Page 68 of Cherry Tree Ranch

“You OK?”

“Yeah. But I’m not answering,” I say with authority, not wanting to get upset.

Dad has been sending lots of I told you so type messages since the Young Producers competition. He also had a co-worker show him Sally Hunter’s video of me and Cash. I’ve told him we’re not dating. He has the gall to tell me to stay away from him.

“Is it Wyatt? I shouldn’t have assumed—”

“No. It was my dad. And I only went on the one date with Wyatt.”

I wait for it to stop buzzing and sit under the shade of the tree where I left my lemonade.

Hey, I write. Out picking. What’s up?

Can’t answer a call?

Can call later. Just busy right now.

With that Indian kid who thinks he’s a rodeo star?

I flinch. I want to scream, but I hold it together and keep my face neutral. I don’t want Cash to know how awful my dad is. I turn off the screen and stare into space.

Then my phone buzzes again. He’s not good enough for you.

Cash sits next to me and reaches as if to touch my hand, but rests his on the ground instead. I sip my lemonade and pretend I didn’t notice.

He clears his throat like he feels the tension too. “What’s going on?”

“My dad’s just being himself. I’m embarrassed to even call him family.”

I’m not ready to tell him everything yet. Most people think I’m exaggerating about my dad until they see him in action. Cash has seen a glimmer, but not the whole show.

Cash takes my bottle of lemonade and sets it to the side. He clears twigs and rocks from behind us and lies down. I’m flushed with anger, but lie down too.

I begin to relax as Cash tells me more about his plans. He’s going to win at the finals in Pueblo, get a bigger and better sponsorship, and go pro. Pro rodeo riders travel all over the country, he says, and he’s excited to see new places.

I smile to myself, because I too want to see new places, but in this moment, lying here with him, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. It makes me wonder, though, even with the social media chaos dying down, if much can happen between us. I want to be here on the ranch, and he plans to travel around rodeoing.

I turn when he pauses and catch him staring at me. I snap back and ask questions about what it takes to go pro. Lots of dedication, winning money at sanctioned events and training, he tells me.

He asks what I’ll do after I pay off the debt, and I tell him that, honestly, I don’t know yet. I just need the ranch to be secure.

We talk and talk about everything and nothing at all, and we lose track of time watching big fluffy clouds float across the sky. My eyes grow heavy and Cash scoots closer to my side. Instinctively, I roll on my side towards him.

“Dahlia?”

“Mm?” I mumble on the brink of sleep.

He brushes a strand of hair out of my face.

“Is this OK?” he asks as he goes to slide an arm under my head. I nod sleepily and rest my cheek on his large chest, wrapping my free arm round his waist. His chin brushes against my forehead and, for the first time, I feel the barely-there stubble on his face.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

You’re telling me you slept together yesterday?

Slept, Lani. Key word there. Like actually slept. Best nap I’ve had in a while.

That’s actually really sweet.