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And now she was...what? He didn’t know. All he was sure of was that he had some thinking to do. He wouldn’t hold her to their engagement if this Gio was what she really wanted. But he’d be damned if he’d wish her well with the guy. Betrayal stung hard and settled in the center of his chest.
“Damn it, Naomi,” he muttered. “What the hell were you doing with him?”
After all they’d shared, all they’d planned, she went to Gio in secret? Why? Naomi was his. They were building a damn life here. Didn’t that mean anything? He had half a thought to drive to Houston, hunt down this Gio and beat his face to a pulp. But as satisfying as that would be, it wouldn’t change the fact that Naomi had sneaked off to meet him.
Toby needed time to think. Space to do it in. Slamming out of the workshop, he stalked to the stables and saddled a horse. It’d be best for all involved if he wasn’t at the ranch when she came back. Because he wasn’t sure how he would handle it if she looked him dead in the eye and lied to him. Again.
Good thing he wasn’t in love with her—or this would be killing him.
Astride the big black stallion, Toby headed out, and the horse’s hooves beat out a rhythm that seemed to chant, it’s over, it’s over, it’s over...
* * *
By the time Naomi made it home to the ranch, her anger at Gio had dissipated and she felt as if she was thinking clearly for the first time in days.
It was time to stand up to all the men in her life. She’d sent Gio packing, and heck, maybe she’d scare Toby into taking off, too. But she was tired of pretending, living a half life.
She was in love with Toby McKittrick, and today she was going to tell him just how lucky he was to have her. She didn’t care if he wasn’t in love with her right now. Naomi could wait. Because he loved her for who she was, and that was enough for her—for now. She had no doubt that he would come to feel the same way she did. He was only protecting himself after what Sasha had done to him. Hardly surprising that he would keep his heart safe after having it crushed by betrayal.
But she was going to show him that love didn’t have to be about pain. And she would make him listen.
She steered her car into the long, curved drive toward the ranch house and realized that in the past few weeks, Paradise Ranch really had become home. Her heart was here. In the wide-open spaces. In the stupid chicken coop and with Legend, lying buried under a live oak at the rear of the property.
Her heart was with the man who had always been her friend and was now her lover. The man who had offered to be a father to her child. How could she not love him and everything they’d found together?
She didn’t need Hollywood. She didn’t
need dreams of fame and fortune. She didn’t even need her parents’ approval anymore. All she needed was Toby.
When she parked the car, Naomi raced into the house, calling for him as she went from room to room. She’d been longer than she’d planned and so she expected him to be in his office, as he was most afternoons, working on plans for another amazing invention. But he wasn’t there, so she headed to the kitchen and tried not to hear how the heels of her shoes sounded like a frantic heartbeat against the wood floors. “Toby?”
“He’s not here,” Rebecca said, poking her head into the room from the walk-in pantry. “Took off on that big black of his a few hours ago. Haven’t seen him since.”
Disappointed, Naomi asked, “Do you know where he went?”
“Nope.” Rebecca shook her head, then went back to whatever she’d been doing before. “He took off like a bat outta hell, though. Must be something bothering him.”
Worry replaced disappointment, and Naomi chewed at her bottom lip. What could have happened while she was gone? “Okay, thanks. Um, I’ll try his cell.”
“Phones on horses,” Rebecca muttered. “It’s a weird damn world...”
Naomi called him as soon as she was in the great room, and she listened to the ring go on and on until finally his voice mail activated. She didn’t leave a message, just hung up. And as she looked out the window at the sprawl of the ranch she considered home, she wondered where he’d gone. And why.
* * *
An hour later, Toby opened the front door and stalked into the house.
She’d tried to reach him a dozen times, but his phone went to voice mail and her texts to him went unanswered. By the time she heard him enter the house, Naomi’s nerves were strung so tightly she could have played a tune on them.
She followed the sound of his footsteps and found him in his office, pouring scotch into a heavy crystal tumbler. He glanced at her when she walked into the room, but there was no welcome on his face.
“Toby? Is everything okay?”
“Interesting question,” he said without answering at all.
The only light in the room came from the dying sun drifting through the wide windows at his back. He was a shadow against the light, and even at that, she saw the tightness on his features, the hard gleam in his eyes. And she wondered.
“I was worried,” she said, walking a little closer.
