AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I need to see you, too. Meet me at my cabin on the ranch.
Alana both smiled and frowned within the span of the next five seconds. The cabin was private, a place where their conversation, or anything else, likely wouldn’t be overheard.
But this might not be a fling offer at all.
Egan might be seriously down over what’d happened with Tilly. HisI need to see youmight be so she could talk him off a metaphorical ledge. After all, she was the one person on earth who knew exactly what he was going through.
I’m on my way, she texted back, and she hurried to her car to make the drive. A drive that started with a call from Aunt Loralee.
Since her aunt had almost certainly caught wind of Tilly’s ire, that was likely why she was calling. Alana let it go to voice mail, but Loralee didn’t leave a message. The woman sent a text instead, and Alana had the hands-free read it to her.
Are you okay?Loralee texted.
That definitely wasn’t a simple question, and was Loralee asking because she’d seen or heard what had gone on at the park? Alana hadn’t spotted her, but it was possible she could have been there. Any response to the text was best reserved for an in-person chat. Still, she didn’t want her aunt to worry about her.
I’m okay I’ll drop by and see you tonight.
After a couple of seconds, Loralee sent her a thumbs-up emoji, followed by a message of her own.
I’ll put off talking to Tilly until you and I have spoken.
Alana replied with her own thumbs-up, and she hoped that by the time Loralee did talk with Tilly that Jack’s mom would have calmed the heck down and come to her senses. If not, well, Loralee could handle herself if Tilly flew off the handle again.
When Alana made the turn into the Donnelly ranch, she spotted a few hands in the front pasture. And they obviously spotted her, causing her to sigh. They’d see that she wasn’t driving to the main house where everyone and his brother knew she was still doing her daily visits with Derek. The hands would know she was heading to the cabin where they’d probably seen Egan already go. And that meant there’d be gossip.
Correction: there’d bemoregossip.
Since talk about Egan and her had already been set in motion, Alana decided to go with a “screw it” attitude. That had probably gotten plenty of people into trouble, but she was ready to offer up the samescrew itto possible outcomes.
She took the narrow road that coiled around the ranch and soon spotted the cabin. But not Egan’s truck. However, there was an impressive looking Andalusian horse chowing down on some grass beneath the shade of an oak just inside the pasture fence. Egan had apparently chosen less visible transportation than she had.
When Alana parked and got out, she heard the music—Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle”—and wondered if the tune had just popped up on a shuffled playlist or if Egan was playing it because it matched his mood. If it was the latter, then his mood was pretty much matching hers.
Alana stepped around a patch of lazy daisies and considered picking one to ask if it’d been a mistake for her to come here. But she decided she really didn’t want floral advice factoring into this.
She knocked, waited and then knocked again. When he didn’t answer, she opened the door and peeked in. No Egan, but from the sound of it, the shower was running. A moment later, the running water stopped, and there was some moving around in what she thought was the bedroom.
“Egan?” she called out to let him know she was inside.
“I’ll be right there,” he was quick to answer.
While she waited, Alana glanced around. She didn’t have to glance much, though, to take in the space since it was fairly small. An open area for the living room, kitchen and a small breakfast-sized nook in front of the bay window that overlooked the pasture.
Like the main house, the cabin had a fireplace, and there were a few framed photos on the mantel. None of Egan but rather of his dad and siblings. Front and center was an old photo of his mom. Even though the woman had died when Alana had been only four or five, she’d seen other photos of her, ones taken with Jack and Egan, so Alana knew who she was.
“Sorry,” Egan said, coming out of the bedroom. He brought the scent of the shower with him. Soap and shampoo.
He also brought a peep show.
He’d put on jeans and a shirt, but the shirt was unbuttoned, and he had missed some spots when he’d dried off. The water had beaded on his chest and was being resupplied by the occasional drops that fell from his hair.
“I was drenched in sweat after I rode out here,” he explained, going to the fridge and taking out a Coke. He lifted a second can, offering it to her, but she shook her head. “I figured you wouldn’t want to talk with me while I was so ripe.”
She hadn’t missed the key word in that.Talk. So that meant he likely hadn’t invited her here to take her up on her fling offer. Bummer. Despite the flurry of sudden nerves she was feeling, her body was still revving for him. And his bare chest was adding fire to the revving.
“Cal’s with your dad?” she asked. Small talk while she tried to gauge Egan’s mood. Thanks to the small space, she thought mood-gauging might be easy since she had a clear view of his face, but he definitely wasn’t showing her much.
Egan nodded, and after he had a long drink of the Coke, he came back into the living area with her. “I decided to come out here to think and to give Dad some time with Cal.” He paused and locked his gaze with hers. “I wanted to work out how to answer your text.”
