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“I don’t know. Because you start with small talk.”
“Did you and Byron start with small talk?”
“We had the common bond of being in veterinary school. When you have something big in common it’s easy to talk to each other.”
“All right. I can see that. So I find myself a woman who likes ranching—like Fia Sullivan—and we’ll be able to talk about ranching.”
“Well,” she said. “Yes. I guess that stands to reason.”
“Perfect. I just need to find somebody that I have some easy things in common with, and the small talk will be simple. And, you can assume that your controversial opinions might somewhat line up.”
“Why is that?” she asked.
“If your life contains a lot of the same practicalities, you’re probably more inclined to agree about other things, too.”
“Probably a safe enough bet.”
He stared at her. “We’re pretty different, though. But you’re a veterinarian. And I’m a rancher.”
“That’s true,” she said. “But we’re friends. It’s different.”
He put his elbows back on the table and rested his chin on his knuckles. “Why is that?”
“I don’t know. That’s just how it seems to work to me. We met, I stitched you up and we became friends. Byron and I met, we started talking about stitching things up and we decided to date.”
Except it was difficult for her to define the feelings at the moment, and that kind of struck her as odd. You would think that she would have something stronger in the way of feelings. You really would. Except it felt vague right now, and her memory of Lachlan was visceral. Even though it had happened much longer ago. But it had been emotional. Intense.
He’d been bleeding and bruised, and everything in her had broken.
Because it’s like an animal. When you see a wounded animal, it affects you. Deeply.
Was Lachlan like a wounded animal to her? That seemed... That didn’t seem right. He was more than that.
Of course, in her life, there was very little that was more than that.
“You’re full of wisdom. Tell me about the forks,” he said.
“You start on the outside and work your way in.”
“And that required a meeting? I feel like that could’ve been a short text message.”
“But at this meeting you got scones.”
“True.” A grin split his face, and his blue eyes lit up. Suddenly her heart felt like it dropped a foot inside her.
And it was like an alarm bell rang inside her head.
Lachlan was handsome.
Not that she hadn’t noticed that before. He was objectively a good-looking man. Nobody who saw him would argue that point. Classically masculine, tall, broad-shouldered and square-jawed. Those were things that people generally agreed contributed to handsomeness. On top of that, he had extremely symmetrical features, which was scientifically proven to be more attractive than asymmetrical features. So just in a completely objective way, she knew that.
But this was different. This rearranged something inside her and couldn’t be dispelled by the wrinkling of her nose.
He was handsome. And it made her cheeks feel like they were numb; made her lips feel like they were buzzing.
For a second she felt dizzy.
“What?” His smile faded slightly as he looked at her. And she wished that he wouldn’t. She wished he would look away.
