Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
“Oh, I will,” she calls over her shoulder as she picks up my phone. I can see her in the dining area. It has red, round tables with chairs. Everything Sadie puts together is cute and perfect, like a little dollhouse.
She says a few words into my phone before she hangs up. Then she comes back to the kitchen where I’ve been waiting. She passes me another donut just like she said.
I beam at her. “Your donuts are almost as good as cowboys!”
She pushes a cup of coffee toward me. “Glad to hear it. Try sipping this.”
I take a sip of the black liquid. It’s bitter on my tongue, but I like the way it makes the donut taste sweeter. “He kissed me. On my forehead. Right here.” I point to the spot. If I close my eyes, I can almost feel his soft lips there again. It was the nicest feeling.
“Yeah?” Sadie says.
I eat my snack quietly, thinking about Noah. Minutes pass. Maybe hours. It’s hard to know since the numbers on the clock keep shimmering. “I have a deep, dark secret I can’t tell anyone.”
Something chimes. Maybe a phone. Doesn’t matter. I have secrets now. Secrets no one can know.
“You don’t have to tell me your secrets, sweetie,” Sadie says softly. Footsteps sound, but she isn’t walking. Weird.
“Are you ready for it?” I ask, taking a deep breath. This is the scariest thing I’ve ever done.
“Why don’t you take a night to think about it? Then you can say it in the morning,” Sadie tells me.
I open my mouth and blab anyway. “Noah Maple is the prettiest cowboy I’ve ever seen.”
“Aww, darling, that’s about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” Noah says from his place in the kitchen doorway.
“Oops,” I murmur. “I think I just spilled the beans.”
Chapter 4
Noah
Walt and I haven’t said a word to each other since I came into the house. Lizzy left with her friend a few minutes ago, and now it’s just the two of us.
We have dinner together at least once a week. Sometimes, twice. I wasn’t lying when I told Lizzy I was invited. I always have a standing invitation at Walt’s place. Just like he has one at mine.
We became friends years ago. I was an angry teenager in need of a guide. He was a grieving widower in need of someone to mentor. Somehow, the two of us bonded over a shared love of reading.
I’d spend hours in his bookshop, reading as many volumes as I could. It didn’t matter what I was reading. I just wanted to be reading and not thinking about the painful memories that haunted me.
He never fussed at me for reading through so many of his books. In return, I helped him with unloading and stocking inventory. Even now his bookstore feels just as much like home to me as my family’s ranch.
Walt’s silence right now doesn’t mean he’s angry. He’s a thinker. A man who weighs everything carefully before speaking. But it doesn’t matter even if he is angry. There’s nothing he could say that would make me turn away from Lizzy. She’s mine. I know that deep in my bones.
I decide to start the conversation, nodding at the steak and baked potato he places on the table in front of me. I didn’t call ahead to tell him I’d be here. “Were you expecting company?”
“Just Tank,” he says.
Tank is married to Bailey, the woman who runs the barbershop in town. “I didn’t know the two of you are friends.”
He busies himself with putting ice in our glasses. He pours both of us a glass of his sweet tea, never looking up at me. “We go fishing sometimes.”
Unease prickles at me. He’s hiding something. “Is he going to join us tonight?”
He nudges silverware toward me. “I texted him that I’m busy.”
I nearly choke over the sweet tea that weirdly doesn’t taste like his recipe. “When did you learn to text?”
“My granddaughter taught me,” he says as he takes a seat at the table. I’ve been trying to teach Walt how to use his smartphone for the last two years, and he always refused my help. I wonder how Lizzy convinced him to use it.
He pins me with an intense stare. “Which brings up what we need to discuss. Namely, what you’re doing here tonight.”
I pull the ring box from my pocket and set it on the table where he can see it.
He eyes it. “Is that what I think it is?”
He mentioned once how he saw his late wife for the first time at a barn dance and instantly knew they were meant to be together. I didn’t understand that story when he told it to me. Sometimes, you look at one person and know you’re looking at your forever.
“I love her. I knew it the moment I saw her. It was like…”