But I’m sitting right here, telling you that I’m not going anywhere. In fact, I can help you focus on us when it’s the right time, and the Christmas Festival when it’s time for that.”
Holly Ann nodded and doctored up her next bite of chicken. “You’re the one who’s too good for me, Ace.”
“That’s nonsense,” he said. “We really should stop thinking that about ourselves.”
“I will if you will.”
“Deal,” he said, and she loved this back-and-forth between them. They’d always gotten along so well, and Ace was one of the easiest men for Holly Ann to talk to.
“I don’t want to break-up,” she said.
“Good,” he said. “Neither do I.”
She ate another bite of chicken, and then asked, “So where do we go from here?”
He grinned at her and reached over to take her forkless hand between both of his. “You open your calendar, sweetheart, and you tell me when you’re available for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I’ll take you out or bring the food to you. Whatever you want. If it’s twenty minutes, it’s twenty minutes.”
He looked at her with those beautiful, sky-blue eyes, so full of hope and desire, and Holly Ann loved being looked at by Ace. “I just want to be with you. Deal?”
“Deal,” she said, a yawn immediately following. “Will you stay while I change into something that’s not squeezing me like a python?”
He chuckled and slid his hands away from hers. “Sure.”
“Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?” she whispered. “I’m so tired.”
“Yes,” he said, his voice quiet too. “Go change and come lay with me on the couch.”
Holly Ann took one more bite of chicken and rice and went to do exactly what Ace had suggested. She could admit that coming home alone added to her burden, and when she’d realized it was Ace waiting for her in the driveway, she’d been almost giddy.
“Come on, Snickers,” she said to the little dog, who trotted into her bedroom after her.
After closing the door, she stripped out of her confining clothes and tossed them toward the closet. The red Santa suit hanging there caught her attention, and she pulled in a tight breath. Crossing the room quickly, she closed the closet door so the suit couldn’t be seen from the doorway.
Not that Ace would be there. She’d closed the door besides.
Still. “He can’t know about that,” she whispered to Snickers. “That’s why I needed to take a break.” She looked from closed door to closed door, her heart battling with her brain.
We can do it, her heart said. He’ll never know. He works up at that ranch a lot. It’s fine.
This is too risky, her brain said. We don’t care how handsome he is, or how many times he says such perfect things. He can never know you wear the suit.
“He won’t,” she vowed, going with her heart for maybe the first time in her life. She could only add a prayer to her internal debate that following her heart wasn’t going to be the biggest mistake of her life.
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About Liz
Liz Isaacson is a USA Today bestselling author and a Top 20 Kindle All-Star Author. She is the author of the #1 bestselling Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, the #1 bestselling Horseshoe Home Ranch Romance series, the Brush Creek Brides series, the USA Today bestselling Steeple Ridge Romance series (Buttars Brothers novels), the Grape Seed Falls Romance series, the #1 bestselling Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series (Whittaker Brothers and Everett Sisters novels), the Quinn Valley Ranch Romance series, the Last Chance Ranch Romance series, and the #1 bestselling Seven Sons Ranch in Three Rivers Romance series (Walker Brothers novels), the Christmas as Whiskey Mountain Lodge Romance series (Hammond Brothers novels), and the Shiloh Ridge Ranch in Three Rivers Romance series (Glover Family novels).
She writes inspirational romance, usually set in Texas and Montana, or anywhere else horses and cowboys exist. She lives in Utah, where she writes full-time, walks her two dogs, and eats a lot of peanut butter M&Ms.
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THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHEER
Book Three in the Shiloh Ridge Ranch in Three Rivers series
by Liz Isaacson
Copyright © 2020 by Elana Johnson, writing as Liz Isaacson
Published by AEJ Creative Works
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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Interior Design by AEJ Creative Works