Valentine's Cowboy by Starla Kaye

searching for something, but he didn’t know what. After a few seconds, she glanced away.
    “Anyway, you didn’t say anything to upset me. My mind just caught the word ‘honest’ and it got me to thinking. I haven’t been honest with myself or with my partners in a long time.”
    The atmosphere had changed between them. Even though she’d said he hadn’t upset her in some way, he thought she was lying. Maybe he hadn’t offended her exactly, but she’d started building an emotionally distancing fence between them. He felt it, and he didn’t like it.
    He sat back and shifted them around until she sat between his legs. She resisted at first, and then she sort of gave in to whatever was bothering her. She leaned against him. The position felt right, being with her felt right. He didn’t want to press her about the change in attitude, so instead he said, “Why don’t you tell me what you mean?”
    For several minutes there was only the sound of birds flying overhead and the soft whisper of grass waving around them. Then she sighed and said tensely, “I’m not happy working there. I haven’t been for a couple of years.” She hesitated. “The practice would be fine without me. My partners would have to get a real office manager, of course, but otherwise they’d get along okay.”
    He moved his chin over her soft, silky hair, inhaling her scent. “Are you going to bow out of the partnership then? Can you afford to do the bed-and-breakfast thing you talked about by yourself?”
    She smoothed her hands over the jeans on his thighs. An action he didn’t believe she was consciously thinking about, but he sure as hell was thinking about it. His cock grew even larger and nudged against her back. She didn’t acknowledge it, not even in play, like she had back at the resort. Something was definitely wrong.
    Before he could comment about that, she finally answered. “I’m quitting the partnership. Even if I end up having to go work in another practice.”
    She tentatively leaned her head back against his chest, but she felt stiff within his embrace. He held her as best he could, listened.
     “If I sell my house in Kansas City and use some of my savings, I can afford to buy a B&B somewhere. And I can survive for a while, until I get my workshops up and running. But it’s all still a little scary. Starting over. Taking a chance.”
    For a moment he forgot her change in attitude and thought about what she’d said. He’d been thinking the same thing. It would be strange not dealing with the ranch after all of these years. It would be damn scary to try something else, to take a chance on fulfilling a dream. But he wanted that chance so bad. He hadn’t intended to mention this, but he found himself saying, “While you were recovering yesterday, I had another talk with Shelby and Dale.”
    She became even stiffer within his hold, and he wished he’d never mentioned the subject that always made them argue.
    “Are you still pressuring them?” She scooted away from him to pin him with a disappointed look. “I thought we discussed this, and about how unfair it was of you to do that.”
    Now he bristled. Yes, they were going to get into another argument. He was getting damn tired of having to defend himself, too. “I’m not being unfair about anything. The ranch is not only my responsibility, even though I’ve been the one running it all these years. Shelby owns half of it.”
    She clearly didn’t care for his reasoning. “Did you badger them into agreeing to what you wanted?” She snatched a chicken leg from the picnic hamper and took an angry bite. She chewed for a second, and then pressed him, “Why don’t you let Jake buy the ranch? You said he was interested in doing so.”
    He reached for a chunk of cornbread, annoyed. “I didn’t badger them. We discussed the matter.”
    He bit off a piece of bread and thought about their meeting over lunch the day before. It had been Shelby that brought up the subject,