“Different how?” Wyatt prods.
I shrug, staring into the glass of whiskey I’ve been nursing. “She’s not looking for trouble. Just wants to understand the work. The horses. This place. Most reporters come in with their minds made up about the story they’re going to write. She actually listens.”
Anna’s voice softens. “I like her. And I think she likes it here, too.”
Wyatt chuckles. “Yeah, I noticed Cash has been spending plenty of time showing her around. And going for rides. How’s that going?”
“She’s getting the story,” I say, though my tone comes out more defensive than I mean it to.
“That all she’s getting?”
Anna bursts out laughing.
“Don’t start.” I shoot them each a look, and Anna bites her bottom lip. “You wanted me to be nice to her,” I say with a growl. “That’s all I’m doing. I’m answering her questions so she can write her story.”
“Whatever you say, brother.”
“Itiswhat I say.” When they exchange a glance with each other, my annoyance only grows.“What?” I demand. “What do you want to say?”
It’s Anna who answers. “It’s just the way you look at her,” she says.
“And how do I look at her?”
Wyatt’s eyes flash. “Like you want to bend her over the porch railing and?—”
“Wyatt!” Anna smacks his arm, and it’s my turn to laugh.
“What?” He shrugs innocently. “I’m just making conversation.”
Overhead, the lights flicker and we all look up as if we can keep the lights on by sheer will. “That doesn’t bode well.”
It’s not forecasted to be a particularly bad store, but up in the mountains, it doesn’t take much for the power to go off.
“I don’t mind a storm,” Anna says and wiggles closer to Wyatt. “It’s cozy.”
I’ve heard all about how Anna was stranded up at the ranch, alone with Wyatt after a bad winter storm that brought the two of them together. I do not need any of the gory details.
I also do not need to stick around while the two of them getcozy.
With a shake of my head, I toss back the rest of my whiskey and drop the glass on the side table before getting to my feet. “Maybe I should go and make sure Kali has wood chopped for a fire, just in?—”
My words are cut off by another flicker of the lights. Once. Twice. And then everything goes dark.
I glance toward the window, but where the soft, warm glow from Kali’s cabin once was, there’s nothing but inky blackness.
“I guess that settles that,” I say into the darkness as I pick my way across the room to the front door.
“Stay cozy, Cash.” I hear Wyatt call behind me as I grab my jacket, and the door slams shut behind me.
Kalli
Writing at night is my favorite. Ever since getting to the ranch, the words have flowed from my fingers. I don’t know if it’s this place, the horses, the people, or the story I’m working on, but I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed my work so much.
It’s the people, I think.
Well, one person in particular.
Cash Thorne has proven to be more than just an interview subject. After the kiss we shared, something shifted between us. I’m not complaining about it. I mean, I know it’s completely unprofessional to be fantasizing about him the way I am, and Brooke’s text messages about how I shoulddo whatever it takesto get the story are still at the back of my mind.
