Page 78 of Paper Horses

Liv

Still alive?

Gabe’s text came through just as I was emailing him my plans for the ranch.

Hudson was out working on smoothing out the ditch from the rain now that the ground had dried up, so it gave me time to work, something I hadn’t done in the past two days. When I’d last checked in with Gabe, he’d told me to take a few days off, and I had, taking the time to enjoy Hudson. Soaking in his love, his touches, his dirty words. Good God, could that man work me into a puddle. No wonder I’d never found anyone to take his place. Not that I’d even looked, content to leave my heart as his, even if I’d thought he had moved on.

Liv: I am. Just getting ready to send you our thoughts on improving the ranch.

Dots appeared and disappeared before my phone rang. I rolled my eyes and answered.

“Is Tori in there distracting you so you can’t understand my last text?”

“No, smart ass. She’s on a call. I thought I told you to take a few days off.”

“I did.”

“That was only two days. Maybe you should go back to school if you’ve forgotten how to count.”

“Be glad you’re too far away for me to throw something at you.”

“You’d probably miss, like you always do. What did you mean by our thoughts on improvements?”

I looked at my phone, bringing up the text and seeing that I had indeed said our instead of my. Damn, he’d caught me, and now I’d have to tell him he was right in sending me here.

“Liv?” There was a teasing tone to his voice, and I rubbed my temple, knowing what was coming and glad Tori wasn’t in the room to make this worse.

“I had to include the ranch owner,” I tried.

“Ranch?”

“Yes, it’s called a ranch out here. And if he’s running it, I need his input.”

“Mm hm.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Just say it, Gabe.”

“Say what? That sending you there was what you needed? Did you sleep together yet?”

“Ugh, I really hate you sometimes.”

His laugh came through the phone, and while it would have annoyed me in the past, this time it made me smile.

“You did! Wait until I tell Tori.”

“You will not tell Tori. Damn you two for meddling in my life.”

He was quiet for a moment before he spoke, his words soft. “I just want you to be happy, Liv. You deserve to be.”

With a sigh, I sat back in my chair and pushed a hair from my cheek. “I was happy.”

“No, you were living, going through the motions. Just like I was before Tori came back into my life. Burying your pain and building your walls. We’re too much alike for me not to know that.”

Those pesky tears filled my eyes again. Now that I’d opened the dam, they made their presence known all the time, and I no longer had the strength to stop them.

Sniffing, I said, “I know.”

“Did you make up with him? Tell him the truth?”