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Jake slowly looked up. “Emma, like I said, it’s complicated.”
She blinked, trying to let what he said sink in. Her head swam. For a year it never bothered her that they kept their relationship private. She understood. Now she realized she’d been played. “You had the chance to stop these rumors by owning up to our relationship, and now you’re only fueling them, pretty much shitting on all the good work I’ve ever done to rise to the top. I thought you cared about me, but I guess I was wrong, wasn’t I? Just another notch on Jake Cadwell’s bedpost, huh?” Sure, she knew he’d had a handful of flings in his time, but with her, he seemed different. God, had it all been lies? Had he been sleeping with other women this whole time too? Endless horrific possibilities rushed through her mind, shattering her heart with every one of them.
Emotion suddenly filled his face. “Emma, I never meant to hurt you. I’m just not looking for anything that serious right now.”
“So, because you’ve got some fucked-up commitment issues, you are willing to ruin my career? No one will take me seriously, Jake, do you not see that? Whispers will spread through the advertising world, and no one will touch me because, no matter how strong my portfolio is, they’ll think I got the promotion because we’re screwing.”
“I’ll get you into a good agency, you don’t need to worry about your job.” His brows came together, hand reaching for her.
“Don’t,” she snapped, jerking away from him. He was only thinking of himself. “You know what, Jake, I don’t need your handout. Don’t worry about transferring me. I quit!” Instead of doing what she craved to do so very badly—punching him in the nose—she walked away.
“Emma,” he called.
“Emma.”
She startled and blinked, finally managing to say to Shep, “The relationship ended.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.” She swallowed the emotions threatening to escape. “I left New York City to come to Grams’s funeral, and I never left.” She bit into the burger.
Shep’s brow rose. “What about your job?”
“I quit,” she replied with a full mouth.
He paused, then cocked his head, obviously curious. “Do you think you’ll move back to New York City?”
She’d wondered that herself over the last few weeks. Just like she’d been doing all this time, she shrugged. “That remains undecided.” She glanced away from his captivating eyes to the barn. “For now, Grams left me this farm when she passed away, so I’ve decided I’m taking a long vacation to figure out my next steps.”
“It’s a good place to get away,” Shep said gently.
She smiled. “You’re right—it is.”
Silence fell between them while they finished eating. On the last bite, Shep asked, “So, what’s your final verdict?”
It took her a minute to realize he was talking about the burger, and not about her moving back to New York City. She chewed a minute longer, then smiled. “It’s good.”
“Just good?” He leaned forward and lowered his voice into that sultry tone. “Ah, I think you can do better than that, don’t you?”
That same slow unavoidable heat slid between her thighs again, her heart racing, her temperature rising. “Incredible. Mind-blowing. The best burger I’ve ever had.”
He gave a sly grin and winked. “That’s more like it, darlin’.”
* * *
The clanging of the dishes as Emma cleaned up after dinner followed Shep outside. He shut the wooden screen door behind him then trotted down the old porch steps, each board groaning under his weight. When his boots hit the dirt, he pressed his cell phone to his ear. Danny, the twenty-two-year-old farmhand at his parents’ ranch, answered the call on the second ring. “Danny, it’s Shep. Would you mind bringing Tadgh out to the Monroe farm?”
“I take it you’re helping out with that horse out there,” Danny replied.
“Yeah, bring him tacked up, all right?”
“Will do. I’ll be there soon.”
The line went dead and Shep returned his phone to his pocket, setting out toward the small red barn ahead. The Monroe farm was a typical hobby farm. The sand ring where the abused horse was, was off to the left side of the house. A larger grass paddock was off to the right, with the barn across from the white farmhouse. He’d meant to come out earlier to the barn, but Emma had been his priority.
When he entered the barn’s double doors, he discovered that each stall door opened from the front as well as the back, letting the animals out into the grass paddock as they pleased. Shep had been to the farm once before, taking a horse off Daisy’s hands, and all of Daisy’s animals lived out together. He wasn’t sure how she made that work, considering he’d never seen a cow, a donkey, a couple of sheep, and a handful of goats get on together so well, but somehow here, with Daisy, they all got along. Quite possibly because they’d been through hell and back, and anything better than that was good.
“Ugh, again!” Emma’s curt voice snapped behind him. “Why aren’t they eating?”
