“I needed tomurderyou.”
“But in a fun way.”
I was about to retort, some clever, cutting, thoroughly justified insult, when I heard it.
Crunch.
The unmistakable sound of tires on gravel.
I froze.
So did Sienna.
Slowly, I turned toward the parking lot.
A car had just pulled in.
My heart thudded, too loud, too fast.
I couldn’t see the driver yet, but something in meknew.
“Sienna,” I hissed. “If that’s who Ithinkit is…”
She raised her eyebrows, backing up slowly. “Then I’m going to go… see if Gerald needs more hay.”
“Coward.”
“Smart coward,” she corrected, and vanished behind the barn.
I stood there, damp and disheveled, hose still in hand, with a wild crown of hair and probably bits of hay stuck to my pants. My shirt clung to my back, and my cheeks were flushed from running and laughing like a ghoul.
I looked like amess,and if Ben stepped out of that car, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to sink into the ground or just laugh at how much worse this day could possibly get.
Because I’d just spent the last hour ranting about how mortified I was, and now fate had apparently decided to double down.
I waited, hose still dripping, pulse skipping like it had no sense of rhythm.
And the car door opened.
I should’ve heard the crunch of gravel and run.
Instead, I froze, soaked, breathless, and holding a half-wild garden hose like it was a weapon and not the cause of my current state of public humiliation.
Because, of course, it wasBen.
He stepped out of the car like he wasn’t the reason my internal organs had short-circuited at least once a day for the past week. Navy tee exposing his biceps, jeans like they were personally tailored to ruin my concentration, and that familiar cloud ofdon’t talk to meenergy that could clear a town square.
His eyes scanned the chaos, me, the goats, the puddle, and landed on me.
And not in themelty gaze, swept away by your beautykind of way.
No.
It was a mix of stoic confusion andmild disapproval.A frown tugged at the edge of his mouth like it lived there permanently.
I braced for sarcasm.
Instead, he said, “This a normal day for you?”
