“Anything for this guy.” Ivy hitched her thumb at Owen. “You sure you won’t come back to work for me?”
“Maybe someday.” He grinned at her. “Now, who have you got for us today?”
Ivy glanced at me. “I think Cedar is a good fit. Right?”
Owen gave me a quick once-over, as if he’d never seen me before. “Perfect choice. Are we good to go?”
“Do your thing.” Ivy swept her hand toward the barn just beyond us. “Holler if you need me. Oh, your buddy Josh is here. I know you guys used to pal around. I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you.”
My stomach dropped. I turned to study Owen, expecting to see a glower, but his expression was as neutral as ever.
“Fantastic,” he said convincingly. “That’s great.”
Owen gave Ivy a nod, then started for the barn. I had to jog to catch up to him.
“Should we leave?” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth even though no one was around. “It’s fine if you want to go, I swear.”
“It’s a big barn,” he said, staring straight ahead. “We won’t run into him if we don’t want to.”
“Yeah, but what if Ivy tells him you’re here, and he comes to find you.” I envisioned how it would play out and reflexively smacked him in the stomach, getting a shocked “wunf” out of him. “What if he wants togloat?”
Owen just kept stomping through the barn like he hadn’t heard me.
“You know what? I have an idea.” I kept talking to fill the silence. “I write about it in my books; now we’re going to do it in real life.”
Heat rushed to my face. Owen had just finished one of my books with plenty of “doing it” in a barn, but that wasn’t what I meant.
“Fake dating,” I blurted out. “If Josh comes anywhere near us, I’m morphing into your devoted girlfriend. I hope you can handle some PDA, because I’m going to grab your hand and squeeze it until your fingers turn blue. I’m going to hang on you like we’re magnetized. Justwaituntil you see my fluttery eyelashes.”
Owen allowed the faintest hint of a grin at my threats. “He won’t come find me. Sophie convinced him that I was just her friend, but I still got the feeling that he was threatened by me.”
“As he should be.” I nodded vigorously.
Owen came to a stop by an open stall. “Wait here. I’ll go get Cedar.”
I sighed, feeling responsible for whatever drama was coming for us. As much as I didn’t want a confrontation, I was totally game to show off my acting skills.
And holding Owen’s hand wasn’t the worst thing.
I finally remembered why we were at the barn and grabbed my notebook, because every single thing around me could be helpful in a moment when I couldn’t manufacture emotion but I still needed word count. I took a few photos while I waited, then threw on a riding helmet that was hanging on the wall and took a photo wearing a goofy expression to send to Wes.
Motorcycle or horse?
Horse. Book research.
Go you
A photo followed of a cup filled with brown sludge that looked like something you’d find in a diaper, but I knew it was one of his disgusting smoothie concoctions.
No thank you, xo.
The barn was busy with other riders, a couple of chickens, and a very friendly orange barn cat. I was surrounded by a world that I’d pretended to know all about for my last dozen books, and now that I was in the middle of it, I could see how much of the vibe I’d missed. Sure, we weren’t on a Montana ranch, but a horse farm in New Jersey could still provide tons of insights.
I had my head down taking a few notes about the flooring, so I didn’t see Owen leading Cedar until he was a few feet away. When I finally looked up, he was striding in my direction with his eyes locked on me, embodying the smoldery cowboy thing I’d written about but never witnessed in real life.
My heart did a reflexive backflip, because this was yet another side of Owen.
He was wearing a little side smile, like he was proud and excited and couldn’t wait to introduce me to the chestnut beast walking next to him. I tried not to make it obvious that I was memorizing everything about the way he was stalking toward me. How his hand gripped the lead casually, like he was holdingonto Marti’s leash and not guiding a beast that probably weighed several hundred pounds. The confidence in his gait, even when Cedar veered to the side and threw his head in the air. The way he spoke softly to Cedar after he fell back in line.
