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I stood there,
stunned.
Josh was talking about me? To
these women?
I looked down to see that they
both had on wedding rings.

After Marie and Jen left, I sat down on the
bed and watched Josh sleep. He looked so cute passed out on my
bed.

I had the sudden urge to
just crawl into bed to lie down next to him.
Would he be angry if I did?

After the things I had said to him earlier,
he was probably so pissed at me. Maybe I was just dreaming here.
The way Marie had said he’d acted all night could’ve just been the
alcohol talking. He’d probably only wanted in my pants.

Despite my doubts, I leaned
over and kissed him on the cheek. He opened his eyes and gave me a
crooked-ass smile that just about melted off my panties.
Jesus, now, I understand what Ari and Ellie were
talking about.

“Hey, princess, I must be dreaming right
now,” Josh mumbled.

When I smiled down at him, he closed his
eyes.

Yeah, I better sleep in the
spare room or on the sofa
. I grabbed a
pillow and headed out to the living room. Tomorrow, I would talk to
Josh about how I felt. I needed to be honest with him about my
feelings. If he was willing to be patient and go slow, I thought I
might be able to get used to the idea of letting someone back into
my heart.

***

I heard a noise and flew up off the sofa. I
must have fallen asleep out here. I looked around and didn’t see
anyone. My head was pounding. I picked up my phone, and I had three
text messages.

The first one was from
Ellie. She said that Gunner’s mom and dad got in last night. The
only word she used to describe it was “
awkward
”.

Ari sent a text, asking if I
was coming out today and staying the night. She wanted me to stay
with her and Jeff.
That might work.
I thought that Josh had mentioned that we was
there with them.

The third text was
from...
Josh?

Josh:
I’m sorry you had to come out so late last night, but thanks
for letting me crash at your place. I’m guessing Jen or Marie asked
you to pick me up. Anyway, thanks again. See you either today or
tomorrow in Mason.

Wait…what?
I jumped up and ran into my bedroom. The bed was
made, and Josh was gone.

I ran back out to the living room and grabbed
my cell. I pulled up Josh’s number and hit call.

“Hey, Heather.” Was all Josh said when he
answered. He sounded so sad.

“Hey, Josh. Why did you leave without waking
me up? I kind of wanted to talk to you about um…well, about
yesterday.”

There was a long pause.

“I think you made yourself pretty clear
yesterday, Heather. I’m really not in the mood for any more
rejection.”

His voice was so cold and distant.

“Okay, I guess I deserve that, but do you
think we might be able to talk? I mean, I’d kind of like to explain
my reaction yesterday.”

“I think it was clear what your reaction
was.”

Oh wow.

“Listen, I’m on my way to Mason in a little
bit. Maybe we can talk there. Are you heading out today or early
tomorrow?” Josh said.

My hands started to shake. The threat of
tears was starting to overwhelm me.

“I’m…ah…” I paused when my voice cracked. I
had to clear my throat twice before I could speak again. “I’m
heading out today.”

“Alright…well, I guess I’ll see ya when you
get there. I’m sorry, but I need to go, I have another call coming
through.”

“Oh, okay…sure, yeah. I’ll talk to ya
later.”

I hung up the phone with a sick feeling in
the pit of my stomach.

Why did I get the feeling that I probably
just lost the best thing that’s happened to me since the death of
my parent’s?

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE

JEFF

I couldn’t believe it’s was Tuesday morning,
and Mr. Reynolds was heading out now to look at the place. I had no
idea where Ari was. She’d been pissed ever since I’d jumped on her
about the whole restraining-order shit.

As I headed out onto the porch, I saw a white
F 250 pull up.

Motherfucker.
He was early, and I had no idea where the hell Ari
was. I stepped down off the porch and walked over to his truck. The
guy that got out was young.

“Mr. Reynolds, it’s a real pleasure to meet
your sir.”

“How’s it going, Jeff? Please, call me
Scott.” We shook hands and gave each a good once-over. This bastard
couldn’t have been more than five or six years older than me.

