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Chapter16

The Priceof Lovewas a family saga movie.I’d never done a horror flick.But as I crept into the dark barn where Colt had asked me to meet him, I wondered if I were about to be killed by a secret axmurderer.

The air was cold and stale, it didn’t smell like horses the way I expected.And the lack of light was really superfreaky.

“Up here,” Colt called fromaboveme.

That’s when I noticed a faint light at the top of a set of stairs.“If you’re going to murder me, could you do it down hereinstead?”

His headappeared.“What?”

“Dark night.A woman goes alone into mysterious building.This has murder written alloverit.”

He cocked an eyebrow.“Seriously?”

I shrugged.“What do you have upthere?”

“You’ll have to come up to find out.”He shot me a sexy smile and I temporarily forgot that I wasscared.

The view that greeted me upstairs was not on my list of possibilities.For one, it was very clean.I didn’t expect a barn to be spotless.And for two it was...well, it was romantic.String lights were strung up between rafters, soft lanterns glowed from the corners, and a large, old, comfortable looking brown leather couch had blankets draped over it.An old blue rug covered the wood floor and an old desk sat near thewindows.

“What is thisplace?”

Colt held out a glass of red wine.“We don’t use this barn for livestock anymore, only storing grain and supplies.My father turned the loft into anoffice.”

That explained why it smelledstale.

“And what doyouuseitfor?”

“Sometimes I work here.Mostly I justescape.”

After our intense exchange in the garden Colt said he needed to talk to me.He didn’t say why, only that he needed a few minutes to breathe and to meet him here when I wasready.

“It’s yourtreefort.”

He laughed.“I guess so.Even adults need tohavefun.”

I got the feeling the kind of fun he was looking for was definitely more on the adult side.“So what did you want to talkabout?”

“Me.You.Us.All the things we’re still holding back.”He took my hand and electricity shot up my arm.“I can’t keep up this dance with you.It’s distracting and, quite frankly, I don’t think my heart can take it.I need to know whether we can do thisornot.”

Put up or shut up.Lay it all out on the table.At least there was wine and twinkle lights.“How do we do this?Take turns?One atatime?”

“I thought I’d go first.I have some things I’ve been meaning to tell you and considering I’ve been putting all our problems on you, I thought I owed it to you to gofirst.”

I’d have told him he was being gentlemanly if he didn’t look so nervous.Oh, and there was the fact that he’d been putting me through hell.Yeah, he could totally go first.“I don’t bite, Colt.Stoppacing.”

He froze mid-stride.“It’s just...I never really considered what would happen if I met someone.And now that I’m trying to find the words it all sounds terrible and I’m afraid you’re not going to look at methesame.”

I didn’t know what that meant but it made all the blood drain out of my head.It sounded like he had something kind of big to tell me.“Do you have a secret girlfriend I don’t knowabout?”

“No.”But he said it slowly, as if that wasn’t exactly theanswer.

“Colt?”

“I wasengagedonce.”

I sat down on the couch behind me.“Engaged.”The word felt all wrong coming out of my mouth.Engaged.Colt had beenengaged?