Page 151 of Tempting Wyatt

I can’t listen to the list of the many ways Ivy is amazing. I know more about that than he ever could. “This was always temporary. This was just a vacation for her.” A chance to observe some hillbillies in the mountains asresearch for her next screenplay. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

Isaac regards me silently. “I think you’re wrong about her,” he finally says. “Vacation, my ass. We all saw it. That woman would take a fucking bullet for you, man. What else does she have to do to prove herself?”

“Not exploit everything she found out about us, things about our family I told her in confidence, to make a fucking buck.”

He frowns. “She’s not Nina. You get that, right? She didn’t do this out of spite. Or for the money. She was trying to help.”

“Help who, Isaac? In what universe does her writing about us and pitching it as some bullshit show help anyone except her?”

My brother’s eyes go the widest I’ve ever seen them. “You don’t know?”

“I know I don’t have time for this. Are you helping or leaving? Because those are your only two options.”

He shakes his head. “You’re a jackass, dude. Like one of those guys in those dirty books Willow reads. You bailed on her at the first sign she’d made a mistake. But that’s the thing, brother. She didn’t actually make one. You’re just too fucking wounded to see it.”

“See what?” I definitely don’t see the similarities between myself and the guys Willow reads about. Except that, according to the covers, we both have abs. Bet they didn’t get theirs baling hay all summer.

“You were so quick to cut and run that you didn’t even give her a chance to explain, to tell you the truth—which she would have. I’m the one who told her not to tell you she worked in the movie business. Apparently, it was Mom who asked her to hold off on saying anything to you about theshow proposal.”

I’m growing tired of the roller coaster ride this entire situation has taken my blood pressure on. “Get to the point, Isaac. I’m running low on patience,” I tell him.

He smirks. “Nah, brother. You’re just running. And now, so is she. Good luck catching her. Considering she was practically still engaged when she got here, I hope you figure out how to get your head out of your ass before it’s too late and you wake up to find her married to someone else.”

His words sear my soul like a cattle brand.

Mom asked her not to say anything to me?

My heart pounds in my chest. Maybe she was going to tell me the truth if I hadn’t ghosted her on her last night in town. One thing is certain: I’m not like those smutty novel guys. I’m not going to fly off like a crazy person to chase down a woman who betrayed my trust.

I’m not.

Because that’s ridiculous.

Real people don’t do that.

My breaths come faster and harder as the memory of her in my bed hits me like a sledgehammer.

Maybe it was all a lie.

But what if it wasn’t?

Staring out at the river that runs through the mountain valley, my vision blurs, and I see her. Not really her, unfortunately. A montage of my memories with her.

That first day in the driveway.

That sweet smile.

That perfect ass.

Helping her mount up on Sunny, curls bouncing in the sunshine as she rode with reckless abandon. Her body wrapped around me on the ATV.

Her tiny hand in my huge one. Holding her in my arms on the dance floor at The Stillery.

Cheering for Caleb at the rodeo.

The shot she took at her ex to save me from myself. To protect the ranch.

I asked her why she’d hit him, and she said, “So you wouldn’t have to.”