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“Let’s get something to eat and go to the beach,” she said immediately. If she had to spend time with him, she’d rather do it outside of her place. If he was in her space, she couldn’t leave, but if she was at the beach, she could walk away when she was ready to and not have to spend any more time with him than what she had to. And while she loved horses, it wasn’t something she wanted to share with him. So the beach it was.
“Thank you,” Ryan said, and he sounded humble. It made her feel better immediately.
But being with him stirred the same old feelings. The ones that she’d ignored while she considered them just friends but had come roaring to life the night of the rodeo championship. That had led to the worst mistake, no, the second worst mistake she’d ever made.
“I can run to the diner and grab whatever it is that they have on special, if... Do you have anything you need to carry in and get ready to go?”
She jerked her head. “I can do it.”
“Okay, fifteen minutes tops,” he said, and then he touched her arm. She had to work to keep from yanking it away. “Thank you.”
She didn’t look up, just stared at where his hand touched her arm, the long brown fingers, blunt nails, and his gentle touch.
That touch stirred memories, gray and fuzzy, but still, it was more the feelings that she had to hide that bothered her.
She didn’t want to spend any more time with him than what she had to. She could eat, let him say whatever it was he wanted to say, and then cut out as fast as she could.
With that thought in mind, she was back down waiting for him thirteen minutes later. He walked around the corner, carrying a brown paper bag in one hand and a plastic bag with what looked like drinks in another.
“I grabbed us two bottles of water. I didn’t know if you still love Mountain Dew or not.”
“I try not to drink it anymore.” She shrugged her shoulder, not wanting to say that since she had children, she’d found it harder to stay slim than it had been before.
That was information he really didn’t need to know. Things that she might have told him at one time, and they might have laughed about, but not anymore. She wasn’t going to let her guard down. Ryan had ditched her when she needed him, and she wouldn’t forget that.
Chapter 8
He got her to go withhim, but she didn’t seem happy about it.
Ryan carried the food and drinks while Dakota walked beside him, her hands in her pockets, her eyes on the sidewalk.
He lifted his eyes toward the lake, then looked out over the pasture field where the horses grazed.
He had Goldie and the three geldings he was training on the far end of Matt’s property, and it was at least a ten-minute walk around the pasture and a little more if they went by way of the beach, which is how he intended to go.
He should take the time to start talking to her, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. He wanted to lead up to the apology but couldn’t figure out what he wanted to say, only that he really wanted to get it out of the way.
