I feel it hit her because it hits me too.
She swallows. “Theo … they’re not gonna—”
“I’m not saying it for the interview.” My voice is low, rough, a little unsteady.
Her eyes snap to mine, wide and searching, and—God help me—I almost break. I almost tell her everything. How long I’ve loved her. How badly I want this to be real. How I’d give anything to take her to that ridge, drop to my knees, and propose properly.
Instead, I say, “All I mean is that you’d deserve a real honeymoon. A real wedding too. Promise me …” my heart breaks just a little, but I’ve already started the thought and I can’t stop now, “that when you actually settle down, you find a man who gives you all that.”
Cora’s lips are fully parted now, staring me down like she’s trying to see through my skin. After a long pause, she finally answers, “Yeah, okay.” It’s barely above a whisper.
I nod once, staring down at the laptop. “Anything else we should cover?” I force out.
She takes a breath. “We can think on it and come back.”
I nod again, feeling a bit like a bobblehead. “Good. Yeah. Good idea.”
She’s silent.
“I’m gonna … go to the gym,” I lie. I don’t have a gym membership. I get enough of a workout on the ranch every day. But if I spend one more second in this house with Cora, the tension might just kill me.
Or I’ll admit everything.
“Okay,” she says quietly. “Have a good time.”
I nod quickly, beelining to the front door, hopping in my truck and taking off. And then I just drive.
And drive.
Chapter eleven
Cora
BythetimeIstep into the ranch clinic the next morning, the place is buzzing. The kind of controlled chaos that always manages to settle something inside me instead of rattling it.
And I certainly need settling after last night. It had started out so fun and innocent. Going through our “fake” relationship, coming up with a backstory, ribbing Theo a bit about sex questions. It had all been fun and games until … something shifted and suddenly, it wasn’t.
The only problem is I can’t quite tell what shifted everything. The sex questions? The idea of Theo actually proposing to me in the most idyllic and beautiful place on the ranch? Him telling me I deserve a man who’ll give me the wedding and honeymoon of my dreams?
Yeah … that had hit something.
I’m still trying to figure out what thatsomethingis, though.
Kylie, one of the vet techs, is bottle-feeding a wobbly calf on a blanket near the exam table. Caleb, our intern, is cleaning up a pile of … well, probably shit … from the floor. And Dr. Ramirez—the senior vet, one of the few people alive who can make barking orders sound like encouragement—is elbow-deep in a cabinet.
“Walker!” she calls without turning. “Your favorite patient is already sabotaging my morning.”
A bleat echoes from the back barn.
I grin. “Oh good, the demon goat lives another day.” Why this cattle ranch has a goat herd, God only knows. The Thatchers do run a small diary operation, but goat milk certainly can’t be in much demand, can it?
But what do I know? I’m only here to keep them all healthy.
A ripple of laughter moves through the room, and something warm settles in my chest.
Kylie waves me over. “You’re on bottle-baby duty. This guy won’t eat for anyone except you.”
I drop to my knees on the blanket. The calf lifts its head, ears flicking, and immediately nose-butts my thigh like it’s scolding me for taking too long. “Fine, fine,” I murmur, guiding the bottle toward its mouth. It’s one of the difficult births I’d managed a few weeks back, culminating with the heifer rejecting the calf—something that unfortunately happens from time to time. And I guess being the only other being in the vicinity at the time of its birth, the calf has assigned me as “mommy.”
