Page 87 of The Wildest Ride

She didn’t say she was sorry for something she had nothing to do with. She didn’t pat him on the head. She didn’t brush him off as a temperamental kid.

He surprised himself by saying, “It got worse.”

“How so?”

He looked away, eyes scanning the horizon. “One night I got mad enough to tell him what I thought.”

She winced and he sensed it was empathy, rather than mere sympathy. Somehow it wasn’t hard to imagine her in a similar position, shouting things she’d later regret. The thought made him feel less alone, even though he imagined she was the kind of person who came back and apologized once she’d cooled down. He’d never quite gotten that down.

He said, “I stormed out of the house at the same time as a storm rolled in. He came out after me. I stomped through the rain and blew off steam for a few hours. He got caught in a flash flood and died. So then in addition to being angry about what he’d done, I was angry about what I’d done. I carried it with me everywhere I went.”

Again, Lil let the words sink in before she spoke. Yet again, when she finally said something, it wasn’t what he was expecting. “Bulls make sense, then. Smart woman, your mom.”

AJ shook his head and laughed, feeling somehow lighter than he had before. “You really take the whole cowboy thing to the next level.”

“I don’t take any ‘thing’ anywhere.”

“That’s why it works so well.”

She threw her arms up. “This is what I get for helping people.”

“No. This is what you get for your grandma helping people. You wouldn’t even be here if she hadn’t signed you up.”

She looked like she wanted to shake her fist at him, but decided to smile and shrug instead. “Same thing.”

“Is it?” he poked.

She frowned. “I owe that woman everything.”

“I have a feeling she doesn’t see it that way.”

Lil looked away this time. “I’m guessing she didn’t plan on burying her daughter or raising her granddaughter. People look forward to retirement.”

“Not all people. If she’s anything like you—” and he thought she might be “—I suspect that she didn’t.”

“I was a handful,” she said.

One side of his mouth quirked up and his eyes dropped to her saddle. “I know.”

She blushed and his grin stretched wider. Every reaction was all up-front with her.

“You’re impossible,” she said. It was a refrain he loved the sound of.

He grinned. “You want to do it again?”

Her blush was hot enough he feared she might spontaneously combust.

“You’re a shameless man,” she hissed.

He shrugged, laughter in his voice when he answered, “So long as I’m your only man, it doesn’t matter.”

“Very evolved of you.”

“I think so.” He patted his thigh and said cordially, “Care to come ride on my lap over here?”

“Excuse me?” She was incredulous, as if he were really inviting her to sit on his lap while they traveled at a steady trot, surrounded by cows.

So of course he said, “I invite you to slide your sassy ass across my lap and rest your head on my shoulder.”