Erin tried to smile. “I’ve met your mom. She’s not a large woman.”

“And neither are you.”

“I competed and placed in the—”

“I know you placed in an Ironman triathlon, Erin. But that doesn’t make you large. It only means you’re determined and won’t quit no matter what.”

“I was never allowed to quit,” she shot back.

“And who’s ruling your world now?”

“Wyatt Fitzgerald.”

“Really? You just said he’s about to can you because, according to him, you don’t follow his rules. So who’s actually running your show now, Erin?”

She stared at him with a sinking sensation in her chest. “I know what you want me to say. You’re pathetically obvious sometimes even though you think you’re being subtle.”

“If you know what I want you to say, then you already thought of that person yourself. That means I’m probably on the right track.”

“My father,” she pushed out. “He’s been running my life ever since he noticed I was alive.”

“And you’re still letting him do it. You’re thirty-two years old. You’re independent. But you’re still letting his expectations run your life.”

“Thank you for sharing that illuminating observation. But it’s nothing new. Would I be here if I didn’t realize I’m a mess?”

He sat forward to rest his bent arms on the desk again. “You might be surprised by how many people in this town don’t realize they’re a mess and want me to fix everyone else around them.” He shook his head. “In that way, you’ve got a big jump on them. You recognize that you’ve got issues.”

“But I don’t know how to fix them.”

“How about just letting go of them?” He put more weight on his folded arms and looked her directly in the eye. “How about going back to the ranch with a different perspective? We’ve talked a lot about when you trained to be a cop. You said you had to learn to drive at recklessly high speeds. How to stop. How to put a vehicle into a slide without rolling it. Where to hit another vehicle to send it careening off a road.”

Erin nodded. “That’s right. But I don’t see how any of that pertains to my problems now.”

“Those things pertain because during that driving course, you listened to your instructor.”

“Well, of course. My life depended on it.”

“And you don’t think your life may depend on anything Wyatt tells you?”

Erin slumped her shoulders against the back of her chair. “You don’t understand the situation. He isn’t briefing me on truly dangerous stuff. He’s pissed off because I walk up behind horses and might startle them. Because I lift things he believes are too heavy for me. Because I sometimes run instead of walk to get my work done faster.”

“I see. So essentially he thinks stupid, trivial stuff is dangerous, so why should you listen to him?”

“You’re starting to piss me off.”

Jonas smiled. “Am I only just starting to? Damn, I must be slipping.”