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“Yeah?”
“Are you going to give me back the maple bars you ate on the way here?”
“Fine. A promise is a promise. Shoot.”
“Does my dad not like you for a reason greater than his being overprotective?”
Right out of the gate. She’s faster than some of the bulls I rode. “He doesn’t like me for a lot of reasons.”
“What reasons?”
“Because he caught me doing something stupid when I first moved to Autumn Ridge. And then found out I...have a police record.”
Archer
I hold my breath and wait for Juliet’s response, but a slight raise of her eyebrows is the only tell I receive that she’s heard me.
She stares straight ahead as we ride deeper into the maple trees and farther away from my house and the rest of society.
“Can I ask what you’re thinking?” I ask after a minute.
“Just wondering if you brought me out here into seclusion for a reason.”
I pause. Does she really think I’d hurt her?
Fortunately for my heart’s sake, she smiles. “Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood. Too soon?”
“No, I appreciate the humor.”
She sobers. “I’m just trying to decide if I should use one of my questions to see what you did to get a record. I don’t want to offend you by asking.”
“You can ask.”
“Okay. That’s my third question, then.”
If she hasn’t run off by now, maybe she’ll stick around to hear me out until the end. “About a year before I quit rodeo, I was going through some...tough things. I ended up losing control one night. Broke into an apparel store, damaged everything I could, tried to escape, and was caught by the police running away.
“Luckily, the owner of the store didn’t press charges, but I did what I could to make amends—paid for the damages and fixed the things I’d destroyed. It didn’t do anything to erase what I did or remove the guilt I still feel, but it helped enough to pull me out of what I was going through at the time.”
I’m still not ready to open up about what exactly I was going through. No one in Autumn Ridge knows, apart from Aunt May and James.
“Anyway, a year later, I left Texas, rodeoing, and my past behind and moved here.” I shrug. “So there you have it. The real reason your dad doesn’t like me. He just doesn’t trust me.”
She doesn’t refute my words, which is a good thing. I wouldn’t have believed her had she tried.
“If you don’t want to continue the ride, we can turn back now,” I offer.
“Why would I not want to continue?”
“Because of what you just found out. Doesn’t that make you want to steer clear of me?”
“All it does is make me understand both you and my dad.”
I expected this rational of a response.
Her body gently sways back and forth in time with the horse’s footsteps, and I watch her hips move, the embroidered flowers just peeking out above the western saddle.
“How did my dad find out about your record? I mean, obviously as a police officer, he had access to your info, but he must have had some reason to look it up.”
