Page 57 of Trusting a Cowgirl

Faye snickered. “There’s nothing wrong with dating someone. Remember? Dad doesn’t care anymore.”

Grace huffed. “He’d care about this one.”

“Why? He seems nice.”

She let her head fall back against the headrest. “He’s great. That’s not the problem.”

“Then what is?”

Grace shut her eyes again. How to answer that question without sounding ridiculous? She couldn’t even figure out why this was bothering her so much. Could the age gap be a bigger issue to her deep down? Was it his past? When they were together, she didn’t have a problem with any of it. But trying to explain to someone else what she felt seemed so impossible. She sighed and twisted her head around to look at her sister. “How many guys have you dated since Dad said it was okay?”

Faye shrugged. “Only a few, I guess. Nothing serious, though.”

“Okay. Have any of them been in the military?”

Her sister pouted out her lower lip in thought. “No. I don’t think so.”

“Were any of them a lot older than you?”

Faye blinked. “How much older?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Grace, I don’t interrogate the guys who buy me dinner. They’re about my age. But Riley looks about our age, so what are you getting at?”

Her lower lip was getting raw with how much she’d been chewing on it lately. Grace turned forward in her seat again. “He’s ten years older than me.” She said it so quietly she didn’t know if Faye would hear her correctly.

She shouldn’t have been worried.

“Ten years,” Faye squawked. “You’re joking, right? You’re barely legal.”

Grace huffed and spun around faster this time. “I’m mature for my age.”

They stared each other down until Faye’s eyes shifted from Grace to something behind her, following that something until Riley opened the door and climbed in.

He beamed at them both. “Good news. The bike still needs a few more hours of work.” His eyes bounced from Grace to Faye and back. “Did I miss something?”

Grace yanked the gearshift into reverse and backed out of the parking lot. Then she put both hands on the steering wheel and shook her head. “Nope. Everything is great.” She glanced in the rearview mirror at her sister, who smiled much like Brielle had this morning. She was like a cat who had swallowed a mouse. There was no way she would keep this from her other sisters.

Brielle was great at keeping secrets. Faye could keep a secret, but she enjoyed telling her sisters every little sordid detail of something like this.

And Eloise could never keep a secret. By the end of the week, no, by the end of the day, her father would likely know more than Grace had ever wanted him to.

Something mechanical in her truck squealed in protest and then died down. Riley frowned. “That didn’t sound good.”

“It does that,” Grace muttered. “That’s the thing that they can’t figure out. But this truck still gets me from point A to point B. So who am I to complain?”

“We should get you a new one. I don’t like the idea of you driving in this thing around town.”

Grace chuckled dryly. “I’m sorry. But I don’t have that kind of money. And my father doesn’t give his money out freely. He expects us to work for our things.”

Faye leaned forward. “Besides, this was our mother’s truck. There’s no way any of us would get rid of it.”

Riley shot a look at Grace and she met his gaze. An understanding passed between them, and he nodded. “Understood. Maybe one day we can get you a replacement along with getting this thing fixed, and then you can give it to one of your sisters.”

Faye settled back into her seat. “I like this one, Grace. I think you should keep him.”

Riley chuckled and twisted around in his seat. “Well, I like you, too, Faye.”

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