Page 40 of Wyatt

Except, theyweren’tback at the ranch where Ford and the rest of his nosy brothers could interfere with his life.

Just him and Coco, and there was no way, no how he was going to let her walk out of his life again.

Please.

Of course, he’d said none of that. Just an astonished, “Coco?”

What he should have said, if all of his brain had been working, was,I’m sorry. I missed you.I love you.

Yes, even that.

He didn’t know when he’d started loving Coco Stanley, but he hadn’t realized how he’d kept it bottled inside.

Seeing her standing there…it all rushed over him in a cascade that could probably bring him to his knees.

She turned and practically sprinted toward the elevator.

What—wait! So, he shouted at her.Shouted. “Stop!” But he’d never been good at taming his emotions, unless he locked them away, like he did in a game, so he sprinted down the hall after her.

Slammed his hand against the wall to try and stop her from hitting the button. And when it didn’t work, he’d grabbed her, spinning her around.

She had her eyes closed. As if he might be scaring her.

That slowed him down to a near halt.

He hadn’t meant to be rough with her. Suddenly she felt so fragile, so breakable under his grip, it scared him a little.

But for some reason he said, stupidly, “What are you doing here?”

Which really meantYou look amazing—but emerged as cold and maybe even bullying.

She pushed him away, fire in those beautiful eyes. “I don’t know!”

She was angry with him.

Maybe he should have expected that. He’d barely spoken to her the last time he’d seen her. The commotion of the visit, the fact that the team had sent a photographer out to take shots—it all went straight to his thick, arrogant head.

Coco had tried to talk to him that first night. He saw her standing outside the den where he was giving an interview with the photographer.

An interview that probably looked very much like a date, with the woman sitting too close to him.

Shoot, and him letting her.

Then he looked up and saw Coco standing there, and everything—everything—that happened between them rushed into his head.

Coco, it’s not—

She walked away. All the way back to Russia.

But she was here now, and he might never, ever get another chance, so—

“I’ve been trying to find you for a year. Ever since you came to Montana—I’m sorry. I know I was a jerk that weekend, but…you vanished.”

He didn’t want to move too far from her.

Especially since the elevator was moving toward their floor.

She said something about her living in Moscow, about her job, talked about the game, maybe, but he wasn’t listening.