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“Well, that sounds lovely.”

“I’m going to go out to the property today. Do you want to come with me?”

She flushed. “I’d love to.”

“Good. Let’s do that. I want you to see the ranch. You know, the rest of it, not just the boot-camp part.”

“I won’t recognize it when I’m not sweating!”

He didn’t know why he felt so compelled to share it with her. This thing that was going to be his permanent home. She wasn’t staying. But it still felt right. She got dressed, and so did he, and he was regretful they were leaving the bubble, but he supposed he couldn’t be annoyed about that since he was the one who suggested they go out.

They made the drive over in silence, and it wasn’t a bad silence. Not awkward or unhappy.

He had sat in so many silences all on his own.

They felt isolating. They had been the evidence of the fact that he had cut his mother and his sister out of his life, and that Cassidy had cut him out of hers.

They had been the deepest evidence that he had done something wrong. That his life had gone off the rails somewhere back there, and he was never going to be able to figure out how to get it back together.

At the same time, he had needed the silence sometimes. The headaches were less frequent, the fatigue and the forgetfulness a little bit less severe. He still didn’t crave a crowd. Still didn’t crave noise, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been.

Now the silence didn’t feel like isolation. Or like a punishment. Not with Rory. It was like being understood. Like these pieces of himself could be met just as they were, not resisted or changed.

And he thought he ought to say that. But he didn’t want to.

Because he was still examining these new places inside himself, and he didn’t know what the hell he thought of them. He just couldn’t say.

So he kept that to himself because he had betrayed so much of himself last night. In his hunger, his desperation.

Maybe he could just find freedom in that. Because they had a time limit on this. And that was like boundaries.

Boundaries that would keep them safe. That would keep them whole.

Instead, he turned on the radio, and she leaned her head against his shoulder, and he gave thanks for the bench seat in his truck that allowed him to sit touching her while they drove.

They pulled up to the place, and he saw that the owner wasn’t in residence.

“We can just wander around the outside. I want to show you what I’ve got planned apart from making people do rope climbs.”

She nodded and got out of the truck. He took her hand; it was amazing how easily he had gotten used to that.

It was strange what a simple, innocent thing it was, and yet how deep and intense it felt.

It did feel like so much more than just locking hands.

It was like they were getting each other through.

He wasn’t leading her, and she wasn’t leading him. They were walking together, holding each other up.

He knew it was easy for her to see herself as damaged because other people had treated her that way. She wasn’t, though. That was the thing.

She had this whole beautiful fresh life ahead of her.

She could find herself a nice man who lived in the city, who could stand all that noise.

Someone who would treat her exactly like she deserved, for more than three weeks.

Someone who hadn’t already broken his vows. Someone who wasn’t broken in all the ways he was.