Belle blinked hard as she continued to scroll through the online ads, as if she hadn’t spent enough time researching on the internet the day before. She had expended all her morning perusing through more advertisements for stallions for sale in Arkansas.

​

Since the week before, life had never been the same. With her new stable and barn completed, she was finally free to make a solid plan for growing her farm just outside her hometown of Levi. Her family would have been proud if they could see her stumbling along in their footsteps to make her ancestral home the great sheep farm it had once been. Of course, Belle wanted to make one addendum to that dream and use half of her pastures for breeding and boarding horses.

​

The only thing she was missing was a stud of her own.

​

She rubbed at her tired eyes and leaned in the rickety dining chair before stretching out her arms high above her head to work out her stiff back. For the thousandth time, her gaze roamed to the window that overlooked her farm and the rolling stretches of acreage that would one day soon be covered in ewes and rams.

​

But she wasn’t staring in hopes to see a vision of the future. Belle’s attention was torn between finding the right stallion for her three mares and to the man who made all of it possible.

​

Leo, the man who had mysteriously shown up in her barn that stormy night – which seemed like ages ago – had been slowly teaching her the value of choices. The handsome, charming Scotsman with a past that could only be described as stranger than fiction, gave her something she hadn’t had in a long time. Peace. When all the rest of the world made her stomach knot and roll, he had become a solid foundation. He was the rock she clung to when the waves of anxiety tried to drown her in self-doubt.

​

Before Leo, Belle had to wear a mask to hide her true fear that people would think less of her if they saw who she really was. But each day, in his own special and blunt way, he showed her that their opinions didn’t matter and that she had the freedom to be herself. To say and do things without panicking. The only thing stopping Belle was her own mental strongholds.

​

She still wore her mask, but she allowed herself the choice to take it off in front of certain people, like her coworker Ivy and select ladies at church. It was a slow process, a slow deconstruction of the imposter she had created, because she thought that other self was necessary to be accepted. And Leo was the one taking down the bricks, one by one, and building a pedestal he believed she belonged atop.

​

If only he knew that he was the one who belonged on a pedestal. Rugged, strong, and incredibly attractive, Belle constantly wondered what it was about her that made him say yes when she asked him to live with her and help on the farm. Maybe it was that first moment they met, when she threatened him with a crowbar for breaking into her barn. Or maybe it was all the little moments since then, when she let herself be real and candid with him.

​

Either way Belle felt blessed to have Leo in her life, and she sincerely hoped that whatever they had together would grow into something more. If only he would stop holding back. She wasn’t the only one with strongholds.

​

She straightened in her chair again and resumed her search, scrolling through site after site looking for a reasonably priced stud that would be a good fit.

​

A few moments later, the backdoor opened and Leo entered, smelling of soiled hay and mud. Ranger, the Australian shepherd puppy Leo had bought for her, came bounding in behind him, tracking in bits of wet grass and dirt. The pup went straight for the water and full food bowl on the other side of the kitchen, his little tail wagging vigorously.

​

“Are you still looking?” he asked as he kicked the dirt from the bottoms of his boots on the threshold.

​

“Yeah,” she sighed.

​

“Any luck?”

​

Belle sat back and shook her head. “Not really. There’s one, but he’s way too expensive.”

​

After shutting the door, Leo made his way to her. “Which one?”

​

“He’s in Fayetteville,” she said as she opened the saved webpage. “Not too old, broken, he’s sired before, and it looks like he could double as a good trail horse too.”

​

Leo leaned one hand on the back of her chair and the other propped next to the laptop as he read the listing. Of course, she wasn’t looking at the screen and let her eyes rove over him. His striking, ice blue eyes never failed to steal the air from her lungs, even when they glared below dark furrowed brows. He looked every bit the man that he was. Fighter, laborer, blue-collar worker, mechanic, farmhand, and a million other things he hadn’t told her.

​

She took a muted, deep whiff of his masculine scent, mingled with the tang of his sweat that never really bothered her. That was surprising, given that she’d always run away from her father after he had spent hours working outside, because he stank to high heaven. Leo never stank.

​

“Looks like a brill match,” he said, his Scottish brogue flavoring every word from his perfectly formed lips.

​

Belle pointed to the price tag on the ad. “Yeah, but you see that?”

​

One of his brows shrugged. “Forty-five hundred.”

​

She snorted. “You say that like it’s the weather report. I don’t exactly have that kind of money.”

​

“What about those funds your da gave you?”

​

“That was for emergencies,” she replied as she folded her arms. “And I used up a big chunk of it to help rebuild the barn after it burned.”

​

As soon as she said that, Belle regretted it. She knew how sensitive Leo was about what happened to the barn, though he wouldn’t tell her why. His face would wrinkle in that odd, pained way as if the very memory left a bad taste in his mouth. It left a bad taste in her own, but as she accepted weeks ago, it was all in God’s plan and timing. If the barn hadn’t burned, she wouldn’t be looking for more horses, because she wouldn’t have had the room. With the rebuilt stables, she did.

​

“Can’t take out a loan?” Leo asked before making his way to the counter for his second cup of coffee. After it was decided that he would be a – hopefully – permanent resident of the farm, Belle broke down and bought a true coffee maker and shelved the French press. That man could drink three or four cups a day, and she was sure he got up in the middle of the night to make another pot. The smell of percolating coffee would be infused in the wallpaper if he kept it up.

