old boy, aren’t you?”
Jack bobbed his head, and we both laughed.
“Ready?” I asked.
She expertly mounted her horse, and we started down one of the well-worn trails. It only took five minutes before she turned to me and flashed a seductive smile. “I’ll race you to the next pasture.”
My heart stopped for a moment. Had she remembered? The way she said it didn’t give any hint that she did. But how would she have known about the pasture up ahead? I slowly let out my breath and tried to sound perfectly normal as I said the same thing I had all those years ago. “You won’t win.”
She winked, and before she kicked Whiskey into a run, she said, “Watch me!”
Linnzi
IT ONLY TOOK a minute for the memory, or should I say memories, to hit me. Nolan and me racing to the next pasture dozens of times. It was so clear, it nearly caused me to gasp. I was so angry with myself. I had hidden in Paris like a damn fool. Now that I was back home, a part of me was angry that my parents had been clearly keeping something from me—though the other part was terrified they had a reason to keep whatever it was a secret.
But ever since yesterday in Saryn and Truitt’s kitchen when I saw Nolan, the memories were slowly trickling back in. It was as if my past was drip-feeding me clues, knowing it had to be slow-going for reasons I wasn’t yet aware.
Nolan and I had clearly been something much more than friends. I could feel his confusion when he looked at me. He was keeping his own pain hidden, and while he thought he hid it well, I could see the pain in his eyes. On his face.
The memory floated back down to me. “I’ll race you to the next pasture.” Before I could stop myself, I blurted it out loud.
Nolan visibly flinched but attempted to play it off. Then, with a sexy-as-sin smile, he replied with the very same words from my memory. “You won’t win.”
With a swift kick, I spurred Whiskey on. The feel of the wind against my face was thrilling. I had missed this. Goodness, I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed Texas.
A tree stood in the middle of the pasture, and I knew that was our ending point. The place where we had ended countless races. I glanced back over my shoulder, only to see Nolan’s horse not even breaking a sweat.
Then, he smiled, nudged the horse, and like a bolt of lightning, he ran past us.
“You cheated!” I cried out, and I swore I heard him laugh.
Whiskey and I were only a few seconds behind as I brought my horse up to a stop next to Big Mac Jack. I was laughing so hard, I nearly felt like I could cry. “This is magical! I haven’t felt like this in…I don’t honestly know now long.”
His smile was still on his face as he stared at me with a look that said he wanted so much more from me. It made my entire body shiver.
“Thank you,” I said.
Nolan gave me a slight nod, then looked away.
“There’s a spot over here I want to check out,” he said. “Maybe we should walk the horses. There’s a creek for them to get a drink.”
“Of course.”
“And I won, in case we needed to clarify that.”
With a roll of my eyes, I scoffed. “Pfft. You cheated.”
He chuckled. “How did I cheat? I didn’t even pick out the horses!”
I felt my cheeks ache slightly, and I realized it had been from grinning like a mad woman. I was truly so happy in this man’s company.
Then, Nolan’s smile faded. “Linz, did you remember racing like that before?”
A part of me wanted to tell him yes, but I needed to keep the memories a secret a little while longer. At least for now. I wasn’t sure why, but I wasn’t ready to let anyone know I had been remembering more and more. I didn’t want to hurt Nolan by withholding my memories, but I felt deep in my soul that I needed to keep this to myself, at least for now.
“I don’t think so.”
He nodded but couldn’t hide his frown.
“Did we race a lot? You and me?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
He looked at me once more. “We did. To that tree, as a matter of fact. You loved being on horses. You even talked about training them once we got…”
“Once we got