When You Love a Rancher - Elle Christensen Page 0,4

tired and…resigned.

I frowned and sighed. “Long distance never works. And I’m not willing to risk what we have in the first place. But long distance would practically ensure that we didn’t make it, and then I would lose you for good.”

Kyle reached for my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “What if I promised you that would never happen?”

I soaked up the warmth from his sweet gesture and words for a moment, then shoved it away before I let it convince me to do something I would regret. I withdrew my hand, and he released it without a fight. I wasn’t sure if I was happy or devastated that he didn’t try to stop me from pulling away. I reminded myself that it was for the best. Not only to preserve our friendship but because I’d committed myself to someone else already.

“You can’t promise that, Kyle,” I said softly. “Besides, I’m with Sam. You can’t compare him to the guys I dated before that.”

Kyle scrubbed his hands over his face. “Debatable,” he grumbled before drawing his gaze back to my face. “And what about the next guy, Mad? I can’t keep watching you shop for losers and then toss them back when you realize they don’t fit right. It kills me because you are worth so much more.”

My heart pounded, and I thought about what it would be like to be with Kyle for a split second. My eyes drifted to his mouth, and heat shot straight to my center. I crossed my legs to squeeze back the desire building there, and when I leaned on my left hip, I felt the dig of the thing I’d been hiding there. The sharp little prick from the stone was like a reality check, breaking me out of my daydreams.

I hadn’t been sure when I would be ready to tell him, but now he’d forced the issue. It was probably better to just rip off the Band-Aid, right? Shoving my fingers into my pocket, I snagged the thing that was about to put a nail in the coffin of what might have been. A white-gold, half-carat diamond ring circled my index finger. “You won’t have to worry about that anymore,” I explained as I removed it and slipped it onto my left ring finger. “Sam asked me to marry him, and I said yes.” I tried to muster up a smile to cover the instinct to wince. What the hell was the matter with me? I was happy to be marrying Sam, and I needed to act like it. “I’m acting like the adult you want me to be and settling down with Sam.”

Kyle jumped to his feet, his blue eyes glued to the ring and filled with outrage. An eerie calm seemed to cloak him, and when his gaze returned to my face, it was bereft of emotion. I felt the emptiness all the way to my soul.

“You mean settling for Sam,” he deadpanned. He pivoted on his heel and stalked to the front door, wrenching it open with such force that it forced the doorstop back into the drywall. He didn’t even give me another glance as he stomped into the hallway. I jumped up and ran after him, ready to bang on his door until he opened it, and we worked things out. We’d always talked things over, refusing to let anything fester and potentially harm our relationship.

But when I reached the middle of the hallway, I skidded to a stop. Kyle wasn’t going to his apartment; he was entering the stairwell. My eyes darted back to his place, and that’s when I noticed the envelope. Mine was still on my kitchen table since I wasn’t leaving until the next day—the same time Kyle was supposed to leave. We were going to have breakfast before driving in opposite directions. My feet started moving on their own, and I raced to the stairwell and followed his path until I burst out of the emergency exit on the first floor. It spilled out to the parking lot, and I spotted Kyle unlocking the driver’s side door of his truck.

My mouth opened and closed like a fish as I walked forward and took in the state of his old, beat-up car. It was full of everything he owned. “You-you’re packed,” I finally managed to stutter. “I don’t understand. We don’t leave until tomorrow.”

Kyle was about to swing up into the cab, but my words caused him to halt, and he turned