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I laughed, but it didn’t quite reach my chest.
“Don’t sell.”
“Miss me, okay?”
“We’ll talk.”
Son of a bitch! Here was a great offer, and Duke had fucked it up for me because now I wanted to know what the hell he was up to. He’d dumped the bitch and now….
You don’t want that man anyway, Elena.
Like hell, I didn’t.
Knox patted my shoulder.“You let me know when you’re ready, darlin’.”And with that, he left me to think about it.
Hunt watched me over the rim of his bottle. “Well?”
I swallowed hard, looking out at the rodeo, at everything I had built. “Duke doesn’t want me to sell any more horses. He came by before he left for Dallas.”
Hunt nodded. “Yeah, he called me.”
“What’s he up to?”
Hunt shrugged and then grinned. “I have a feeling he’s seduced by the landandthe lady.”
I rolled my eyes. “Who you callin’ a lady?”
CHAPTER 28
duke
“Idon’t have time for this,” I told Kaz as he got in my face. “I have a flight to Dallas from Aspen in?—”
“You have time for this,” Kaz said adamantly.
He’d pulled me into one of the VIP tents. With its plush leather seating, crystal glasses that didn’t belong anywhere near a rodeo, and servers dressed too nice to be dodging boot-scuffed floors. The place reeked of money.
A woman I recognized from the photos in my father’s closet sat on the couch. She carried herself with quiet authority, her dark bob framing a face that was both striking and weathered by a life well-lived. Not the polished beauty of a Dallas socialite or a corporate wife—no, she was a ranch woman through and through. Sun-kissed skin, hands calloused from years of hard work, jeans faded and worn from long days in the saddle, boots molded to her feet by miles, not months.
I thought Elena would look like this, weathered andstunning, when we were old and gray. The image of us sitting on the porch of the ranch house came as a shock and then morphed into a dream, one I desperately wanted to claim.
For all these years, I’d pretended, and now I was done.
I wanted to be with the woman I loved. I wanted to learn who she’d become and show her who I was. I wanted to learn from her and teach her what I knew. I wanted to share my life with her.
With Nash gone, one truth settled deep in my bones—holding on to hate was a losing game. It was only fear in disguise, a coward’s way of keeping love at arm’s length to avoid the pain of losing it.
“Duke Wilder, meet Tansy Hawthorne.”
The woman got up and held out her hand. She had a firm handshake.
“Please, Duke, take a seat.” She waved at the sitting area.
“After you,” I said politely.
She sat on the couch and I on a matching armchair across from her.
“You okay, Tansy?” Kaz asked, and when she nodded, he left us.