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But then he reached over and swiped it away with his thumb and leaned in and said, “It’s okay to cry, you know. You can cry over burned sausages or spilled milk or any damn thing you want.”
He said it quiet, and Jeremiah and Ruth were still talking in the background—okay arguing, it seemed they were always arguing. But that meant the moment Reece and I were having was genuinely private, and I appreciated all of them so much in this moment.
“Sometimes it’s not,” I said back to Reece. “It’s not okay to cry.”
He shook his head. “Whoever taught you that didn’t understand pain. That’s bullshit. You let it out, whenever you need. No one here will judge you.”
I frowned at him, feeling too many things, and gave a half-nod-half-shrug, and turned away again.
I pasted on a bright smile, something that felt familiar. The familiar felt good right now, so I stuck with it. “Who wants biscuits?”
“All right, Jesus, finally it’s just us girls,” Ruth said as soon as she shoved the truck into drive and jammed her foot on the petal, spitting gravel as we shot forward.
I grabbed the bar overhead, then quickly yanked my seatbelt on.
She looked over at me and grinned. “So tell me everything. God, I can’t believe we haven’t had a chance to talk since you got here. Sorry, I should have pulled you aside earlier for girl time but I’ve been dealing with my own shit.” She waved a hand. “Dad left a shitstorm when he passed that I’ve been cleaning up ever since.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
She waved her hand again, but I didn’t miss the slight tightening of her mouth. “He was a mean bastard. He certainly never bothered to give a shit about me when he was still around so why should I now that he’s gone?”
“Don’t let the bastards get you down,” I said. I’d always loved the quote.
Ruth looked over at me and grinned like she was surprised. “Fuck yeah.”
We drove a little further and then she looked at me. “So. Spill. You just show up out of nowhere. What’s your story?”
“Oh.” I blinked. I’d been grateful that nobody had pressed me about my past. But I guess I should have known that out of everyone, Ruth would be the one to eventually ask. She wasn’t exactly big on tact. That much was obvious by how much she bickered with Jeremiah all the time, even though they barely knew each other.
“Oh you know, I just needed a change of scenery. So I decided to start over somewhere new.”
She made a scoffing noise. “Honey, people do not just decide to start over without any luggage or money and end up hitchhiking on highway 284 in the middle of nowhere Texas. I mean, believe me, I’ve lived here my whole life, and good looking strangers don’t just go showing up out of nowhere.”
“Reece and Jeremiah showed up out of nowhere,” I countered.
She looked at me and slow-grinned. “So you think they’re hot, huh?”
“What? No, I was just—” I waved a hand, flustered. “Shouldn’t you be watching the road?”
She finally moved her eyes back to the dirt road, just in time to slow down because we’d come to the gate. “Hold that thought.” She pointed at me. “We’re going to come right back to this.”
Dear God, did we have to? She jammed the truck in park and hopped out to go open the gate. I rolled my eyes and sat back heavily in my seat, looking at the ceiling of the truck. I wouldn’t have agreed to come if I knew I’d be in for a game of twenty questions.
Far sooner than I would have liked, Ruth was back in the truck and we were rumbling over the cattle grate.
“I’ll close it up,” I volunteered before Ruth could lob any other intrusive questions or get out her pointy finger again.
I gulped in a few deep breaths as I closed the gate, and one last deep breath for good measure before I climbed back up into the truck. I hoped that Ruth would have moved on as she pulled back onto the pot-holed road that I thought was generously called a “highway.” It was just a two-lane road.
“So, you and Reece. I’ve caught him looking at you a couple times. He’s cute. If you’re into that big, dumb cowboy sort of thing.”
“He’s not dumb,” I said, a little outraged on Reece’s behalf. “He’s really smart. And good with the animals.”
She raised an eyebrow like I was just making my point for her. “I knew you liked him.”
Well damn, I walked right into that one.
“Let’s not talk about them. We work with them for God’s sake. That’s just…” Immediately scenes of Reece’s body beneath mine, hands clenching my hips flashed vividly through my head. I wiped my hands on my jeans. “Awkward,” I finished lamely.
