Her blue eyes flick to mine, containing a rawness she hasn’t let me see before. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For being... me.”
The words hit me like a punch.
For being me.As if she’s apologizing for existing. Like she thinks the core of who she is—the noise, the movement, the intensity—is something that needs forgiveness.
And something in me breaks.
I slowly crouch in front of her. “No more provin’ anything,” I say quietly.
Jane’s gaze drops.
“Not here,” I continue. “Not with me.”
Her breath trembles.
I help her stand, guide her down the hall, and pull the quilt back on her bed. She sinks onto the mattress as if she’s finally out of fuel.
I tuck the quilt around her. Before I step away, I lean down, close enough that my breath stirs her curls.
“Jane.” I wait until her eyes meet mine. “You’re enough. Exactly as you are. I’ve never meant anything more.”
Her eyes shine, and for a moment, she looks like she might cry.
Instead, she murmurs, “Don’t say that unless you mean it.”
I hold her gaze. “I mean it.”
Then I leave before I do something reckless, like kiss her while she’s vulnerable or let my want turn into pressure.
I shut her door gently. In the hallway, I press a hand to my chest, as if it might steady the problem beating there.
She rides better than most cowboys.
She fits on this ranch like she was born under its sky.
She’s exactly the kind of wild that doesn’t stay where you put it.
And I wouldn’t have her any other way.
Chapter 8
Jane
I wake up warm, buried under a quilt. My stomach feels settled, but my pride is still lost somewhere in the snow behind the barn.
I blink at the ceiling. I’m in the guest room.
At some point last night, after Tex tucked me in, I fell asleep so deeply that my body finally accepted the comfort. I don’t remember moving here or leaving the bathroom. I only remember his careful hands and his deep, steady voice.
You’re enough.
My chest tightens, just as it did when he said it last night. Men don’t say things like that unless they mean them.
And Tex doesn’t seem like the type to throw words around carelessly.
