and glared at herself.
“Three? Really?”
Max raised his head as she spun around, then laid it back on his paws, keeping his green gaze on her as she took a turn around the room, trying to get control of both her disappointment and her fears for the future.
“You may end up mousing for a living,” she told the cat, “because I think we may be stuck here forever.” Which clearly wasn’t an option, but after receiving three rejections—bam, bam, bam—the doubts started rolling in.
She didn’t want to live here forever. She had things to do, professional dragons to slay.
She had a goal list, for Pete’s sake, and “stay on the farm forever” wasn’t a line item there.
She started to shrug out of her shirt when she stopped moving. Was that…?
Oh, yeah. She could hear the now-familiar sounds of the calves stampeding around their pen and glanced at the clock. A little after ten, just as it’d been the first time Chucky had come to call. Was the Curly Terror back?
If so, at least she knew the magic words to get him out from under the grain shed. Unlike the last time that she encountered the poodle-in-the-night, Taylor didn’t feel the least bit cautious as she headed out the door. She was glad to have something else to focus on.
She strode across the gravel toward the barn with a no-nonsense stride. The calves were milling nervously around in their pen, but she didn’t see any flashes of white. She didn’t see anything threatening in the bluish light cast by the light attached to the barn, but there was a movement in the shadows.
Taylor stopped dead. What if, instead of a poodle, it was a coyote or a wolf this time? Hanging in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to spring—
“Are you okay?”
Taylor gave a small shriek as the voice came out of nowhere, then pressed a hand to her chest as she recognized Cole’s voice. Beneath her palm, her heart hammered.
“You scared the crap out of me.” She took a couple of deep breaths, willing her heart to slow down. “I thought Chucky was back.”
“Sorry about that. I startled the calves when I came out of the machine shop, so I thought I’d hang until they settled.”
She let out one last breath, then reached down to zip her sweatshirt, doing her best to regain her equilibrium during the simple act. Once zipped, she asked, “How was poker?”
“I lost.” It was a simple statement of fact. “Thanks for taking care of my sister. Feeding her, I mean.”
“She’s cute,” Taylor said, taking a few steps closer. “And she seemed upset. I didn’t want to leave her alone.”
“I appreciate that.” He fell silent as Taylor came to a stop a few feet away from him. The wind gently lifted her hair, and she pulled a hand out of her pocket to brush it away from her face.
“Do you want to be alone?” There had to be a reason he was out here when his little sister was in the house.
He breathed deeply, then raised his gaze to the dark horizon past the house. “No,” he said simply.
Amazing how one small word could mean so much.
“Me either.”
He turned his head. “Why’s that?”
“I got three rejection emails tonight. What happened to you?”
“A bully messed with my sister.”
“You’re kidding.” She felt a sudden welling of protectiveness toward a girl she didn’t even know. Jancey seemed like an okay kid. “Who?”
“Our step-aunt. The one who has control of our ranch.”
“The handshake deal.”
“Followed by a lot of paperwork.”
Taylor looked down at the clumped-up dirt in the dimly lit pen. The calves had settled, and the night was quiet. She focused on Cole, who was still staring out across the dark fields. “What did she do?”
Cole shook his head.
Taylor moved forward to rest her forearms on the rail next to him, keeping her gaze on him. “Do you know why I’m the perfect person to talk to?”
He glanced over at her. “Why?”
“Sometimes an outsider sees things in a different way. And I don’t know anyone to gossip to. Win.”
He let out a short breath. “There’s pretty much only one way to see this.” He dropped his gaze and shook his head. When he looked up again, he met her eyes in a way that made her insides tumble. “But I will confess to having thought about getting your take on this.”
“Why didn’t you?” Neither had moved, but it felt as if he were closer.
“Just wasn’t there yet.”
“You know,” she said softly, “I’m pretty sure I’d rather have three job rejections than find out someone had messed with my sister. The rejections are about me. The bullying…”
“Makes me want to punch Miranda’s face in.”
“That’s your step-aunt?”
“That’s her. She messed with Jancey’s college application. Did her some damage credibility-wise.”
Taylor’s mouth fell open. “Will you be able to straighten out the matter?”
“We hope.”
Taylor thought about how devastated she would have been had someone messed with her applications. The journey to success started in high school and segued into college. That had been hammered into her for so long that, even now, it shocked her to think of someone messing with another person’s educational future. “What exactly did she do to Jancey?”
“Suggested that her entry essay was written by someone else.”
Taylor shook her head. “That’s low. Very low.”
“Welcome to Miranda World.”
“Which college?”
“Danner.”
Taylor was familiar with the school. Small but prestigious. Located near Boise. She’d worked with at least one person who’d graduated from there. “If there’s anything I can do—”
Cole reached out and covered her hand with his. Shock at the unexpected contact was quickly followed by warmth, and Taylor found that she no longer had a whole lot to say. Cole squeezed her fingers, then slid his hand away. A silent bit of communication from a guy who didn’t share easily. He hadn’t exactly spilled his secrets, but he was opening up to her, little by little. And even if things proved to be complicated, she wouldn’t give back this moment.
He
