Page 58 of Slow Hands Cowboy

This wasn’t so much a natural look as a squirrel foraging for acorns look.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Oh, nothing,” he said. “I’m just here to talk about your living arrangements.”

“So, something is up.”

“Apparently, this whole thing has been so successful in bringing business to the ranch, the hotel is going to be full. So, we’re going to have to move you.”

“Oh.”

She felt fragile and small, and she knew she just needed to get it together and deal with herself. Deal with her own stuff. She could stay with her dad, she could stay with Anna, she could start getting things together to move people out of her vacation rental pipeline⁠—

“We can find another spot for you,” he said. “I wouldn’t worry too much, just warning you that we’re going to have to ferret you out.”

She looked around the room she’d just settled into, feeling a little bit small and wounded and knowing she needed to get over that. This was hard. She was going through something hard and that meant she had to buck up and deal with it and stop expecting it to feel like a walk in the park.

Walker seemed to pick up on her distress. “Oh, you can stay for the night, but don’t you think that tomorrow maybe we should go get some of your stuff from the house?”

“I don’t…have a place to put all my stuff. I have furniture there.”

“We have a storage unit here at the ranch—by which I mean we have an old barn that we put a bunch of shit in, but it will work just fine for you.”

“I can’t take up all that space.”

“You can take up some space, Addison.”

Those words felt bigger than they should. They felt like a revelation.

“I... thank you.”

But the idea of having to go and deal with Alan after all those texts...

She sighed heavily. She was already standing there in sweats. She already looked like the aforementioned acquisitive squirrel. There was no reason not to share this with him too.

She went back toward the bed, and he walked into the room, closing the door behind him, and she saw herself in her mind’s eye, stretching her arms out and shouting no, demanding that he not close them in this small space for their own safety, and yet, she didn’t do any of that. Instead, she presented him with her phone.

“Look at this.”

She opened up the text chain from Alan, which was all him texting her endlessly demanding explanations.

“Is he insane?” Walker asked, scrolling through everything.

“I feel like he might be. Because what the hell?”

“Yeah. When you go over there to get your stuff, I’ll definitely go with you. And I think you ought to do it sooner rather than later so he doesn’t set anything on fire.”

“I don’t think he’s going to do that.”

“You didn’t think he was going to leave you at the altar either.”

She sucked her breath in through her teeth. “Ouch. Fair.”

“Does he have somebody else?”

“These texts seem to indicate that he doesn’t.”

“Well. He owes you an explanation. And he definitely doesn’t owe you this level of attitude.”