“I can tell by your expression that you’re
wondering who the hell the young guy is standing in front of you,”
He said with a laugh.

I smiled back at him. “As a matter of fact I
am.”

“I’m Scott Reynolds, Jr. My father is good
friends with Garrett. I’m actually taking over my father’s ranch,
so he thought it would best if I came and met with you, to check
out your place.”

“Sounds great. So, you probably know Gunner?
Were you at the wedding?”

He started to laugh. “Yeah, I know Gunner
really well. We used to be buds when we were growing up. I couldn’t
wait for the summers when I knew he was coming to visit. He’s a
good guy. I was at the wedding, but I left right after the
ceremony. One of my mares foaled, so I had to leave early. It was a
beautiful ceremony. Your sister is breathtakingly beautiful.”

“Um, thanks. She’s pretty special, that’s for
sure. Anyway, do you want to head down to the barn, check out the
stables, and all?”

“I’d loved to. How many broodmares do you
have so far?”

“Right now, I have four. Two of them are on
the Mathews’ place.”

“Are any of them pregnant?”

“One.”

As we made our way over to my truck, I
realized that this guy really knew his shit about horses. He was
asking me every goddamn thing under the sun.

“I used to come to this ranch when I was
little. I had a friend we called Smitty. He used to come and visit
his grandparents here. You’ve really done an amazing job of getting
it fixed up,” Scott said.

“Thank you. I appreciate that. We’ve been
putting a lot of blood and sweat into it, that’s for sure.”

“What made you decide on breeding horses?”
Scott asked.

I parked my truck as we pulled up to the
barn. I turned and just smiled at him.

“My fiancé. She has a passion for horses.
She’s really is the one who wants to train them for roping and
barrel racing.”

“Has she ever done either of those?” he asked
with a smirk.

“Yes, sir, she has,” I said with a smirk of
my own.

As we walked up to the barn, I could hear Ari
singing. When we rounded the corner, I saw her mucking out the
stalls, her back facing us. She was listening to her iPod. The only
thing I could see was Ari moving her fucking hips as she danced
with a pitch-fork while singing loudly to Christina Aguilera’s
“WooHoo.”

“Did she just say ‘you know you wanna put
lips where my hips are’?” Scott asked.

Kill me now.
“Ari,” I said, trying not to shout at her. “Arr?
Ari!” I shouted.

Nope,
nothing
. She was still dancing and singing.
Reaching down, I picked up a horse brush and threw it at her,
hitting her right on the ass.

“What the fuck?” Ari said as she whipped
around.

She gave me a dirty look, but then she
noticed Scott standing there. She immediately ripped the head
phones out of her ears and smiled.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, y’all. What time
is it?”

“It’s around nine,” I said.

Ari looked back over at me. Her cheeks were
blushed either from dancing or being embarrassed. She looked so
damn cute…and I was pissed as hell at her.

“Ari, this is Scott Reynolds, Mr. Reynold’s
son. He’s taking over his father’s business.”

Ari put the pitch-fork up against the stall
before she made her way over to us. I looked over at Scott, who
couldn’t seem to pull his eyes away from Ari. I took another look
at her and instantly knew why.

She was wearing a pair of cut-off blue jean
shorts, a white tank top, and a pair of pink cowboy boots. She
looked fucking hot.

Ari quickly wiped her hands on the ass of her
shorts and then reached out to shake Scott’s hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Reynolds.
I’m so sorry. I didn’t think you would be here until around noon,”
Ari said with that damn smile of hers.

The fucking bastard let his eyes travel up
and down Ari, and I swore that he looked at her damn breasts for
good ten seconds.

“I had an appointment cancel this morning, so
I sent Jeff a text, saying that I would be here earlier. And the
pleasure is all mine.”

I looked at Ari again to see that she was
blushing even more.

