Page 73 of The One Who Saw Her: Boone

"Anyway, we were on a fishing trip and started talking about real stuff and he ate a piece of my peach pie."

"Peach pie?" Jo asked suspiciously.

"It didn't help that I walked in his boots the other night."

"You walked in his boots?" Jo leaned in, grin spreading. "Is that some kind of kink?"

"No, more like the saying. You know, walk a mile in someone's shoes? Boone’s boots were the closest thing."

"I'll never understand city people. Did the boots stay on?"

Vivi went completely red. "Jo!"

"I'll take that as a yes. Was it good?"

"It was—" She groaned. "It was incredible, okay? The kind of thing that fries your brain and makes you question every decision that led you to a different life. And no, I don't know what it means."

"You think it was rebound sex?"

"It has to be," Vivi said, pushing her hair back. "I just broke up with Lewis. Boone is still carrying so much grief. His ex left him when he needed someone most. He's closed off in ways I'm not sure he even realizes. I can't imagine he'd actually⁠—"

"Feel something?" Jo supplied quietly.

"Yeah. That."

Jo studied her for a long moment, the noise of the bar fading into a blur of laughter and clinking glasses. "You know, for someone who helps people find love for a living, you really suck at recognizing it when it's looking you dead in the face."

Vivi shot her a loaded look. "Don't start."

"Too late," Jo said, finishing her beer. "You can label it a rebound all you want, but your face didn't get the memo. And honestly? Neither did your voice, your hands, or the way you've said his name approximately seven times tonight without noticing."

Vivi's heart stuttered. The memory of Boone's quiet smile flickered through her chest like a struck match—hot and fast and gone before she could hold it.

"Maybe it doesn't matter," she said softly. "It was one night. He'll probably end up regretting it, and I'll pretend I'm fine. My time here has an expiration date."

"Or you could stop assuming the worst for once. I mean have the actual nerve to go after it," Jo said, drumming her nails on the bar. "Because if Boone Callahan had you once, there is absolutely no way he's not thinking about having you again."

Not sure what her face was projecting for the entire bar to read, she stared at her beer quietly with the terrifying possibility that Jo might be right.

Maybe the expiration date she'd been counting on to save her might not save her at all.

CHAPTER 29

Boone spotted the white truck with the official county emblem kicking up dust long before it reached the fence line, and his mood soured like milk left in the July heat. He was mid-push with a stubborn sorrel heifer who had clearly woken up and chosen violence when the truck door swung open and a man in khakis and a clipboard stepped out.

Perfect. Just what he needed—bureaucracy with a badge.

"Boone Callahan?" the man called out, squinting through the glare of the mid-day sun.

Boone tipped his hat. "That's me. You lost or just suicidal walking into a herd like that?"

The man lifted his clipboard like a sun visor. "Got word you're redoing the dwelling on the property and thinking of adding another room to the existing structure?"

Boone grunted, shoving the sorrel forward with his knee. "Thinking about it. Why?"

"I'll need to check the foundation before you move forward with the remodel."

Heaven forbid a man hammer a board without government approval.