Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 258(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 258(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
“I’m good,” she says, looking intently through the windshield.
“What are you looking at?”
“The sky. Isn’t it beautiful?”
I glance upward before moving my gaze back to the road in front of me. The road is basically an extra-large cement path. There’s one running from building to building here on the ranch. The cement has been bronzed to match the mulch around the flower beds that are scattered throughout the property. It actually makes it look more natural and doesn’t detract from the beauty of the ranch.
“It’s a sky,” I point out.
“Well, duh,” she answers. “Look how gorgeous the moon looks, though. It has a faint red glow around it. Then, there’s how bright the stars are. It’s beautiful.”
“I guess I never really thought about it.”
“Well, you should. Life can be very ugly. You should appreciate beauty when God reveals it to you.”
“I think I’m the wrong person to talk to about that,” I say at once. If there is a God up there, I don’t think I’m his favorite person. Whatever happened to me ended up with me being shot, stabbed multiple times, and what the doctors could only describe as torture. The doctors still aren’t sure how I survived. One said I must have something really important to live for. That was the biggest joke of all—since I can’t remember a damn thing. I push those thoughts aside when I realize Olivia has been talking.
“At least that’s what I think,” she says.
I want to ask her what she thinks because I totally missed it, but I don’t want her to know I wasn’t listening. “How did you end up here at the ranch?” I ask instead.
“Oh, that’s a long, yucky story that I don’t want to think about,” she says, looking out her window.
If I hadn’t been watching, I would have missed how stiff her body went with my question. I already knew she had a background that wasn’t good. I picked up on that just from listening to the others talk to her. Apparently, it’s worse than what I imagined. I’m not sure what I did in my past, but I know I have a knack for reading people, and right now, everything about Olivia is screaming that she wants to run and get away from this conversation. With that in mind, I decide to change the subject.
“Thanks for giving me another chance, Olivia. I really am sorry I was an asshole.”
“It’s okay. You were friends with Ray. It’s understandable.”
“Can I ask what he did to you?” I push.
She sighs. “Why? It’s not like it matters anymore,” she replies with a shrug.
“I’d like to know what an asshole Ray was. He obviously had me fooled,” I lie. He didn’t, I just needed a reason to dislike Olivia.
“He’d been hitting on me for a month and was steadily getting more aggressive about it. I tried to tell him I had lost the only man who would ever own my heart. It didn’t make a difference to him, except to tell me some line about finding another horse to ride and how I could ride him.”
“Fucking hell,” I growl, my gut twisting in knots with her words. There’s a lot to unpack there, and it makes my heart stop for a second. I actually have to slap my chest to get beating again. I feel like I can’t breathe. “I should kill him.”
She reaches over and puts her hand over mine, squeezing. “I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, Lake.”
“I don’t think a jury would find me guilty,” I mutter as I pull up to the cabin she lives in.
She grins at me. “I think you overestimate how horrible people are. I’d never trust my future with a jury.”
“You’re too beautiful to be this jaded, Livy.”
Her cheeks color such a deep red that I can see it in the softly lit cab. “You called me Livy,” she points out.
I frown. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to overstep. Others call you that, and it just seems to fit you. Olivia sounds reserved and distant. You’re too sweet for that.”
She laughs. “Now you’re talking crazy. Cross calls me Ollie-girl.”
“That’s the man who was at your cabin earlier tonight, right?”
“Yeah,” she murmurs.
“I was an asshole. I’m sorry. I was …” I stop, unsure if I should tell her. I’d like to be honest with her from here on out, but I don’t know that she can handle the truth either.
“Was what?” she asks, sounding confused.
“I was jealous, Livy. That’s the real reason I was a jerk each and every time we came into contact.
“Jealous? But we don’t even know one another,” she scoffs, clearly not believing me.
“Maybe not, but I wanted you, and that’s something that hasn’t happened to me before.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Let’s say I have my own yucky story, Livy. It might not make any sense, but the truth is that until you showed up in my life, I can’t remember a single woman that I have ever wanted. It threw me. I didn’t react well, because I didn’t … I never wanted to have anyone in my life. I wanted to be alone. I can deal with being alone. Anything else … Well, at the risk of sounding like a pussy, it terrified me.”