Page 27 of Rancher's Return

“Not crushing them?”

“Yeah.”

“I relate to that.”

Again, she realized she had more in common with him than not.

It was such a strange realization.

Because she had thought he was an enemy. When in fact he was an ally.

“We just have to do our best.”

She was chopping vegetables when he spoke again.

“You know. I lost my sister.”

She stopped. She had vaguely known that. That the Carsons had lost a child before they moved to Lone Rock. But there were so many of them, and the loss had been abstract, so she had never really considered their grief. That it meant she and Buck had both experienced the loss of a sibling.

“You did,” she said. “I‘m sorry. I never really thought about that. I was... I’m really sorry that I blamed you.”

“I’m not telling you that to make you feel sorry for me,” he said. “I don’t need or deserve pity of any kind.”

“Yes. You do. Because you have really been through hell with all of this. And you had been through hell before all this too.”

“I had a therapist diagnose me with survivor’s guilt,” he said. “And I thought that was the dumbest thing. Because why should you be in pain because you survived? I just don’t get it.”

“I think everything is just hard. And maybe part of the problem is trying to decide who’s allowed to feel bad about what when... Life has a way of breaking us all down.”

“Right. Cheery conversation,” he said.

“Well. We don’t exactly have a cheery shared history.”

“True.”

Suddenly, giggles erupted from the other room. He grinned. And it made her stomach go tight.

“I guess we’re building a different shared history right now,” she said.

“I guess so.”

Chapter Seven

She put the stew on to simmer, and the scent that filled the kitchen was heavenly. He was damned glad he had enlisted her to help make meals. Because this was making his house feel like a home in a way it hadn’t before. But there was also this...pull toward her. A pull that was not at all homey or in keeping with the conversation they’d had earlier.

He was actually pretty astonished to discover everything they had in common.

He hadn’t expected that.

But even deeper, harder, was the attraction he felt toward her.

She was beautiful. He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to know everything about her.

And that was... That was the dumbest thing in the world. He had just adopted three boys. She had her daughter, ready to go off to school. Their kids were dating, and there was no guidebook.

For any of this.

When he called the boys for dinner, they definitely made a big song and dance about the food being better quality than they were used to getting from him. That was fine. He couldn’t dispute that.