Page 89 of Forever After All

“The two of you are a lot alike,” Linc said.

Jess opened her mouth to protest, but he was right. Emerson was as hardheaded as Jess was, and it was one of the things that Jess liked about her new sister. She didn’t pretend to be anything except what she was. Take it or leave it.

Jess reached for her own hat in the seat beside her and didn’t look up at Linc. “You know, she asked about you. She wanted to know if you were single.”

Linc turned to look at her, but she didn’t look up. She couldn’t. He’d see the truth.

“And what did you tell her?” he asked.

“I don’t remember. I was too busy seeing red.”

There. She said it. It was the truth, but she didn’t know what it meant. If she didn’t know, then neither would he.

Linc propped an arm on the steering wheel and the other on the seat beside her. “Why would that make you mad?”

Why did it make her mad? She didn’t know because it didn’t make sense. “I’m not good at piecing out my emotions,” she finally admitted. It was the truth, but would he accept it?

Linc leaned back in his seat. “Fair enough.” He put his hat on and opened the truck door. “Let’s get to work.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, she got out of the truck. Finally, something she understood.

Chapter26

Jess

Jess walked Liberty around the indoor arena. The dapple gray was fairly new to the ranch, but her training progress had been better than expected.

“You’re a really good listener,” Jess whispered.

The horse followed until Jess stepped to the side. With clicks and commands, Liberty completed every training exercise.

Thea walked up and propped a hand on her hip as she reached out to stroke Liberty with the other. “She’s a really good one.”

“I think she’ll be ready for the trail rides. Mr. Chambers said a new wrangler starts next week. I’m hoping he’ll be a good match for her.”

“You think she’s strong enough to carry the packs?” Thea asked.

“She will be. Once the weather warms up, I’ll up her training.”

“We only have a few weeks,” Thea said.

“Why does it feel like this season is rushing toward me?”

“Because you took almost a week off when you got injured. Well, I’m not sure showing up at the barn and giving orders is exactly taking off, but you didn’t do much physical labor.”

Jess huffed. “Don’t remind me about that.” Those few days of “rest” were tough. She liked working, and being told to stay away from work went against her instincts.

Footfalls behind them made both women turn. Jameson walked toward them with a tablet resting on one arm.

“Just the people I wanted to see,” Jameson said. “And the horse.”

“What’s up?” Thea asked.

Jameson unlocked the tablet. “We need to send out a clean-up crew to the Red Canyon campsite. Jess, I need you and Liberty. You still think she’s ready?”

“I do.”

“We were just talking about that,” Thea added.

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