Nate by Taryn Plendl

Author:Taryn Plendl [Plendl, Taryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

N A T E

I wanted to take Shiloh’s words as truth, but that wasn’t a gamble I could make. A traumatized sense of who I was, left me searching for acceptance in all the wrong places, again and again. What if she decided I wasn’t enough? What if I opened myself to possibilities with this woman, and she tore me down? How would I recover when I was still dealing with my past?

In the end, self-preservation won, and the first woman I’d felt more than fleeting lust for walked away.

I was a fucking coward.

After the coast was clear, I holed up in the barn cleaning tack. At the rate I was going, the equipment would be spotless. My muscles burned from the repeated rubbing of the leather as I oiled new life into it. When I finished the ranch gear, I took particular care with Shiloh’s, mindful to put everything back exactly the way it had been.

Exhaustion overtook me. I stepped out of the room, not sure where I was headed or what my next task was.

“You done hiding?” Ryke startled me as he stepped out from one of the stalls.

“Don’t do that, asshole!” I shook my arms, working through the shot of adrenaline coursing through my body. “And I wasn’t hiding.”

“Bullshit, Nate. Don’t think I don’t know you volunteered to go out in the field to get away, and don’t fucking pretend you ever put that much effort into cleaning the damn tack.” His hand gestured to the room behind me.

“Was she hurt?” Deceiving Ryke was impossible, so I stopped trying.

“Yes, but I venture to say the cut on her knee wasn’t what was hurting her.” Ryke crossed his arms over his chest, making him seem so much bigger than me. How were we twins?

“I can’t, Ryke.” I all but fell to my ass on a bale of hay, rubbing my hands over my face. The clean scent of lemon oil was the only thing I was enjoying right then.

“Why not, Nate? You like this girl. That hasn’t been the case before.”

“You know why. Shit, you saw what I did during my nightmare. I hurt her.” Why was it so hard for my brother to understand why I needed to separate myself?

“Nate, you didn’t hit her on purpose. It was an accident. She wasn’t hurt bad.”

“This time,” I ground out. “I’m done talking about this, Ryke.” Pushing myself up from the hay bale, I stalked toward the doors.

“Nate?” Ryke’s voice was calm, just like always.

Stopping, I hung my head. I was so tired of going over this.

“Be ready to go out tonight by six.”

A relieved exhale flooded out of my lungs. “Thank you.”

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