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“What? Of course not. You’re my closest friend. I would never dream of comparing you to my brothers.” She gave him a wicked grin. “But an animal? I make no promises.”
He rolled his eyes. “How about you get back to work. We still have a lot to do and now that I know what I’m going to do with those cattle, I’ll have to call the company that’s been caring for them and have them get delivered. You sure your brother will help out with that side of things?”
“I know he will. Daniel’s gonna flip over being asked.”
Once again, they fell into comfortable silence. This was nice. There weren’t many people she could do this with—just being herself. She could quietly despair over the state of her life, while every so often being there for one of her best friends. Simon deserved every bit of happiness and if he wanted to train horses, then she was going to make sure that happened before she found her job. With all the resumés she’d submitted, she should probably call in a few favors to the folks who were friends with her parents so she wasn’t hired before she could ensure Simon’s success.
There might not be a lot of people who would want to help her specifically, but her last name still carried some weight. And she’d gotten to know the Holt triplets up on the hill a little bit more since they’d moved to the area. If anyone could spread the news about what Simon wanted to do, it would be Kelsey. She had her fingers on every social media platform.
Hopefully, she’d be willing to help Simon out.
CHAPTERFOUR
Day after miserable day,Simon was reminded just how deep in the zone he’d been pushed. He couldn’t think of a single moment when Katrina didn’t make it perfectly clear where they stood.
He was in the zone, alright.
Thefriendzone.
And he hated it—which was utterly ridiculous.
Simon didn’t want to be a love interest when it came to Katrina. If he was, he’d only get his heart broken. So why couldn’t he just brush it off whenever she said he was her dearest friend?
Because it rubbed him the wrong way. But it shouldn’t. Being her friend was important, but being in the friend zone was different.
What if he changed his mind? What if he wanted to fight for her? The guys Brianne had lined up for Katrina to go out with had nothing on him. He’d never try to get Katrina do anything that didn’t make her happy. He’d be all in to help her reach any goal she wanted to reach. And that could be a problem if she didn’t want to stay in town.
Simon knocked on the door at the Reese family house then moved to the side and leaned his back against the wood siding. What was he thinking? He was smarter than this. There was far too much to worry about with his own future and he needed to focus on that. The last thing he needed to worry about was Katrina’s dating life. She’d already gone on four dates with three guys and each time he saw her afterwards, he held his breath.
While he knew the chances of her finding someone were slim, he couldn’t help but worry that she might just click with someone.
And each time he saw her and all she could do was talk about how the guy wasn’t her type, his blood pressure returned to normal. He wasn’t sure how many more of these dates he would be able to handle. Brianne was doing too good of a job finding guys that Katrina had never met before and all he wanted to do was pull her aside and tell her to take it easy.
Simon glanced at the door, his brows furrowed. Katrina had told him to stop by this afternoon so she could tell him something. He was here on time. Where was she?
He turned to knock again, but before his fist made contact with the door, it swung inward.
“See? I told you. Simon and I are going out tonight,” Katrina called into the house. She poked her head outside and winked at him. “I’ll tell you later.” Then she called again, “No, it’s not what you think. We’re just friends.”
A muffled sound was all he heard when the person she’d been yelling to called back.
Katrina rolled her eyes. “It’s not gonna happen, Mom.” This time, her voice lowered several decibels and the irritation returned. This was the Katrina he was more familiar with. She was still struggling to find a job that she wanted, and while she seemed to perk up a little when he was able to get her out of the house, it wasn’t much.
Her mother’s faint voice grew a little louder, but before Simon could figure out what she was saying, Katrina slammed the door shut. She grabbed Simon’s hand and yanked him forward.
“Hurry! She’s coming.”
“Wha—”
“I’ll tell you in the car.”
“But I wasn’t expecting?—”
“Don’t worry, if you’re busy, you can just drop me off in town somewhere. I need to get out of the house.” She was breathless by the time they made it to his car. Her hand released his the second before she opened the door and launched herself inside.
Simon spared one brief second to glance back at the house, finding Jennifer Reese on the porch, staring at them with a funny little grin on her face. He offered her a wave and she waved back.
Katrina laid on the horn and he jumped before hurrying around to the other side and getting in. His friend shot him a death glare. “What are you doing?”
