The Front Runner (Gold Rush Ranch, #3)

by Elsie Silver

I would be lying if I were to say I don’t take some small pleasure in riling people up. File that away under the behavior of a child who didn’t get enough attention growing up. Any attention is good attention, and this type of attention is especially amusing for me.

But people are complicated and traversing their emotions isn’t my strong suit. I’m not a talk-about-your-feelings type of gal.

That’s not the reaction I was expecting from her at all. She acts like a siren, but the mere mention of a boner, and she can’t get away fast enough.

I am not a hugger—public displays of affection are not my thing—but I let her do it. These are the sacrifices you make for your friends.

“Is she okay?” Mira asks. I pour us each a large bell of deep red liquid and slide her glass toward her. “No. But she will be. She’s tough.”

Whatever you do, don’t let her see that patriarchal assholes behaving poorly don’t face consequences.”

I shouldn’t be looking, but I’m defiant. It’s a character flaw. When someone tells me not to do something, it makes me want to do it more.

It’s a trip missing someone so deeply but also being so unforgivably angry with them.

“Sometimes unexpected surprises change the course of our life in the most irrevocable of ways. In the best ways. Life is one big adventure, Mira, don’t let it pass you by while you’re stuck on a boring old path.”

I also signed off on his DNR with a smile on my face. It was as close to killing the bastard as I could get.” She freezes, and I wonder if I’ve gone too far. Only someone with a tarnished soul would take pleasure in something like that.

the only lesson I learned was that when a heart breaks, the pain never stops.”

I should be happy he’s giving me the space I asked for, but I wish he’d go back to being completely relentless. I think I might miss him.

“And also fuck you for walking away like a perfect gentleman. Weeks of blatant sexual promises, and you walk away? You should have bent me over the hood of my truck and fucked me on the spot.” I watch his bright green eyes go dark. “Stop treating me like you’ll break me. If I wanted someone to court me and bore me to death, I wouldn’t be wasting all my free time with you.”

giving me more pleasure than I’ve ever experienced.

his beauty is consuming—it steals my breath just to look at him this closely. This intimately.

I love the way he’s always touching me. A hand pressed here, a thumb grazing there. It’s like he can’t help himself where I’m concerned. Like he can’t keep his hands off me even if he wanted to.

There are days where I have no clue what the hell I’m doing with my life—where I wonder if it matters.

Not everything happens for a reason. Some things happen because we make the conscious decision to stop letting shit happen to us.