Page 65 of Ride Me Cowboy

“You did.” He catches my face in his hands, holds it there, inspecting me like I’m the most precious gem he’s ever seen. “You came out of it, and this is the start of the rest of your life. I don’t know what you’ll do, but I do know this: you’re going to soar like an eagle, baby. You’re stronger than you realize.”

I don’t agree with him. I don’t believe him. Yet his words wrap around me anyway, like the softest silk, so parts of me I hadn’t even known were still bruised and battered seem to heal under his intense scrutiny.

The front door slams and I jump away from him, my heart in my throat, as I open the dishwasher. My hands shake as I reach for a plate.

Mack and Austin walk in, chatting loudly. Beau, Caleb and Nash are right behind them.

“The Callahans said goodbye,” Nash says.

“They’ve got an early start,” Beau adds, looking a bit peeved, so I wonder if he’d been planning a night with the gorgeous Ash.

“Yeah, well, on that note,” Cole says, moving to the door. “Night, y’all.”

His gaze sweeps across the room, landing on me for a single second, but that’s all it takes to set my pulse racing and my knees shaking.

He leaves, and almost immediately, my phone buzzes once more.

Meet me at my truck in five minutes. Cole.

Chapter Nineteen

Cole

ISWORE I WOULDN’T BE like him when it came to fixing things. Being a soft touch. But Beth’s different. When I see her looking like she just was, all I want to do is wave some magic fucking wand and take away all her hurt. I want to do whatever I can to write new memories over the top of old ones. To show her that she’s not responsible for what that bastard did to her.

So, when she comes out to the truck, a little while later, it makes me real glad to see her react the way she does. I’ve set up a camping mattress flat in the tray of the pickup, and scattered it with blankets and pillows.

“How’d you feel about a little star gazing?”

She glances toward the house. “I thought you said you have an early start.”

“I always have an early start.”

“Sooo…won’t you be tired?”

I let out a laugh. “You’re worth being tired for.” I move around to the front passenger door and open it for her. “Whaddaya say?”

She does that adorable thing, biting down on her lip, so my cock jerks to attention. Those lips are some kind of magic.

“I say yes,” she whispers, but her voice carries to me on the gentle night breeze. As she comes close and then slides into the truck, I smell her sweet perfume and my gut rolls. I could get addicted to that smell.

I jump in behind the wheel and start the engine, pointing the car away from the house. Mostly, on our runs, Beth and I have stuck to the tracks close by, in what we call the civilized part of the ranch. Beyond that, there are miles and miles of fields for the cattle, the sprawling land following the line of the creek almost to the edge of Goodnight. I bring the truck down the slope, behind the house, and follow the path that runs alongside the creek. Beth is quiet beside me, and I hope she doesn’t have that asshole Christopher on her mind.

I grip the wheel more tightly, like I can physically dismiss the thought from both our heads.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” she says, turning in her seat and hooking one leg under the other—something that makes me bite back a laugh when I imagine myself even attempting it. But she’s so petite, she just folds up like that.

“Anything,” I say, wondering why I don’t regret it. I don’t usually give a woman free rein to hit me up with whatever question they’re thinking.

“What was that about earlier? With you and Beau?”

Her curiosity is natural. She’s only seen Beau and me on our good days. She could have no idea of what it’s been like here for us in the past. “We’ve got some history on the issue of his bull riding, is all.”

“I could see that. Because of his accident?”

“You know about that?”

I see her nod out of my peripheral vision. “Nash told me.”