“Incorrect,” I say, deeply offended. “I have standards. And Delaney isn’t just anyone.”
The second it’s out of my mouth, I see the way the words land.
Boone’s jaw tightens. His shoulders bunch. Heat floods his neck, a mix of anger and a redness that looks suspiciously jealous.
Interesting.
Boone turns away, bracing both hands on the counter again. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I just didn’t.”
He doesn’t answer.
He’s breathing too hard for a man who didn’t run anywhere.
So I keep talking, because that’s what I do best, dig holes and fill them with inappropriate honesty.
“And before you start spiraling,” I add, “she feels something for you.
His head jerks slightly. He wasn’t expecting that.
“She looked at you,” I say, shrugging one shoulder, “like she was going to melt through the damn counter.”
Still no response.
But the tension in his jaw isn’t quite the same flavor.
Not anger.
Not only guilt.
Something else is mixing in there now.
Inconvenient.
Inevitable.
“And,” I say lightly, “I’m… pretty sure Caleb is into her too.”
Boone turns his head slowly. “What?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I mean, he hasn’t said anything, obviously. Because he’s Caleb. He’ll die of internalized pining before he admits to having a single human emotion. But I’ve seen the way he looks at her.”
Boone just stares.
So I list it out for him.
“Number one: he avoids looking directly at her, which is a dead giveaway. Two: he gets weirdly quiet around her, which is saying something. Three: she brings him coffee in the barn, and he gets that ridiculous soft face he only ever gets with horses and Sadie.”
Boone scrubs his hand over his face.
“And four,” I add, “I caught him smiling at her cooking. Smiling, Boone. Actual teeth. I thought he was having a stroke.”
Boone groans into his palms.
“And five,” I finish, because I believe in thoroughness, “he called her ‘good people.’ You know how many people Caleb has called ‘good people’ in the last decade? Four. Me, you, Sadie, and one geriatric horse named Daisy who died in 2019.”
Boone lets his hands fall, staring straight ahead.