***

We spent the next few hours talking about the
horses, the barn, the broodmares, and the studs. If it had to do
with horses, we talked about it. Most of the time, Scott was a
little too interested in Ari. He asked her a million questions
about her wanting to train the horses for barrel racing and
roping.

“Well, Jeff, it seems to me that you have a
really nice set-up here. I’m really looking forward to doing
business with you. I would love to see a few of your mares take
some barrels. Ari, maybe you could demonstrate that for me,” he
said with a smile on his face.

Ari smiled back, giving him a bring-it-on
look.

“You bet I’ll demonstrate for you,” Ari said
as her face flushed again.

What the fuck?

“Well then, how about right now?”

Ari looked stunned, but she agreed. She left
to go saddle up a horse she’d been working with the last few
months.

***

Scott must have liked the demonstration
because he wanted to know how soon he could bring his stud out. The
mare Ari rode was obviously in heat. The horse was moody, and I
could tell that Ari was working extra hard with her.

While she was taking off the saddle from the
mare, I pulled Ari off to the side.

“Ari, why did you ride Rose if you knew she
was in heat? She’s already a feisty-ass horse?”

Ari just looked at me, and then she glanced
over my shoulder and smiled. I turned around to see Scott walking
into the barn. I was ready to fucking hit him square in the nose if
he kept looking at Ari the way he was.

“So, how about I bring out Samson? Let’s say
Friday?” Scott said as he looked at me. Then, He watched as Ari
took care of Rose.

“Sure, Friday sounds great, Scott.” I shook
his hand.

Then, he walked up to Ari and shook her
hand.

“BY the way, I loved the
song choice Ari. I’m sure you keep the horses
very
entertained.” He winked at Ari
and started to laugh.

Fucker.

Ari laughed back and there
went that blush across her cheeks. I noticed she kept putting her
hand on her stomach.
Is she feeling sick
again?

***

I took Scott back to his truck and made all
the arrangements for Friday. Right as he was driving off, Ari came
up to the house in her Jeep.

She walked up to me and smiled. “He sure was
nice, and he seemed really interested in working with us.”

Something inside me snapped. “Oh yeah.
Especially after he heard you singing about fucking oral sex, he
got really interested in a lot more than the horses.”

Ari looked at me, stunned. “What?”

“Ari, I’m not in the mood for your damn
games. You knew the guy was attracted to you, and you played it up
the best you could. You being jealous of Rebecca and trying to get
my attention is starting to get old.” I started to walk into the
house, fully expecting her to lash out right back at me. Before I
went in, I turned around to look at her.

She was just standing there, staring at me.
There was no emotion what-so-ever in her eyes. Her hands were
resting on her stomach, she started to shake her head back and
forth. She looked down at the ground and then back up at me.

When she started to run up to me, I thought
she was going to run into my arms. Instead, she pushed me out of
the way and ran into the house.

“Ari…fuck, wait a minute. I didn’t mean to
say that…” I stopped talking when I saw her run into the
bathroom.

She fell to the floor and
started throwing up.
Shit!

I walked up behind her and bent down next to
her.

“Baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take out
my frustration on you.”

“Leave me alone Jeff. I really don’t want to
see you right now, let alone talk to you.”

I stood back up with tears
stinging my eyes.
Why do I keep hurting
her?

As I turned to walk out the door, she
whispered something I couldn’t hear.

“
What did you say,
Ari?”

“It doesn’t even matter anymore. If you can
give me about thirty minutes to get cleaned up, I’d like to head up
and meet Gunner’s parents.”

“Um, okay sure.” I turned and headed toward
the kitchen.

I could have sworn that
she’d said something about how stupid she was to even think of
telling me.
Telling me what?

***

The moment she walked out of the bedroom in a
beautiful sundress and cowboy boots, I just wanted to take her in
my arms and kiss her. When I walked up to her, she took a step
back.

“Ari, I’m so sorry, baby. You know I didn’t
mean what I said. I was frustrated. I think I was looking to pick a
fight because that fucker wouldn’t stop looking at you and flirting
with you. It drove me nuts.”