Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Tully didn’t say anything, but for some reason, I suddenly couldn’t shut up.
“His name is Silas. We went to college together. He accidentally married a cowboy and called me in to help last summer on the cowboy’s family ranch.”
His head turned at this. “Accidentally?”
“Long story.”
“And you stayed?” His eyes fixed on me. “You settled down?”
I shrugged. “Didn’t really have a place to go back to. Besides, I like it here. It’s nice and quiet. Plenty of room to be by myself.”
I sensed the tension in his body. “So you prefer to be by yourself?”
Since I hadn’t been born yesterday, I knew this wasn’t a casual question, and I merely grunted in response.
The truth was, I did like being by myself… mostly. And the alternative—the crushing disappointment of letting down someone who relied on me, of not being enough for someone I loved—was terrifying.
I had my brotherhood and other friends, like Foster and Jo Blake, who understood my boundaries. They loved me but allowed me privacy and a small amount of necessary distance. I had no plans to change that.
A small movement in the rearview mirror caught my attention, and when I looked up, I saw Lellie, still fast asleep with her head tilted uncomfortably to one side. Her wispy ringlets danced in the blowing wind.
But sometimes things don’t go according to plan, a voice that sounded like Katie’s reminded me.
“What do you, ah… what do you do for work?” Tully asked.
The awkward attempt at small talk was at least better than talking about Katie’s passing or the orphaned daughter she’d left behind, and I seized on it gratefully.
“I oversee a breeding program at a horse ranch. Silas’s husband Way’s ranch.”
“Is… that what you studied in college? Animal husbandry?”
I glanced over at him and registered a discomfort I hadn’t noticed before. “No. I studied business in college,” I said, being deliberately vague. I’d learned a long time ago that mentioning Yale to someone I didn’t know well was like dropping a bomb into a conversation. It had a tendency to change things, especially if the person didn’t know me very well.
“I guess a horse breeding program is a business,” he ventured, as if trying to connect the dots.
“I grew up around horses,” I said finally. I didn’t owe him an explanation, but for some reason, I didn’t want him to think I was completely inexperienced at what I did. “More accurately, I grew up working on a ranch. They bred quarter horses used in ranch work. I guess I got the animal husbandry vibe there.”
Tully nodded and turned back to the window, but there was still a coiled tension in his body that was hard to read.
“What about you?” I asked after an awkward moment of silence. “What kind of law do you practice?”
“Trusts and estates, mostly. I do some real estate work as well if my clients need it. Contract review, too, from time to time.”
“Sounds… lucrative,” I said for lack of anything better. It sounded boring as hell, to be honest, but I didn’t want to offend him.
“It is. Stable, too.” Tully straightened slightly and smoothed a hand down the remains of his crumpled dress shirt. His voice was a little starchier as he added, “I’m very grateful for my position at Dunlevy, Pace, and Trumble.”
“Glad to hear it.” It took all kinds, I supposed.
He hesitated. “What about horse breeding? Does it, um… pay well?”
Ah. This wasn’t “small talk” but an interrogation into what kind of life I had, what kind of financial stability I might be able to provide for Lellie. For my… daughter.
Disappointment flared hot in my gut. I’d hoped… well, I guess I’d hoped Tully was actually trying to get to know me. That the one night we’d spent together had been decent enough to make him give a shit about me as a person.
The encounter had stayed with me for a long time and kept me company through hundreds of lonely nights. I’d had fantasies about Tully Bowman—imagined what it would have been like if I could have pursued something real with him if he hadn’t been so closely tied to the life I’d had to leave behind. But it looked like that was well in the past for him and nowhere near his radar now.
The man was here for one reason and one reason only: to judge me on behalf of a little girl I’d never met and hadn’t even known existed. And it seemed like Tully Bowman was eager to find me wanting.
Which, let’s be honest, wouldn’t be that difficult.
FIVE
TULLY
I knew I’d fucked up the minute Dev’s face had gone blank. In my haste to get answers, I’d pushed too much too soon, and I silently cursed myself.
I’d been enjoying our talk—or, more accurately, I’d been enjoying the subconscious twitch of his lips whenever something amused him, the scent of sandalwood as the wind ruffled his dark curls, and the competent way his big hands gripped the steering wheel as he maneuvered us down the road.