Page 42 of Stay With Me

I hate that Landen’s right, too. Over the years, I’ve had a bad habit of giving him multiple second chances. And now I’m living with the regret that I slept with him a couple of days ago because I thought Tripp was dating Lydia.

Finding out it wasn’t even legit has me wanting to throw up my food before I even digest it.

Chapter Nine

Tripp

Since I haven’t been able to sleep much the past few nights, I’m up earlier than I need to be and decide to stop at The Lodge for breakfast. Usually, I stick to a protein drink or a granola bar, then load up at lunchtime. But I need the distraction.

It’s been two days since Magnolia’s last text and the longer I go without responding, the more awkward it’s going to be the next time I see her. She’s always flirted with me in a casual kind of way that I never took for more than that’s just how Magnolia is, but when she saw Lydia hanging on my arm, something in her eyes flared with a level of jealousy I’d never seen before.

I was more than happy to get Lydia away from me when she and Quinn announced they were leaving. Though I was ready to leave, I had to wait for the birthday boy and our brothers so I could drive their wasted asses home.

The next day when I got up for work, I was shocked as hell to see a text from Magnolia. It was clear she drunk texted me, but I decided to respond anyway. I didn’t expect her to actually reply hours later, but she continued the conversation like no time had passed.

It was silly and fun until she hit me with her last text—guess it’s time for you to knockme up, cowboy.

How do I even respond to that?

I tried like twenty times to think of something witty and nonchalant, but that’s never been my style. It brought on a different type of anxiety than I was used to and that gave me anxiety about feeling anxious. It was a never-ending cycle as I attempted to get my head on straight.

Once I told Landen, he came up with a bunch of inappropriate and lame responses.

Doggy or cowgirl?

Don’t threaten me with a good time. When and where?

My place or yours?

As long as you wear those high heels while I bend you over my bed, I’ll knock you up twice.

Along with many more cringy ones.

Yeah, I wasn’t about to send any of those and have Noah show up at my door with a knee to my balls for inappropriately sexting her best friend.

After eating, I drive to the family barn to get started on morning chores. We have four new family check-ins today, so cabin call will be extra busy this afternoon.

Noah works with the competitive horses, and we manage the other boarders who need basic work and exercise. Last year, she nearly killed herself doing trick riding when a snake in the arena made the horse freak out. It dragged her around before stomping on her ribs and making her break a few of them. She fractured her foot and had to stay off of it for six weeks. During that time, Landen and I took over her clients, but since she’s more qualified—or rathergifted—some of those horses would only listen to her no matter what we tried.

But it’s why most of us are equipped to do several tasks around the ranch and retreat so we can easily take over for each other if we need to.

I take Sydney and Franklin out first but put them in separate pastures so I don’t have to deal with them biting each other. Since we muck their stalls daily, I could easily pick uptheir droppings with them still inside, but it’s good for them to get out.

Once I grab the wheelbarrow and shovel, I blast some music to drown out my thoughts.

At some point, Landen walks in, overly cheerful and singing the wrong lyrics to the song currently playing.

He raises a curious brow. “You’re early.”

“You’re late.”

“Hardly. I didn’t even get the chance to stop for coffee. You should go to Magnolia’s and grab us some since it’s Tuesday.”

My shoulders tense at the mention of her name, but I know what he’s doing. He’s not good at hiding his amusement.

“You just want me to embarrass myself.”

He dramatically gasps. “I’d never.”