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“I will be,” she said, hugging herself as she remembered their frantic lovemaking. At least the first time. “I just feel like it was a long time coming and yet I wasn’t really ready until now. I’ve never felt like this before.”
“I can see that.” Tilly reached across the couch to take her sister’s hand and squeeze it. “I hope it works out.”
“It will,” Oakley said confidently. She knew Pickett and he knew her. No man had ever known her as well. She and Pickett were friends as well as lovers now. He’d seen her at her worst. He knew that she fought for what she believed in. He also knew that she would probably never tread lightly.
She smiled to herself and saw that her sister had a faraway look in her eyes. “Where have you been?”
“Haven’t you heard? Stuart’s in the hospital in Billings. Cooper and I went to see him. That nurse, Abigail Creed? She tried to kill him.”
“How is he?” she asked, shocked.
“He’ll survive, but that woman almost killed him. How do you get over something like that?” Tilly shook her head and rose from the couch. “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” She turned back to Oakley. “Are you all right?”
“Great,” she said, savoring the earlier lovemaking. She realized that she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this happy and content.
“Pickett appears to be good for you,” her sister said, smiling as she went into her room. “He’d better be, if he knows what’s good for him,” she said before closing the door.
PICKETTKNEWHEwasn’t going to be able to sleep. He lay in his bunk thinking about Oakley. They’d made love. He hadn’t planned on doing that until he told her the truth about who he had been. But he couldn’t regret it. She now knew how he felt about her—and he had a pretty good idea of how she felt about him.
Before he’d left New York and that life his father had planned for him, he’d often wondered how he could trust anything, especially friendships. He saw the way people treated his father because of his money. He hated questioning if people really cared about him. If they would still like him if he had nothing.
Oakley cared about him as the ranch hand she’d known since they were teenagers. He’d never questioned her friendship or Duffy’s, either. He didn’t want that to change. He would tell her the truth next time he saw her.
He couldn’t wait to see her again. She’d left an ache at heart level that could only be soothed by being with her.You know you could ask her out on a real date at least.
He thought a real date might be awkward, but he knew his heart was right. He placed the call. Oakley answered on the third ring. He hadn’t realized how late it was. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”
She chuckled. “Can’t sleep, huh?”
“No, how about you?”
“Nope.” Silence filled the line for a few moments.
“I was lying here thinking about you,” he said.
“Funny, I was doing the same thing.”
He smiled in the darkness. “I like the sound of that. What are you doing Saturday night?”
That was still three days away. “Pickett Hanson, are you asking me on a date?”
“I am. Want to hear what I was thinking we could do?”
She laughed. “No, surprise me.”
He chuckled. He loved what the late night did to her voice. He could imagine her curled up in her bed, comfortable, her guard down—like she had been earlier. “It could be weird going on a real date even after all these years being around each other.”
“I suspect it will be. At least at first.”
“Guess we’ll have to make a point of getting to know the people we are now,” he said.
“I like the sound of that. Who are you, Pickett Hanson?” His pulse jumped. “I don’t even know your favorite color or if you even have one.”
“I have one. The green of your eyes,” he said, realizing it was true. “What about you?”
“I’ve never thought about it, but I’d have to say...that faded blue like worn denim and the way it looks on you.”
“Favorite food?”
