Page 1 of The Lover

One

Ellie

January

“We should probably havethe talk,” I said.

Jake was driving me to college. It was really happening. In another hour we would arrive at the university, and he would drop me off and head back to the ranch. I figured it made sense to get things settled between us.

Because we were divorced now.

Did I tell you that part? Short recap.

Jake married me to save me from a foster home after my dad died.

I fell in love with him.

He didn’t fall in love with me.

We were hurting each other, so I came up with a way to divorce him.

Oh… and I gave him my virginity as a consolation prize.

It was really rather generous of me, I thought.

Now it was done. I was going to go to college, and he was going to start building his house so that when I was done school he could go back to living on Talley land.

We were both super excited about our prospects for the future.

Or not. Or we were both super miserable instead.

Still, it was important to me to set the record straight.

“To be clear, so there are no hard feelings. I’m single. You’re single. You’re free to date who you want, and I’m free to date who I want.”

He glanced over at me. “Are you serious? I just took your virginity a few days ago. Can we maybe not talk about you dating someone else right now?”

“Fair point, but I wanted it on the record.”

“Noted,” he bit out.

I stared out the window, but there was nothing to see. “I think you should get a dog.”

“Where is this coming from?”

“I don’t want you to be lonely. I’ll be at school with all my new friends that I’m hopefully going to make. You’ll be on the ranch. Alone until Rich comes. You need company. Remember how much you loved Luke?”

Actually maybe it wasn’t the best idea. Jake had adored that dog and it had nearly killed him when it was time to put him down. A sure sign he got too close to his animals. I was convinced he liked them more than people. Well, maybe not me.

“I’ll think about it.”

More silence. Which was not helping.

“Do you really think I’ll make friends?” I asked. I was a person most people liked. It seemed reasonable. Only this was a university, not a small town in the sticks. What if people thought I was corny?

“Yes.”

“It’s also been a while since I had to do schoolwork.”