Read Online Burning Barriers (Barriers Series Book 3) by Sara Shirley - Free Book Online Page A

‘wicked.’”
    “See. Now that… that right there is an indication of why you can never go back East. You’ve picked up that crazy ass Boston slang shit.”
    Lucy rights herself on her feet and walks slowly in my direction. She gradually crosses her arms over her chest when she stops a foot in front of me. I gaze down into her bright blue eyes. Her five-foot-seven frame does nothing to intimidate me as she starts to tap her bare foot against the hardwood floor. I’m six-foot-one and nothing but solid muscle. I battle fires and handle horses for a living. Lucy is not a physical match for me, but those big blue eyes have the power to bring me to my knees and make me a puddle of water.
    “You want to know what else I picked up while I was on the East Coast? I didn’t get the derby nickname Juicy Lucy for nothing, you know. I’ll have you know it took a team of derby girls to knock all the ‘y’alls’ and shit kickin’ Colorado slang out of me. The only way I learned to speak the proper New England way was by hazing. If I so much as said ‘y’all,’ ‘howdy,’ or ‘fixin,’’ I had to eat a burger for each time I was caught. After a week on the team, I had eaten at least fifteen burgers after practice and learned my lesson quickly.”
    “You always did love to eat a lot of meat—” I taunt her and move a little closer, but her fisted hand lands on my shoulder before I finish my statement. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Luce.” I laugh at her as I tenderly rub the place she just punched with her fist. “If you remember correctly, we used to have a ton of barbeques out at the ranch when we were growing up.”
    I watch as her face drops when it’s apparent she suddenly remembers it was my dad who always said she ate more than the horses on the ranch.
    “Jake,” she says in a quiet voice as she picks at a loose string on her sundress. “I should have come back when I heard about his passing.” She closes her eyes and lowers her head. “I was still so upset with how you ended things that once I made it to Massachusetts, I didn’t want to come back, ever. Then, Mom called and told me the news. I know now that I made the wrong decision. I’m so sorry. I should have come home for you.”
    I can remember just how much pain I was in and what the end result was of her never coming home when she did. There were so many girls that never came close to being anything like Lucy. Then, there’s the booze bender I’d managed to get caught up in. She can never find out how desperately I needed her to come home after Dad died. SJ was there to pick up the pieces day after day, but it wasn’t until he found out about the first girl I screwed while I was in this state of mind. Laurel. God, it was the dumbest decision I made back then. I remember downing a bottle of locally distilled whiskey in the barn that night as she tried to comfort me, knowing my dad had just died. It should have been Lucy there. I thought it was Lucy there after drinking as much as I did. All I could envision was Lucy’s hands rubbing my back and her lips tenderly kissing my lips. I never gave it a second thought. It’s even worse than letting Lucy go. I’ve had to live with Laurel’s advances all these years Lucy has been away.
    That morning after, waking up and seeing Laurel sleeping next to me naked in the barn, I knew I needed to distance myself from the ranch. Fortunately, the local fire department was due to start hiring soon, but that meant I needed to get my mind off all that I’d lost in the course of a summer, and SJ was there to help me when I needed him the most. He was there getting me into shape for the physical testing the fire department would put me through. When I passed, I had found something to keep my mind off the booze and the losses. Sadly, it didn’t stop me from trying to fill the void that Lucy left with tons of random hookups.
    Laurel was persistent to say the least. She whined and called day after day to