Josiah probably knows that too, but that’s his bread and butter. The juicier the gossip, the better, but you’d know that about him if you spent five minutes getting’ to know a person before you jumped in bed with ’em.”
I frowned and tore my gaze from the newspaper, skewering Easton with confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“You and Josiah aren’t so different. You’re both out for yourselves. Neither of you care who you hurt along the way as long as you get what you want in the end. Did the player get played? Didn’t you know that about him before you slept with him last month?”
“What?” I shook my head, trying to absorb everything he was saying. “I didn’t sleep with him. Are you kidding? Have you tried to listen to him talk for five seconds?”
Easton studied me before turning his head and fighting a smile. “Believe me, I listened to him talk for three solid weeks before we broke up. He’s an acquired taste. I didn’t acquire it.”
“Whoa, cowboy. Back up. Did you just get your shirt in a knot because you thought I’d slept with this guy only to turn around and admit you dated him?”
“You didn’t sleep with him?”
“No! You dated him?”
Easton shrugged. A knot pulled in my belly and strange feelings I couldn’t identify flooded my system. Whatever they were, it must have registered on my face.
Easton hitched a brow. “Wow. Look at that. Am I addin’ jealousy to your list, Lachlan Montgomery?”
“Can we stop with the list thing?” I snapped. “I get criticized enough at home. I don’t need it here too.”
Easton studied me a minute more, and I squirmed under the attention.
He thumbed over his shoulder. “I have work to do. If you’re here because you’re worried about some gossipy bullshit Josiah wrote, I suggest lettin’ it go. It’ll blow over.” He turned and headed to the back of the barn, his dog trotting beside him.
“I don’t get it,” I said, following. “Last time this joker wrote an article about us, you had a fit in the middle of the street. Now you’re letting it go without doing a thing about it?”
Easton collected a roller and ran it through a tray of red paint before resuming his job. “Last time, he told the entire town about my family’s financial hardships. There’s a difference. If he wants to speculate who I’m sleepin’ with or that I’m makin’ deals I’m not, it doesn’t matter. In the end, when nothin’ comes of it, and life carries on as usual, people’ll see the truth. Josiah’s had it out for me since we broke up. There are things I’ll tolerate, and things I won’t. The fact that he thinks I’m sleepin’ with you actually humors me.”
“Really? Why?”
Easton stood back and examined the spot he’d just painted. “Because he called me a prude when I wouldn’t sleep with him.”
I balked. “You were with him for three weeks, and you didn’t sleep with him?”
Easton chuckled. “We’re not the same, you and me.”
“Clearly.”
Easton kept painting. His dog found a spot in the shade and lay down, closing his eyes and napping. The action took my tension down about ten degrees. There was nothing more to say. If Easton didn’t care about the article, then I would have to let it go too and hope Dad didn’t catch wind of it—which, unless someone brought it to his attention, wasn’t likely.
Taking a minute, I studied Easton while he worked. I didn’t know what else I could do about the offer I was supposed to make. He’d put his foot down, hard, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt, nothing I said would change his mind.
“Why?” I asked before I knew I was talking.
He paused. Leaving the roller in the tray, he grabbed a rag off the ground and wiped a smear of paint off his hands. “Why what?”
“I know you won’t sell. I know nothing I say will change that. That’s fine. I will try to respect your decision. I’ll figure out a way to …” go home and tell my dad I failed. I shook my head, not finishing the sentence. “I just want to understand why. What is it that makes you so adamant when you know you're probably going to lose it all eventually anyhow? I’m offering you a lot of money.”
Easton peered off into the distance, scanning the landscape over my shoulder. He dropped the rag on the ground and hitched his chin behind me. “Turn around.” When