Page 4 of Taming the Wild Cowboy

“What kind of spot?”

“The kind I didn’t expect.”

He raised his eyebrows.

She shifted her gaze to the windshield. “I got fired from my job. I have two horses and a dog to feed.”

He waited for more, but she reached for the ignition instead of explaining. Trev wasn’t ready to let her go. Not just yet.

“Mac.”

She kept her hand on the key as she once again glanced his way. “I don’t expect you to believe me, given our history.”

She gave the word history a nasty twist, which in turn caused something to shift uncomfortably in Trev’s brain. She had been so adamant when he’d confronted her about paying for the damage to his truck. Damage she’d caused, yet refused to take responsibility for.

“Won’t your parents help you out of the spot?” The parents everyone assumed bankrolled her back in the day. Someone had paid for that flashy truck and trailer and one of the best barrel horses on the circuit. Since Maclyn had been barely into her twenties at the time, the assumption was that it wasn’t her writing the checks.

“Not an option.”

Her tone spoke of bridges burned, and he realized how little he knew about this woman. What he’d had was assumptions and amusing anecdotes from Brooke, who had admired her travel partner’s quiet grit. Grit that Trev had secretly pegged as privilege and the knowledge that she could get away with stuff.

“Sell the horses.”

Maclyn gave him a dark look. “Also not an option.”

“Then it appears you’re low on options.”

“Thanks for pointing that out.” She pulled the door shut then and started the engine. Trev stepped back as the truck rolled forward a few feet, then stopped. After a brief hesitation, Maclyn lowered the window.

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

Here it came.

“I was not driving your truck that night.”

She did stick to her story.

“I was Brooke’s alibi.”

He narrowed his eyes, not liking the stony delivery of the flat statement. “Alibi? For what?”

Mac shifted her gaze forward again, looking as if she wasn’t certain if she should have opened the can that the worms were now spilling out of.

“Mac …”

Her gaze came around to meet his dead on. “For the other guy she was seeing. The married guy.”

If she’d slapped him, he wouldn’t have been more surprised. Brooke seeing a married guy? “Bullshit.”

The word bounced off her. Maclyn shrugged her shoulders then reached for the gearshift. “Believe me or not. I don’t care. It happened. She needed an alibi. I was it, like it or not.”

The window came up again.

*

The gearshift fought her, but Maclyn finally shoved it into Reverse and started the truck moving again, taking care not to look in Trev’s direction. She’d had no reason to let loose with that bit of truth about Brooke. It wouldn’t help her, and it would definitely hurt him, so why?

Emotional exhaustion? Having no more fucks to give?