The Ranch (A Second Chance Romance)

“I’ll be honest,” Cooper said as he and Nolan held me close. “This isn’t quite the reaction I was expecting.”

“I expected you to tell us how dumb we are,” Nolan murmured into my other ear.

“Never,” I managed to say past the lump in my throat. “I only wish—”

“Penelope.”

My dad’s harsh voice cut through all of my emotions like a knife, instinctively making me pull away from my guys before I even thought to stop myself.

God, why did he always have to talk to me like I was a naughty child? And why did I always have to respond like I’d been caught with my hand in the cookie jar anytime I was with Cooper and Nolan?

It wasn’t right. Or fair. Or nice.

“We were just—” I started to say, but he interrupted me again.

“I see exactly what you were doing. I might be old, but my eyes work just fine.” He shook his head. “I don’t understand why you want to embarrass yourself by hanging all over these two guys right out here in public.”

“I was upset because of all the damage from the storm,” I lied. “They’re my... my friends. They were comforting me. Why is that so bad?”

He didn’t answer, but he glared at me before he turned to stroll away. It told me everything more than words could. He was disappointed. And angry. And possibly even a little ashamed of me.

That was the part that hurt the most. He didn’t want to be seen talking to me as long as I stood with Cooper and Nolan.

When I turned back to my guys, neither of them paid any attention to me. They had both started working again, silently handing bags of sand down the line.

I didn’t have to ask what was wrong. I already knew.

It was me. I was the one who had messed things up this time.

Just like I had back then.

Chapter Twenty Eight

Nolan Reed

Damn, I hadn’t been prepared for the emotional rollercoaster the day had turned out to be. We’d had some of our highest highs with Poppy since she’d been back in town, but we’d also had some bad lows.

Not as bad as the cheating thing had been back in the day, but pretty damn close. Keeping my mouth shut while her dad talked about us like we were trash was like taking a punch to the face, but I was willing to take it for Poppy.

Hearing her refer to us as friends, though...

She might as well have ripped my heart out and shredded it to pieces, and Cooper didn’t need to tell me it hurt him the same way. She might not have meant it—she definitely didn’t mean it, in fact—but it still hurt like fuck.

“I’m sorry about that,” she said quietly as she joined us in the sandbag line again. “I don’t even have anything else to say.”

Cooper gave her the barest glance. “Let’s not talk about it right now.”

Yeah, he was definitely upset. It wouldn’t last long—his mood swings never did—and that soon enough, we’d both be able to justify in our own minds why she couldn’t be honest about us.

But for the moment, I didn’t blame him for being upset. I was, too, even though I didn’t wear my heart on my sleeve in the way he did.

“I still need a little more time,” she said to me. “I can figure it all out if I just... have more time.”

“We get it,” I answered for both of us since I didn’t trust Cooper to be so understanding right then. “And we’ll give you more time. We already promised we would.”

I said the last few words a little louder to make sure Coop heard me. Truthfully we had promised to give her the time she needed, and it was sort of our own fault if we expected anything different.

When Cooper still didn’t say anything, I cleared my throat and gave him a not-so-subtle look that he’d understand. We’d known each other for so long that I usually didn’t even need to use any words with him, but I wanted him to say something out loud for Poppy’s benefit.

“Yes,” Cooper said so quietly I almost missed it. “We’ll give you time.”

His quiet tone hadn’t left any doubts about his feelings, but it was still better than nothing. But I knew as well as he did—as well as we all did—that it was easy enough to say we’d give her the time she needed.

It was a totally different story to put that plan into action and try to keep our feelings in check until... until whenever Poppy decided that she’d had enough time to figure everything out.

Fuck.

All the ups and downs made my head hurt, not to mention ruining what little time we might have had left with Poppy before she had to leave town again.