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They ordered room service. He’d really meant to take her out, but naked she made a million cases he could never win against. Besides, they could go out for breakfast. Probably.

He could mostly forget about everything from earlier today. What did the past matter when she was saying she loved him? When she was naked and pliant in his arms, wanting to stay exactly right here?

She was nestled up to him, and he’d lost track of time, practically dozing. Her fingers brushed back and forth against his chest, as if she were assuring herself he was there. Real.

He understood the feeling.

“You know, you never did tell me why Ben came,” she murmured sleepily.

“I don’t plan on telling you while I’m naked.”

“You might as well get dressed then.” She yawned, pulling away from him and stretching out in the giant bed. “Your endurance is impressive, but I think we’re going to need a slight window of rest.”

He grinned down at her. “Slight.”

She laughed, but reached over the edge of the bed and threw his boxers at him. When she grabbed his T-shirt, she didn’t hand it to him. She pulled it over herself.

It was this kind of thing. Not just great sex, but an easy camaraderie. A partner in things: to talk to, tease, enjoy. This was what he’d wanted with Mattie, all those years ago, and, with the mature twenty-twenty of hindsight, he could see he’d wanted that more than Mattie herself. The idea of what a partnership would look like.

With Cora, he didn’t care what it looked like. As long as it was with her. So, it didn’t matter if she told him about her past, because they had this. It was good enough. Had to be.

“That night Boone and I had a disagreement, after you and Micah left, I went for a little bit of a walk to clear my head. I’d forgotten how often I’d done that before Boone went off to the rodeo. Boone and I have never gotten along well. The age difference, his natural distaste for authority. It’s always been oil and water.”

“How come you and Gavin make it work then? He’s prickly too.”

“Gavin’s natural state is angry, but it’s not usually geared toward people. He’s just . . . a grumpy asshole. Boone, he zeroes in on people, and he knows just how to get under their skin. I said some things I shouldn’t have.”

“Like what?”

He didn’t want to tell her. In fact, he opened his mouth to change the subject to what they were supposed to be talking about—his and Ben’s heart-to-heart, so to speak. His crap with Boone, the things about Dad, it wasn’t important. It didn’tmatteranymore, but that was likely what she was telling herself about her own secrets.

She had secrets she didn’t want to tell him, didn’ttrustto tell him, so maybe he needed to take the first step. Give her all his.

“He wanted to take Micah on that drive, and he just kept needling. Couldn’t see that it was irresponsible and dangerous, so I said . . .” He blew out a breath, and Cora nestled into him again, placing her hand on his chest just above his heart.

“The thing is,Idon’t go on those drives. They’re Gavin’s, because the last one I went on was when my father died.”

Cora’s head whipped up as she leveraged her body up on her elbow. “Your father died on the drive?”

Shane nodded. “And that’s about as much as was ever talked about. Horse kicked him in the worst possible spot, and he died. But . . . Well, there was more to it. I never did much talk about it. With anyone. Ever.”

“Like with the money-stealing girlfriend?”

“Yeah. Only it wasn’t out of embarrassment this time. It was . . . You see I was twelve, and, even as much as I loved ranching then, I was still a kid. Gavin had gotten to stay home because he was sick, which meant—to me—he got to sleep in and watch TV and play Nintendo and I had to work. So, I was pissy, lazy, and your average twelve-year-old asshole.”

“I am familiar with those.”

“I wasn’t paying attention, and I led my horse right into a drainage ditch. The horse went down, and Dad tried to catch me. He managed to get me out of the way without any damage, but his horse startled and—”

Cora gasped before he could say the rest. “You werethere?”

“Yeah. There. And, responsible, so to speak.”

“Oh, no. No, you don’t really think that.” She cupped his face with her hands, staring at him sternly. “Baby, that’s all accidents. Not your fault.”

“I know, mostly. Intellectually, I know it, and I’ve accepted that in a lot of ways. I don’t think I could ever truly shed the guilt, because if I’d done things differently . . . Well, but I didn’t. It was a rough thing, and I . . . Well, the way the men told the story, Dad just fell. I guess maybe that’s what it looked like to them. I went with it.”