Page 28 of The Fugitive Cowboy's Baby
After reading several of the answers, a consensus seemed to form among her fellow forum members.
Red flags galore, said one comment.
Girl, get your butt out of there while you still can, said another.
And another said,My mom’s best friend dated a guy like this. He wound up being a dangerous criminal. If you want to know what my advice is, drop him as soon as possible.
More said very similar things, and only one told her to be patient with him because he may be going through something she couldn’t understand. Kat went to bed feeling worse than she had when she’d posted the question. She had only just begun to hope that she might have a future with this man. The fact that he hadn’t run after getting what he wanted from her was a green flag, as far as she was concerned. He wanted to stay. Didn’t that mean something? But almost universally, she was being advised by strangers on the internet to drop him.
When she woke up the following morning, she checked her post again, only to find more of the same—people warning her that he had dark secrets, people advising her to run as soon as possible. The fact that everyone was so anxious to judge him so harshly before getting more than a sliver of information made her deeply uncomfortable. But what else had she expected? This was the internet. Jumping to conclusions was what it was best at.
She brushed her teeth and got ready for the day, thinking hard about what she wanted to say when she saw Cole. Saying nothing to him was not an option. She’d never been the type to deal with conflict by pretending it never happened. Maybe that was why she never took to acting when she was a kid. If she was upset, her mother would pull her aside and tell her to put a new face on until they got home, but Kat never could manage it.
The one part of this that was surprising her more than all the rest was that, after getting all that advice from strangers on the internet, instead of making her question her relationship, it only made her value it more. Everything they said about Cole was wrong. It became more and more obvious with each post she read. He wasn’t the kind of person they were talking about, and that made Kat want to believe in him even more.
When she finally found him in the stables, she walked right up to him without any hesitation at all. “Cole,” she said.
He turned to her and waited, a baffled expression on his face.
She took a deep breath and swallowed her pride. “I’m really sorry for taking your photo without your permission yesterday. I thought about it, and I’ve decided it was the wrong choice. I should have asked, and if you said no, I should have honored your decision.”
He shifted in his place, still looking unsure of what the right response was.
She decided not to wait for him. “I know there’s probably a reason you don’t want your picture taken right now, and I’m guessing it’s something you don’t want to talk about. I’ve decided to respect that and not even ask. You’ll tell me if andwhen you’re ready. I wanted to assure you I won’t do it again. I promise. I…” She hesitated and took a deep breath. “I trust you.”
Cole’s reaction was nowhere near what she expected. Instead of saying a word, he pulled her in and kissed her. It was the kind of kiss that made her toes curl and her cheeks flush. After the kiss, he held her in his arms, rocking her in a soothing way. All she could sense in his reaction was gratitude so pure that the wordsthank youweren’t nearly enough to express it. “I don’t deserve you, kitten,” he said into her ear.
“Just promise me I won’t come to regret this one day,” she said. “Promise you aren’t some master manipulator who’s done something unforgivable.”
“You won’t,” he murmured. “I’m not.”
And she could do nothing other than believe him.
CHAPTER 14
COLE
“Why don’t you move the rest of your stuff here and stop paying for the hotel?” Kat said one day while they were feeding the calves. “Isn’t it kind of a waste of money to keep holding it for yourself?”
Cole smirked at her. “But you pay so well. I don’t have to worry about money at all.”
“Maybe I should give you a pay cut,” she murmured.
“Don’t you dare.”
They finished cleaning up the exterior before moving on to the inside of the barn. Cole had answered in jest, but only because he didn’t want to admit the truth. One day, maybe soon, there would come a time when Kat would stop trusting him. It was just the way things went for him. As sure as she was now, something would happen to build doubt in her, and she would start to question herself. Then, she would start to question him, and it would be time for him to go.
The hardest part about all that was that, for the first time in years, Cole didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to move on. Hewanted to stay with her and watch her make her dreams come true. Her faith and confidence inspired something in him that he hadn’t felt in a long time. It was hope. Maybe things would get better one day. Maybe things would change. Maybe he could stick around and make a home somewhere for once, a family even.
But when he started to think this way, he always had to stop himself and tell himself to be realistic. His situation was very unlikely to be resolved any time soon, and he was powerless to do anything about it. The choice he made in the past would catch up with him eventually, and subjecting a family to that kind of stress would be selfish and cruel. No, it was better to deal with this sort of thing on his own. That had been the plan from the start, and he wasn’t going to change it now.
“Hey, kitten, could you go out and grab me the bigger feed bucket?” Getting back to work was the best thing he could do to diffuse the situation for now. He needed to put a stop to her questions and any in-depth conversation about them.
“Sure,” she said and jogged out of the barn.
Then, he heard a car door slam, and his whole body stiffened at the sound. Though Tony’s back had been improving lately, and he sometimes stopped by to help out a bit, he didn’t usually come without letting them know he’d be there first. He always called to ask whether they needed anything from the feed store before he headed out of town to the ranch. As far as Cole knew, Tony hadn’t called today. The second car door closing confirmed his suspicions.
His worst fears were confirmed when he heard a male voice that wasn’t Tony’s. “Good afternoon, ma’am. I’m Officer Benson, and this is my partner, Officer King.”
