As they walked, her nerves tingled. It was time. She was ready to spill it all. That she had lied. That the Voice had put her up to it and lied to and used her. That she trusted Greer.
Maybe even that she loved him.
Whew. That was terrifying to think, let alone say. One step at a time.
Greer squeezed her hand. “Can I tell you something?”
“Sure.”
She loved that he was talking more and more. He’d never be one to waste words, but he’d gone from one-word answers or at the most a three-word sentence to chatting with her quite well.
Suddenly her heart raced, even though she’d been psyching herself up for this moment. He was going to bring up her lying about being Taylor and then talk to her about Travis’s death. Greer had to know who she really was.
“All my animals being named after B,” he started with.
She smiled, relieved they could talk about something else first. “Don’t forget Boss, the big, beautiful … uh, green tractor.”
He smiled. Then he was quiet for a few beats.
“Why are they all named after B?” she prompted.
The sun was gone behind the mountains. He turned her back toward the house, obviously wanting to get home before it was fully dark. They should skip the movie tonight, talk and then kiss instead.
“A girl … Belinda.”
“Belinda?” She wrinkled her nose, not liking the sound of that name or the fact there was a girl. Which was silly and petty.
“I dated her.”
“For how long?”
“Couple years.”
Emery didn’t like that at all. She was jealous of some woman she’d never met who wasn’t a part of Greer’s life now. “And you named all your animals after her?”
“She did.”
Gross. Emery had thought she was so clever, naming the tractor Boss. “We’re changing Boss’s name. It’s … Great Green Giant.” It was unoriginal, and the tractor wasn’t a giant by any means, but she didn’t care.
He smiled. “Okay.”
“Can I rename all the horses and Brave?” But she liked Brave’s name. Dang.
He chuckled. “Sure.”
She looked askance at him as they walked. Drawing in a breath, she knew she had to let any jealousy and pettiness go. “Okay, okay,” she said, “I’m going to be the bigger, loftier, outstanding, superior, charitable, benevolent, accepting, considerate person here.”
He smiled at her list of complimentary to herself synonyms.
“It’s not fair to Bear, Bruin, Beau, Brooks, and Brave,” she continued, “to confuse them with different names than the names they already know. But we are renaming the tractor.”
He pulled her to a stop, turned, and stared deeply into her eyes. His blue eyes got to her every time. Then Greer did something so un-Greer like that she about passed out. He lifted their joined hands to his lips and tenderly kissed her knuckles, letting his lips linger on her flesh.
“I never felt for Belinda like I do for you.”
Not only was the sentence long, but the meaning was life-changing. “You’re telling me you dated a woman for two years and you never felt for her what you feel for me after nine days?”
“Yes.”