. But how much of that was thanks to Nash?
She hugged a cushion to her chest.
Would it be the same when they were no longer spending so much time together? Would she still feel like this was her home if Nash wasn’t here to share her meals with her and say goodnight at the end of every day?
She squeezed the soft cushion with a little moan.
Somehow she didn’t think so. She loved this place, all right. And she adored her newfound friends.
But it was Nash who’d filled her heart in a way that no one else could.
