Page 72 of The One Who Saw Her: Boone

Right now though, it felt a little shaky.

"No," Jo said. "He literally ate a worm in middle school. Like straight from an apple's core."

Vivi threw up in her mouth a little. "Seriously?"

"Hand to god."

"Well, that isn't going in his bio," Vivi said. "Anyway, I mentioned that upholding the handshake deal would go a long way toward helping the Callahans and his own standing in the community."

"You what?"

"It's not bad! It's a good thing. It could make a huge difference."

Jo set the beer bottle down with a thunk. "You do remember who we're talking about, right? Boone Callahan. Human privacy fence. The man who glared at the census worker for trying to count his mailbox."

Vivi sighed, spinning her beer by the neck. "I know, I know. But this is different. Boone needs help and won't ask for it. I'm just nudging fate a little."

"No, you're risking his wrath, his pride, and his total distrust of you."

Vivi groaned, covering her face. "When you put it like that⁠—"

"I always put it like that," Jo said. "Admit it, you like him."

Vivi peeked through her fingers. "I like everyone."

"Uh-huh, sure you do. And I'm guessing 'everyone' doesn't make you sound like you swallowed a blender every time you talk about them."

Vivi's stomach bottomed out with this terrifying truth humming in her chest that was getting harder to talk over. "Maybe I like him a little more than I should."

"New York, that's not a little. That's a whole ranch worth of trouble."

Vivi opened her mouth to downplay it—and instead said, "I slept with Boone."

She slapped her hands over her mouth. Both of them, in case more secrets decided to make a run for it.

"So the sex trap worked?"

"It did. I was going to back out and then it just—happened."

Liar. It did not just happen.

She'd taken him out there with nefarious plans and executed them with impressive efficiency and calling it spontaneous was the most dishonest thing she'd said all week.

Her belly pinched at the silent admission. Boone had been incendiary—every inch of him kinetic, the kind of man who made her heart hammer, her better judgment dissolve, and her body forget it was supposed to have reservations. But the memory of him—good god, the memory— his heated hands, the grit in his voice, the absolute certainty with which he moved had her pulse spiking like she'd swallowed a live wire.

She bit her lip and tried to rein in the swoon. It was hopeless. He was burned into her nervous system in a way that didn't feel temporary, and that was the part she couldn't stop circling back to.

The clock was ticking. In just a little more than a week, she’d be packed up, driving away from the ranch, from the friends she'd stumbled into, from that infuriating, irresistible man who'd set her world on fire. Even the thought of it created emotions she didn't know what to do with. This last week stretched ahead of her like a cliff she had to walk toward, with nothing but distance and the memory of him waiting on the other side.

"How can it 'just happen' if you plotted to get him naked?" Jo said, eyes wide with accusation. "Because the other night you were all about the snipe hunt and then you chickened out."

"I planned a fishing trip for Boone and⁠—."

"You planned a date?"

“It wasn’t a date. I was just trying to get Boone to relax.”

"I bet he was fucking relaxed after that. "