Brock remained silent, and I turned to face him. He wore a look on his face that said he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure he should.
“What? Say what you want to say, Brock.”
He turned to look at me. “Okay, I will. Why did you take the call?”
I gave him a confused look. “What do you mean, why did I take the call? Kaylee was calling, why wouldn’t I take the call?”
He shook his head before he focused back on the road. “You wouldn’t take it because you were having—what did you say?—a moment with Merit. I’m just saying, if that had been me and Lincoln, I would have chosen to focus on the conversation I was having with the woman standing in front of me. Cuz if I didn’t, Lincoln would have my ass.”
I stared at him as anger boiled up inside of me. “What exactly are you trying to fucking say, Brock? That I picked Kaylee over Merit?”
He didn’t answer, only shrugged his shoulder.
“That’s fucking ridiculous,” I spat out. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Especially when Merit’s words came back to me.
“I was going to ask you the very same question.”
After a few moments of silence, I cursed under my breath. “I think Merit thinks I have feelings for Kaylee.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it, but there have been a few times when Kaylee is around that Merit acts…different. Then today, she said something about me leaving to go help Kaylee. I heard the bitterness in her voice, and I asked her if she realized that Kaylee and I were just friends. She said she was going to ask me the same question.”
Brock turned down the drive to the Shaw ranch and waited for the gate to open. “Dirk, is anything going on between you and Merit?”
“No,” I quickly said and then scrubbed my hands down my face. “Hell, I don’t know. She has this effect on me, Brock. She always has, and when we were younger, I was able to brush it aside and say I couldn’t feel that way about her because we were friends.”
“Can you no longer do that?”
I let out a long breath. “I’m not sure about anything anymore, and honestly, I don’t have the energy to think about it right now.”
Brock didn’t say anything as we drove down the drive to his folks’ house. He pulled up and parked, and I got out and stared at my truck. The idea of going back home made me feel sick, but I knew I had to for my mother.
“You want me to go over there with you?” Brock asked.
“Nah,” I said as I shook my head. “I need to be strong for Mom. I’ll be fine.”
Brock placed his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I know I’ve said this before, but if you need me, I’m here. Anytime.”
I felt my body sag slightly before I forced myself to stand tall. “I know, and I appreciate it more than you know, Brock.”
He gave me a smile and then a slap on the back. “And Dirk, it’s okay if you have feelings for Merit.”
I frowned and shook my head. I had no idea what was going on with me and Merit right now. I wasn’t even sure I wanted a relationship. At least until I got my head together. I felt like I was sifting through a plethora of emotions, and I couldn’t take anything else on. The last thing I needed was Brock or Kaylee trying to push me right now. So, I said the first thing I could think of to get him to stop pushing as far as Merit was concerned.
“The last thing I want—or need—right now is a relationship with Merit.”
The sound of someone gasping caused me to turn—only to see Merit and Timberlynn standing there.
My eyes bounced from Timberlynn, who looked utterly stunned, to Merit, who had a blank expression on her face. A feeling of dread washed over me as I realized she had heard me.
“Merit,” I whispered, before she quickly turned and headed over toward the main stables. “What are you doing here? I thought you…you went for a run,” I called out to her.
Timberlynn’s expression turned to pure evil, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think that she wanted to rip my balls off and shove them down my throat.
Merit stopped and turned back to me. She looked so defeated in that moment, and it took everything I had not to walk up to her and pull her into my arms. When she started to speak, she sounded void of all emotion. “Um, Timberlynn passed by while I was running, and we drove back for me to take a look at Milo.”
“Milo?” I asked.