​

Luckily, the smell proved to be just as soothing as Belle’s lavender candles. Maybe the smell of coffee calmed her nerves, because it was connected with Leo somehow. Or maybe she should give the caffeinated brew another shot. It used to turn her stomach, but so much had changed in so short a time.

​

“I’d rather not. I’m sure my credit is fine, but I don’t like the idea of being in debt.” Belle closed the tab and resumed her search. “I’m trying to find one for just a few hundred, a thousand at the most. But anything that cheap is listed as a stud fee and they’re way too far away and I’d have to buy a horse trailer, and there’s no way my truck will pull that kind of rig.”

“You’re in a tight fix, m'eudail,” he said as he poured his second cup.

​

The Gaelic word rolled off his tongue so beautifully. If only she knew what it meant. He had used it several times before, but she never asked, unsure if she really wanted to know.

​

Ever since last week, and then the night before the barn burned, when they’d shared their first kiss, Belle had spent hours trying to come up with an answer to a haunting question. What were they?

​

Not lovers, because they hadn’t slept together, nor had they given any obvious declaration of their feelings. They were closer than friends, but there was still so much she didn’t know about him and his past. The only real date they had ever been on was the one time at the diner when Leo beat up Drake Henson for getting too fresh with Belle. But they knew one another’s routine, their triggers, and sometimes finished one another’s sentences. Belle had spent so much time around Leo that she could almost replicate his accent on demand. That had to count as something.

​

But when it came to defining what they were or if she could even claim him as a boyfriend, she was clueless. Belle had never been in a serious relationship due to her social anxiety, and demurely turned down any man who tried to ask her out. Leo had been the only one to penetrate her defenses, but now that he was inside her walls, she didn’t know how to act.

​

They hadn’t even kissed since that day on her porch when she asked him to stay in Levi, after he had already decided to leave them for good. Whatever she had said to convince him to live with her, Belle wasn’t about to question it, lest the spell should break, and Leo change his mind again.

​

For now, she’d enjoy it, and hope that they could both slow down and figure it out together.

​

Between researching how to properly raise up a bigger flock of sheep and what it took to start her own horse boarding services, Belle’s mind was full. And what gaps did exist were filled in with thoughts of Leo. That made for one absent-minded shepherd, who was late for her other job at the only bookstore in Levi.

​

Belle glanced to the clock and let out a startled noise before bolting to her feet and running for the living room. “I needed to leave fifteen minutes ago!”

​

Leo laughed at her hurriedly roaming around looking for her purse. “I try to time it just right, so that when I come inside, you should be headed out the door.”

​

She snatched up the sofa pillows to check underneath, but still no purse. “Well, you went over a little on the time.”

“And you were occupied.”

​

He cleared his voice to get her attention just as she was ready to kneel onto the floor to check under the coffee table. Leo stood in the cased opening between the kitchen and living room, her purse dangling from one finger as it swung back and forth. The smile that curved his mouth was mocking, but in a sweet way. When she ran up to snatch it away, his hand curled around the strap and held it tight.

​

Their eyes met, and all humor had left him. “I might not be here when you come home.”

​

Panic streaked through her and Belle’s eyes went wide. “What’re you talking about?”

​

Leo lowered his chin. “Nothing like that,” he assured. “I’ll be back in the morning. I just wanted to tell you that you’ll need to take care of the evening chores, because I won’t be here. I’ll put Ranger inside before I leave.”

​

With that announcement, he released her purse and her shaking hands nearly dropped it. “But, where are you going?”

​

Leo turned away and acted as if he hadn’t just tugged the rug out from beneath her. “There’s just something I have to do.”

She closed her eyes. More secrets. It wasn’t uncommon, but she had hoped they were past all that. Whatever it was, Belle tried not to be unreasonable. They had no openly spoken claim on each other, and he wasn’t asking her permission. So she couldn’t demand that he stayed.

​

“Promise to be safe?” she requested, shouldering her purse, though she was far from interested in going to work now.

Leo gave her one of those dazzling smiles and nodded. “I promise I’ll be safe. Go on, you’re going to be late.”

​

Belle quickly petted Ranger, who had finished his breakfast and now staggered into the living room with a full belly. Then, she stole one more glance into the kitchen before stepping out the door. The last sight of him until the next day would be of Leo sipping his second cup of coffee and walking toward her laptop, still open on the table. She had nothing incriminating on there, and they not only shared a bathroom, but everything else in the house – including the computer. She didn’t mind, as long as the virus protection program stayed active.

​

But what she did mind was never knowing exactly what he did during the day while she was gone. He had admitted that he wasn’t an avid reader like her, so the bookcases packed with novels and reference books would be of no interest to him. Mr. Tale had called him a few times in the past week to help work on a few construction sites or remodeling projects in town, but to her knowledge, he didn’t have any new work.

​

Leo remained a puzzle since day one, and though she had filled in a few of the corners and part of the center, many pieces were still missing. She could only pray that someday, the final masterpiece could be completed, and she wouldn’t have to feel like she lived with a stranger.

​

(End of Excerpt)