Page 40 of Rancher's Return

Everything felt too high stakes.

That was the bottom line. She couldn’t go playing around with her daughter’s first relationship. With her last few months of her daughter being at home.

Are you still making excuses?

She didn’t think so. But when she looked at him, her heart beat faster, and that reminded her of scarier times.

More exciting times.

But scary, all the same.

“The kids will be back soon.” She let out a long, slow breath. “Thank you for... That was actually the first time I’ve done anything like that for a long time. As you know. And it was really, really nice.”

“And the sky didn’t cave in,” he said.

“No.”

She had so many questions. About how he had conducted his life for these past two decades.

Not the stuff she knew—where he had lived, the work he had done. She wanted to know about his sex life. About his relationships. Because she was standing on the edge of those things, and she wished she could understand what made him think he could just be her friend with benefits. She also knew that talking about it was dangerous. That they needed to get back on less precarious footing.

So she didn’t ask him. She just decided to finish cooking the chicken. And by the time the kids got home, she could only hope they didn’t look like they had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. She sort of felt like she had been, even though time had lapsed since they’d given in to that kiss.

Their eyes met across the table, and she decided, within herself, that whatever happened, they were going to be friends. And that was it. That was going to be the solid foundation by which they built everything. Their business... And everything.

After they’d driven home, she looked over at Lily. “Did you have a good time?”

“Yeah. I had a great time. Colton’s brothers are really cute.”

“They’re not that much younger than you.”

“No, but they seem like it. I don’t know. They’re nice kids.”

It was funny to hear Lily talk about a fifteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old that way. She supposed it reflected how mature her daughter felt at this point in time. How ready she was to be seen as an adult. Yes. Her life really was changing.

And Marigold thought about that kiss...

No. She was resolved.

And yet, friends with benefits...

She ached. She really did. Because what if they could do that? What if they could have a relationship nobody knew about but them? One that didn’t complicate things. One that just eased both of their needs a little bit.

You would never let yourself have something that nice.

That very disturbing thought echoed in her head for the whole rest of the evening.

Chapter Ten

Buck’s head was still reeling from that kiss. Hell, his whole body was on high alert. He hadn’t slept a wink. He had ended up taking a cold shower at one in the morning to try and spite his overactive hormones. It really was a hell of a thing. And he was supposed to see her today on a matter of business.

Yet nothing inside of him felt ready to discuss business. What he wanted to do was take her in his arms again. Kiss her senseless.

How had that happened?

But he hadn’t been lying when he had told her it was about her. About how much she made him feel.

About how much he wanted her.