“Why not keep me instead?”
I look away, shaking my head. She still doesn’t get it. My voice is gravel when I answer, “I was born the year of the great Silver Rush to Nevada.”
Her brows knit. “Eighteen fifty-nine.”
I nod once.
“No, you weren’t.”
“I was.”
The blood drains from her face.
My heart melts in my chest. This is harder than I thought it would be. “Eliza, why would I lie about something like that?”
Her brown sugar eyes dart to mine, thick lashes fluttering. “I don’t know. But it can’t be.”
My brows furrow. “You said it yourself. There’s something different about me.”
“But how do you expect me to believe that?”
“Why do you think the government men were questioning you?”
Her eyes round like two dinner plates, her head shaking slightly now. “I don’t know.” She presses fingers to her temple. “They kept asking about aliens and supernatural things, and if there was anything different about you. And what I knew about the bull and why I hid the field from them.”
“Why did you?” I ask, sitting back on my heels.
“Because I didn’t want to lose my family’s ranch.”
“And is that why you want me to stay? For the ranch?”
“Yes… and…”
“And?”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “I can’t say it if you don’t want it.”
“I do want it, boss. That’s the problem. I want it more than I want air. It’s all I can think about.”
Her eyes are two ebony pools.
“But if you don’t trust me. If you refuse to hear who I am, what I am… this will never work between us.”
She exhales sharply, rubbing a hand over her face. “You don’t know how strange this all sounds. What you’re telling me is impossible.”
“You grew up in this town. You know more than you’re letting on.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe and what?”
“And it always scared me to think any of it could be real.”
“That men could fall from the sky and then choose to stay. That some would fall in love and mate with human women. Have children who live longer, act stronger, have things they can’t quite hide.”
Chapter
Twenty-One
