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She laughed. “I think it’ll get old pretty quickly if we both make every joke that comes to mind when you use that word.”

“You’re right. And all joking aside, I’m enjoying this, sweetheart. I want to show you around, hang out with you as a friend.” He frowned. “But not just a friend. You know what I mean?”

“I do. You mean somewhere in the middle ground, and …” there was no reason that she shouldn’t say it “… I’d like that, too.”

Chapter Eight

It was mid-afternoon by the time they arrived back at Remington Ranch. Tanner would have happily kept Everly with him until it was time to go to work tonight. But for the last hour or so, it seemed like she was tired or down, even though she did her best to hide it.

They’d had a great time, and true to her word, she’d stood up for him against anyone who tried to tease him while they were at the barn. She didn’t know that they all teased each other all the time, and it had felt pretty good to him having her there to stand up for him. Not that he needed it, it was all good natured, but still…

He glanced over at her as they approached the lodge. There was something up with her, he could tell that much, he just didn’t know what.

“What’s up?” she asked with a smile.

“I was wondering if I should ask you that same question or not.”

“What do you mean?”

He gave her a stern look. “You know damn well what I mean, darlin’.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “If you’re going to use some pet name for me, would you do me a favor and make up your mind which one it’s going to be?”

He had to laugh; he knew exactly what she meant. In the time since he’d picked her up this morning, he’d called her beautiful,gorgeous, baby, honey, sweetheart, and darlin’. “I’m just trying them all out to see which one suits you best. Do you have a preference?”

He noticed a hint of pink touch her cheeks as she said, “No, not particularly.”

“Yeah, you do. I can tell.”

She smiled through pursed lips. “Okay, so maybe I do, but I’m not proud of it. Why don’t you just decide?”

He parked the truck in one of the spots in front of the lodge and cut the engine before turning in his seat to look at her. “Because I don’t want to choose the wrong one. You should tell me which one you like best.”

She shook her head, looking for all the world like a stubborn little kid. “I’m not telling.”

He laughed. “Okay, I’ll just have to figure out for myself which one you like. And nice try at avoiding the question, but I know the whole pet name thing was just a diversion tactic. If you don’t want to tell me what’s wrong, that’s fine. But at least say so.”

She blew out a sigh. “Sorry.”

“You apologize too much.”

“Sorr …” She made a face. “I was about to do it again. To answer your question, there’s nothing wrong, not really. I totally enjoyed today with you. Don’t think that I didn’t. It’s just … I let my dad get in my head again. I really thought he might call today to explain why he didn’t show.” She shrugged. “I should know better. I didn’t want to let him spoil today as well. And I thought I’d covered it up pretty well. So, I do want to apologize that I didn’t manage to do that.”

“You did a good job. No one else noticed.” He winked, hoping to make her smile again. “It’s just that I’m paying close attention.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Because I want to see you happy,” he explained.

Instead of making her smile, her eyes filled with tears.

“Aww, shit. What’s wrong, darlin’?”

She chuckled as she swiped her thumbs under her eyes. “Nothing. I was just being stupid. And look at you, when you went with your instincts, you picked out the right name.”

He frowned for a moment before it hit him; she was right, when he’d called herdarlin’, it was what came naturally. “That’s the one you like?”

She nodded.