Page 10 of Branded Mine

I walked over and crouched to scratch behind his ears. “Good morning, Kash.” The dog leaned into my hand as though we had known each other for years.

“He doesn’t usually take to strangers,” Ryder said.

“I’m not a stranger.” The words came out before I could stop them. Silence settled across the kitchen. I looked up. Ryder was watching me.

“No,” he said after a moment. “You’re not.”

Heat crept along the back of my neck. I stood and took a drink of coffee, nearly burning my tongue in my haste to give myself something else to do.

I cleared my throat, needing something to fill the sudden silence. But before I could speak, he gestured toward the table.

I sat down, and a second later, Ryder slid a plate filled with eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes in front of me. He set his own plate down across from me and took his seat.

The fact that I was aware of every small movement he made irritated me. The scrape of his fork against the plate. The flex of his forearm when he reached for his coffee. Even the way his gaze occasionally lifted to mine before returning to his food. The silence wasn’t awkward exactly, but it was too aware.

After I was finished eating, I finally set my fork down and asked softly, “Are we going to talk about last night?”

Ryder continued eating. “What about it?”

I stared at him. “You know what.”

He lifted his gaze, and although his expression remained unreadable, something shifted in his eyes.

“We sat on the porch, drank beer, watched the storm, and then you went to bed.”

“That isn’t what I’m talking about.”

He was silent for a second before finally saying, “I know.”

I leaned back in the chair and folded my arms. “Then why are you making me say it?”

“Not makin’ you do anything.”

The tension from last night still hung between us, or maybe it was only clinging to me. But it felt thick and unspoken, and I could still feel the ghost of his fingers accidentally brushingagainst mine. Did he feel how the air had changed when neither of us pulled away immediately?

“And now you’re acting like nothing happened.”

“Nothin’ did.”

The answer shouldn’t have bothered me. It did. I looked down at my plate. “Right.”

Ryder was quiet for several seconds. “When I touch you, Lila, you won’t be wonderin’ if it happened.”

My breath caught, and I sharply glanced up. Ryder picked up his coffee mug and took a slow drink as if he hadn’t just sent a wave of heat straight through me.

I reached for my own mug, mostly because my hands suddenly needed somewhere to go. “That sounds awfully confident.”

“It is.”

I should have had a clever response. Something sharp enough to push him back behind the boundary I was trying to keep. Nothing came.

Kash lifted his head from the floor as my phone buzzed on the table beside me. Ryder’s attention shifted toward it.

I glanced at the screen. Kacey. I answered. “Hey.”

“Hey, I went by the ranch, but you weren’t there. Saw a limb through your living room window. Everything okay?”

“I’m fine. The house, not so much. I’m at my neighbor’s, Ryder Kane. His ranch borders mine on the west side.”