“Yes, was it a secret?” She could feel her heart pounding against her ribs.
Sean’s head tilted, his expression hardening like cement. “You’ve changed, Ryan. This is not the life for you, no matter how many times you fuck him,” he snapped, his voice cutting through the barn’s peaceful atmosphere.
“You are such a pig,” she said as she walked around him, boots kicking up small clouds of dust.
“Drew isn’t going to like this.” The words hung in the air like a storm cloud.
Ryan faced him, then walked back, close enough to see the tiny beads of sweat forming at his hairline. “Are you threatening me?”
“Oh, it’s not a threat—” He stopped talking when he looked over her shoulder, his expression shifting instantly to something more guarded.
She turned to see Seth entering the barn, leading his horse by the reins. His faded T-shirt was wet with sweat and clung tohis broad shoulders and flat stomach, and there were bits of hay clinging to his worn jeans. The morning sun caught the stubble on his jaw as he nodded at her, then looked at Sean with cool assessment.
“Are you ready, Mr. Hayes?” Seth’s voice was neutral but carried an undercurrent of authority that filled the space.
“Yes, if you are.” Sean straightened, attempting to be dignified.
“I have to saddle a horse for you. Just give me a few minutes.”
“Sure. Ryan can keep me company,” Sean said as he looked at Ryan with a gleam in his eye.
She saw Seth stop to look at them, his hands pausing mid-motion on the saddle. She slightly shook her head, trying to let him know with her eyes that she didn’t want Sean anywhere near her. The tension between them all hung in the air like the dust particles, suspended and waiting.
“I’d rather be alone. You both have a good day.” She walked away.
****
Seth looked at Hayes, noting his boots that had barely seen dirt. “I thought you said this wouldn’t be a problem.”
“Oh, it’s not a problem. We were talking about driving to Kalispell and getting a flight back together.” Hayes’s smile was too polished, too practiced.
“I see,” Seth said with a nod, the muscle in his jaw twitching. He didn’t believe him for a second. “Put your gloves on.”
Sean mounted the horse and grinned like he’d just accomplished the undoable and pulled on his gloves.
Seth put his foot in the stirrup and got into the saddle with the fluid motion of someone who’d done it ten thousand times. He nudged Zephyr and rode out of the barn into the crisp morning air that smelled of pine and distant rain. The last thinghe wanted to do was spend the day with Hayes, whose cologne was already giving him a headache. Ryan was leaving soon, and he hated thinking about it. The hollow feeling in his chest expanded every time he pictured the ranch without her laughter echoing across the fields. He was going to be miserable without her, but he didn’t know what he could do. He knew she’d never trade her sleek downtown apartment and gallery openings for his place and the isolation of Montana winters.
As they rode along the fence line where brown grass moved in the breeze, Sean asked him questions about the feed and Seth answered him, but his mind was elsewhere, watching the shadows of clouds drift across the distant mountains.
The thought of never seeing her again was making his gut ache like he’d been kicked by a horse. He wished he knew what to do about her. Hell, maybe she didn’t want to be with him, and he was just something different to her, a rough-handed novelty in a world of manicured men. He was nothing like the men she dated. He didn’t wear suits unless he was going to a funeral or a wedding, and even then, the collar choked him like a noose. His entire wardrobe was jeans worn soft on the knees, T-shirts faded from sun and washing, flannel shirts for the cold mornings, and one good suit that hung forgotten in the back of his closet. Seth was convinced she just wanted to get with a cowboy, a story to tell her friends back home.
He looked over his shoulder to see Hayes behind him, glancing around at the scenery with the detached interest of a tourist and clenched his jaw until his teeth ached. Seth and Hayes were night and day. Complete opposites, city and country, polished and weathered, but Ryan had sex with both. He shook his head. Damn it.
Seth wasn’t upset about that as much as he was that she wouldn’t stay with him even if he asked, her delicate hands not made for the calluses his life would give them. That wassomething he refused to do. He didn’t need to hear her tell him no, to see the pity in those blue eyes. Besides, she could change her mind once she got home and realized that was where she needed to be, though the thought rang hollow as the wind whispered through the tall grass around them.
****
Ryan entered the barn the next afternoon and saw Sean walking toward her and she couldn’t stop the grin.
“What’s so funny now, Ryan?” he asked as he tipped his cowboy hat back with his thumb and she just about lost it.
“You. I hate to break it to you, but you’re no cowboy.”
“Fuck you, Ryan. Oh, wait. I have.” He smirked.
“Oh, very mature, but then you always did act like a child,” she said.
Sean lashed out, yanking her arm. Pain shot up her shoulder.
