Page 48 of Hard To Fall
Me: I’m in trouble
Sierra: Do I need to come there?
Me: Not yet.
Sierra: What's the trouble?
Me: I think I love him
Sierra: Lily.
Me: But we’re not talking.
Sierra: Lily!
Me: I know. It’s a mess
Sierra: Why aren’t you talking?
Me: He told me I was temporary
Sierra: *begins searching flights*
Me: Sierra, it’s fine. I know it’s not over
Sierra: You better make him beg
CHAPTER 19
COLT
I findher behind the arena, tucked between the stock trailers and the equipment shed, exactly where she goes when she needs space but doesn’t want to leave.
She’s got her iPad tucked under one arm, phone in the other, boots dusty, hair pulled back tight like she’s bracing herself. She doesn’t look at me when I stop in front of her.
“Lily.” When she doesn’t answer, I shift my weight, knee barking out a warning I ignore. “You’re good at disappearing in plain sight.” She looks at me then, and I say, “I owe you an apology.”
She tilts her head, eyebrow raised. “That’s new.”
“I know,” I mutter. “I’m bad at this part.”
She puts her phone in her back pocket, crosses her arms, and waits.
“I shouldn’t have fought you the way I did. Not in meetings and definitely not in front of my family.” I swallow hard.
“Go on.” I huff as her expression softens just a fraction, but she doesn’t save me. She only makes me spit out everything that’s been jumbled in my mind.
“I don’t know how to let people help without feeling like I’m losing something,” I continue. “And instead of owning that, I took it out on you.”
She studies me like she’s deciding whether I’m telling the truth or just saying the right words.
“I didn’t come here to replace you,” she says quietly. “Or change how special this ranch is.”
“I know that,” I say. “I knew it then, too. I was just?—”
“Being a dick?” She smiles sweetly, and I huff. The silence stretches with only the sound of a bull snorting nearby.
“You’re rebuilding something here,” I add. “And you did it without asking me to be anything other than what I already am.”
