from.”
“You lied on your resume?”
“No.” She shifted uncomfortably. “I didn’t have to put down where I was from. But he’s always assumed I was born to—you know.”
“Privilege?”
She nodded. “I never lied to him, but he made assumptions, and well—it’s gone way too far. If he found out I’m from Two Shot now, he’d feel like I lied.”
Lane shook his head. “I don’t understand why you try to hide it.”
She sighed. “I don’t either, sometimes. It just happened. One thing led to another, and now it’s like his whole concept of me is that I’m this high-class society girl.”
“You know, he might be impressed by how far you’ve come.”
“I doubt it.” She pulled the seat belt across her body and fastened it, letting the sharp click punctuate her answer. “Please don’t tell him, okay?”
He pressed the clutch and started up the truck, driving out of the gravel lot and swinging onto the dark empty highway without a word.
Chapter 12
The next morning, Sarah stared into the bakery case at Casper’s only Starbucks as if the fate of the universe depended on the choice between Very Berry Coffee Cake and a banana nut muffin. But she wasn’t thinking about breakfast; she was thinking about Lane. The evening at the rodeo had stirred up memories and misgivings and way more hormones than she could handle. She’d slept uneasily, waking to realize she’d dreamed of him.
He’d gotten bucked off again in her dream, and she’d crawled under the fence and run to him while the noise of the crowd roared in her ears and the clowns lured the bull away. Bloody white bones stuck out of his chest, and she’d knelt in the arena, hurrying to force the broken ends together while the bull pawed the dirt. The bones kept snapping apart in her hands and she woke with her mouth dry as dust, her arms aching as if she’d worked out all night.
The dream and the night that inspired it proved she’d made a mistake by getting personal with a cowboy. With Lane, there was too much risk. Too much feeling. Too much everything. She was her normal, rational self until he touched her, or looked at her in that intense way that made her feel like their souls had met and mated in some previous life.
She couldn’t erase what had happened, but she needed to forget it. She’d avoid Lane and make a solemn vow to keep herself on track. From now on, she would keep friendships and business relationships separate.
“Never again,” she muttered to herself, making a quick and very vague sign of the cross.
“Warding off temptation?” She turned to see Eric standing behind her, holding a steaming venti cup that gave off the sweet, milky scent of a latte. Damn. It was like seeing the Devil’s brother beside you when you’d just sworn off sin.
But Eric didn’t have the effect on her that Lane did. She wondered why. He was just her type—classy and sophisticated. Why did her heart beat so fast for the yahoo brother? If she was going to screw up her life, why couldn’t she choose a guy who fit into the future she had planned?
“How did it go with my brother last night?”
She moved up a spot in line as a guy in a denim jacket finished giving his order and moved to the pickup counter. “Well, let’s see. He got bucked off his bull and we spent most of the night in the medical unit.” She caught a flash of concern in Eric’s eyes and hurried to say, “But he’s okay.”
“Did you change his mind?” His posture stiffened slightly. “Or did he change yours? Please don’t tell me he made you long for the romance of cowboy life?”
It wasn’t the cowboy life Lane had made her long for; it was the cowboy himself. But that was the last thing she wanted Eric to discover. The rivalry between the two brothers was probably a holdover from adolescence, but it was obviously still strong. Shifting her loyalties to Lane wouldn’t just make her less effective on the job; her boss would see it as a betrayal.
All the more reason to step away from the cowboy.
She shrugged one shoulder in what she hoped was a casual gesture. “As far as I can tell, there is no romance in the cowboy life.” She faked absorption in the menu, as if she hadn’t already memorized the coffee shop’s offerings. “Basically, the whole thing just proved what I already knew. That cowboy