Page 69 of Forbidden Forget-Me-Not

Goran laughed. “Well, it’s a good thing you don’t have to, or I’d be fighting off all the guys.”

He nudged my shoulder like he used to do when I was a teen and hopelessly in love with him, even though he still treated me like a kid sister.

“I buy moisture-wicking boxers,” he said.

I laughed. “That’s the big secret? Good to know.”

It felt good to smile, to joke, and not be so serious.

We stopped at the trail bend where the trees opened to a stretch of wild grass.

“I can’t keep hiding. And I can’t let my father believe that if he waits long enough, I’ll fold.”

“I know you won’t,” Goran said.

“I need to know I won’t.”

He nodded once. “Alright, but I’ll stay close in case you need me.” He kissed the back of my knuckles. “Don’t tell me to do anything different.”

“Okay.”

“So does this mean you’re not pissed I called Titus last night?”

I rolled my eyes. “I want to be. I probably should be. But I’m not. We had a good talk. I think I needed it.”

“Good.”

We returned to the stable in a comfortable silence. As soon as the barn came into view, our hands separated. It hurt to once more face the façade of being nothing more than Kaylani and her bodyguard. It felt like such a cliché.

Later, after I finished packing my show tack and making notes for Florida, I asked Charles to drive me home with a knot of determination tightening in my chest. The house loomed ahead, familiar and heavy all at once.

The guards straightened when they saw me get out of the car.

“Is my father home?”

One of them shook his head. “He left early this morning. Business. He didn’t say when he’d be back.”

I stood there for a moment, not believing my ears.

Of course, he had.

I had finally worked up the courage to face him, to stand my ground, and he was gone. Murphy’s law at its finest.

Only this didn’t feel accidental. It felt deliberate. I knew it probably wasn’t. Maybe he hadn’t known I would show up today, but Father always knew when to disappear. Timing was his favorite weapon.

I walked inside anyway. The house echoed around me, and I understood that my father wasn’t avoiding me. He was setting the board.

If I didn’t make the next move, I was going to lose.

I couldn’t lose. Losing meant losing Goran and my heart forever.

Chapter

Twenty-One

GORAN

Kaylani insisted on going to see her father alone, and Nathaniel had asked me to look into an issue at Shameless. Of all the clubs he owned, it was his favorite. So here I was at two in the morning playing cards, when I should have been asleep.