The Ranch (A Second Chance Romance)

“Yeah...” Her brows knitted together. “I’m not exactly looking forward to continuing that conversation when I see him again, but it’s inevitable. I’ve known it was coming, and it happens more or less exactly like that every single time. The only reason it was a little worse now was because he actually saw me with y’all.”

Nolan offered a wry smile as we sat there in the parking lot with my truck engine running. “I never imagined I’d be someone’s dirty little secret, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. Right, Coop?”

He was sort of joking, but with enough truth in the statement to make my knuckles go white as my hands absently wrapped around the steering wheel.

“No.” I shook my head. “There isn’t going to be a first time for that. We had to sneak around in high school, and that sucked, but it was understandable. We’re grown-ass adults now, and we aren’t criminals. I ain’t gonna sneak around hiding from anyone’s parents. That’s bullshit.”

“You might say it’s bullshit, but this is my life. At least for right now. What do you want me to do, Cooper?” Her voice was strained.

I felt a pang of guilt as she looked at me with eyes that were brimming with pent-up emotions.

Tell your dad to fuck off.

Tell the whole world to fuck right off.

Stay with us.

Forever.

I didn’t say any of those things, though. It wouldn’t have done any good to make an ugly, difficult situation even worse.

Instead, I took a deep breath and shrugged. “I don’t have the answers. I don’t know what you should do. I guess today seemed like old times, and I got my hopes up again when I thought you felt that way, too.”

Nolan was nodding along in the back seat. He didn’t always have a lot to say, but I was glad he still had my back in this situation. And I was glad I wasn’t the only one who had that buzz after the great morning we’d all had together.

“You’re mad at me because you got your hopes up?” She huffed out a short breath. “Sure, yes, it did feel like old times. I’ll freely admit that I had a really great time with you—with both of you—last night and all day today. But I’m pretty sure I clearly said it would only be for a few days.” She paused for a moment, then softened her tone a little. “I didn’t mislead you in any way. You shouldn’t have gotten your hopes up—just the opposite. And even if I wanted something more, my dad would never understand. You saw how he acted today after seeing the three of us together again.”

“And I saw how you barely even tried to stick up for yourself,” I shot back. “The Poppy I remember wouldn’t take shit from anyone. Not even her dad.”

“Then you don’t know me as well as you thought you did.”

Nolan cleared his throat. “Okay, okay. Let’s all dial it back a couple of notches before we say shit we don’t mean.”

Except she did seem to mean it. And I’d meant what I’d said, too. I wasn’t distraught that she hadn’t tried to stick up for us. We were grown and perfectly able to handle ourselves. But to see her cower down in front of her dad like she had? It killed me.

And honestly, it pissed me off because I did know her. I knew her damn well. She’d always known her worth and had only become stronger since the last time I saw her.

“I don’t want to argue,” I said, finally backing the truck up to leave the parking lot. “I ain’t going to try and make you change your mind. I understand that you said this was only for a few days, and it was my fault for hoping it might be otherwise.”

There. I’d taken responsibility for my shit. And I’d done it without being an asshole about it. That was the best I could do.

“So, what are you going to do now?” She turned to look out the window rather than meet my gaze again.

“We’ll drop you off at your parents’ house. Then, I don’t know. I guess we’ll go somewhere else to help out if we can. Somewhere we’re needed.”

“I didn’t want any of this to happen,” she sighed, her voice barely above a whisper. “Not like this.”

Nolan reached up from the back seat to give her arm a supportive squeeze, then gave me a quick look that I couldn’t quite read.

Did he think I was too hard on her?

Was I being too harsh?

I’d said how I felt.

She’d pretty clearly stated that she didn’t feel the same way.

I’d owned up to my mistake, but I couldn’t apologize. Not for the way I felt about her. I was never going to apologize for that.