Page 91 of Forever After All

“I am not constipated,” Jess retorted. “Why are we talking about bowel obstructions?”

Thea chuckled. “You and Linc are so much alike.”

Jess clicked her tongue and gave Liberty another command. They were a lot alike. They’d grown up not knowing love and rebelling against the injustice of the world. They’d handled their anger differently, but they’d both made mistakes and ended up here. “That’s not a bad thing.”

“It’s not. It’s a good thing. I love how you two understand each other, and you don’t even have to say much to communicate. It’s like the two of you have mastered the art of communication.”

Oh, how wrong Thea was. Jess was intentionally hiding her growing feelings for Linc, and Linc was doing everything he could to keep her from knowing things about his past.

He had every right to keep things to himself, but it still hurt that he didn’t want to let her in.

Maybe she had to give more of herself. If she told him about her past, he might feel better about talking to her.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Thea whispered. “You’ll figure things out. I’ll be praying about it.”

“The Lord doesn’t care about my emotional constipation,” Jess said.

“See, that’s where you’re wrong. He does.” Thea waved a hand over her head as she turned and headed toward the tack room. “See you tomorrow.”

Jess offered Liberty a treat and led her back to the pasture. Burgundy trotted over and nuzzled her, begging for a treat too. Jess handed one over and smoothed a hand over her side.

“I can go on a trail ride and not do something stupid. Right?”

Even Thea knew something was up, and Jess had known her the least amount of time. Surely, the other workers on the ranch had noticed her feelings too.

If she’d been walking around while her friends whispered behind her back, did Linc know too? How could any of them know when she didn’t even know what she was feeling?

Maybe she needed to take Thea up on the offer to talk. As soon as the thought entered her mind, her stomach revolted.

No. No talking. At least not with anyone except Linc.

They had things to do. The season was almost here, and they had more work to do than they had hours in the day. She didn’t have time to date, but she didn’t have time to lose her mind over Linc either.

Too bad her mind didn’t get the message to calm down. She needed to figure everything out before Monday morning.

Chapter27

Linc

The frozen ground crunched with every step of the horses as they climbed the steady hill. The edge of Red Canyon peeked through the mix of bare and evergreen trees to their right. They’d been traveling for hours, and for once, the silence was heavy, despite the forest sounds.

“See? It’s really pretty up here.”

Jess had said the same thing in different words three times already, but she wasn’t talking to him. Once, she addressed Liberty by name, so neither Linc nor Paul had responded to her comments yet.

He didn’t blame her for favoring a chat with a horse over him. He had things to say, but none of them were about the scenery.

I miss you so much it hurts.

You’re so much better than I am.

I’m not worthy, but please love me anyway.

Linc let his shoulders sag just an inch. That last one would go over really well. What kind of woman wanted a begging wimp?

He’d never been that guy, but everything was different with Jess. Thankfully. Thoughts of how he’d treated every other woman who had crossed his path between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

“I met with a couple of the new guys yesterday,” Paul said, throwing them into a conversation out of the blue. “Wes Jenkins is coming in from Texas. He has plenty of experience, so he shouldn’t be hard to train. Austin Roberts is off the rodeo circuit. Said he’s gettin’ too old to keep gettin’ bucked.”

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