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Once on the porch, he waited until she placed the drinks down on the table in between the two rocking chairs before handing her the plate. She took her seat, watching the horse pace the fence, faster now. Even from here, she could see the sheen of sweat coating his dark coat. Her heart hurt for the horse. If only Grams were there, she’d know exactly what to do to calm him down.
She reached for her burger, took a big bite, and her eyes shut as the smoky flavor exploded in her mouth.
Right as she took her second bite, Shep said, “Tell me about this guy you left behind in New York City. What was his name?” He paused, then nodded. “Ah, yeah, Jake.”
Before her mouth could drop open, she finished chewing and returned her burger to her plate, a cold unease spreading through her. “Please explain to me how you know about Jake? Because the way I’m looking at it, you’re either A, a stalker who went through my text messages to learn about him or B, I told you about Jake at some point during my accident and I will now proceed to die of horrible embarrassment.”
Shep’s mouth twitched. “For curiosity’s sake, which of those would piss you off more?”
She paused and considered. “B. Definitely B.”
His brows shot up. “You’d rather I be a stalker?”
“Yes.” She nodded, unashamed. “Because you would look like the idiot, not me.”
He tossed his head back and gave a boisterous laugh. “I’d be more than happy, sweetheart, to take the blame for this, but I’m afraid the status of a stalker would cause too many problems professionally and personally for me.”
She sighed, grabbed her burger, took a bite, and muttered, “Ugh, I told you about Jake.”
“You did.”
She couldn’t meet his eyes. God, she didn’t want anyone to know about Jake in River Rock. Wasn’t that the whole point of why she hadn’t gone home yet? She wasn’t ready to face that particular crappy music. Avoiding the shitty direction her life had taken had been working for these past three weeks. She simply needed to stick to that plan.
A sudden tap on her forearm made her lift her head. Shep slid the strength of his touch across her forearm, drawing all her attention to the heat flooding her where his fingers grazed her flesh. It had to be a gift of his. Usually looks and personality attracted her, but Shep had this powerful energy pulsating out of him and rushing over her like erotic fire, puckering her nipples tight, causing her sex to dampen with need.
He lifted an eyebrow and gave her a firm look. “Whatever you’re thinking, stop it. What you told me will never be repeated by me. Was Jake a married man?”
“God, no.” She gasped, so very aware that he was still touching her.
“Did you both go on a murderous rampage?”
She laughed softly. “No.”
“Then you have nothing to feel bad for.”
Oh, how easy it would be to trust him.
Slowly, like he didn’t want to, Shep removed his hand and dug back into his burger, so she did the same and moved past her embarrassment. “I’m glad to hear you say that you’ll keep Jake private,” she said. “I really want to forget him altogether.”
Shep chewed a moment, then swallowed and asked, “What happened with him?”
She wanted to sink down into her chair and vanish. Instead, she faced this head-on. Who knew what she told him while she was high on morphine? “What have I told you already?”
“Not much, except that you”—he made quotation marks with his fingers—“‘banged’ the CEO, which was a huge mistake, then moved out here to River Rock.”
She cringed. “I said ‘banged’?”
He smiled and nodded.
She exhaled her mortification and ate a small bite of her burger before addressing him. “Honestly, there isn’t much more to tell you beyond that. Jake’s the CEO of Cadwell Advertising, the company I worked for in New York City. It’s a prestigious ad agency that holds the accounts of some of the top Fortune 500 companies.”
“So, he’s a big deal?” Shep asked with a grin.
She took that to mean that maybe she had said that about Jake. Or even worse, she had said that about herself. Moving on . . . “Yes, he’s a very big deal in the advertising world. The biggest deal, in fact.”
Shep didn’t seem to give that much thought. He took another bite of his burger, then asked with a full mouth, “You dated him?”
“Dated?” She sighed deeply. “I mean, sort of, kind of.”
