"Better every day. Dr. Patterson thinks another week or two and I should be cleared for competition."
Another week or two. Two weeks until he left. Two weeks to figure out how to tell him that she didn't want him to go. That the thought of him leaving made her sad in ways that had nothing to do with the rent money and everything to do with the fact that she was pretty sure she'd just met the person she was supposed to spend her life with.
They'd known each other for a week. You weren't supposed to fall in love with someone in a week.
Except apparently you could, because she had.
"That's good news," she said, even though the words tasted like lies.
"Vanessa." His voice had changed, taken on an intensity that made her look up from her coffee. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why haven't you asked me about Thunder?"
The question caught her off guard. "About Thunder?"
"You've been here when I leave to check on him. You've seen me limping back after trying to do his conditioning work on this ankle." He closed the laptop and gave her his full attention, and the weight of it made her breath catch. "Most people would have offered to help or at least asked if I needed anything."
Most people. But she wasn't most people, and they both knew it. She was the city girl who'd never been closer to a horse than a carousel, who'd probably be more hindrance than help.
"I didn't think you'd want my help. I don't know anything about horses."
"You don't have to know anything. You just have to be willing to learn."
There was an edge in his voice, a question. Like he was offering her a chance to step into his world, to see what it was really like instead of just imagining it from the safety of her house.
Like he was asking if she wanted him enough to try.
"I have an interview at ten."
"I know. But what are you doing this afternoon?"
This afternoon she'd been planning to spend more time online, submitting applications to jobs she was overqualified for, pretending she had options when they both knew she was running out of time and money and hope.
"Nothing important."
"Then come with me to see Thunder. Let me show you what I do when I'm not recovering from stupid injuries."
It was a bad idea. Getting more involved in his world, spending time with him away from the safe boundaries of her house, putting herself in a situation where she'd be out of her element and dependent on him.
Putting herself in a position to fall even harder than she already had.
"Okay," she heard herself say, because apparently when it came to Dustin Fleming, she'd lost the ability to protect herself.
His smile was slow and devastating, the kind that made her forget why getting involved with him was the worst possible decision she could make right now. The kind that made her think maybe it was the best decision she'd ever made.
"Good. We'll go around two, after the heat breaks."
The interview was a disaster. The company wanted someone with social media marketing experience she didn't have, and the salary they offered was barely above minimum wage. She sat in her car in their parking lot afterward, staring at her phone and the seventeen new job rejection emails that had come in whileshe was inside pretending she was enthusiastic about a position that would barely cover her utilities.
She could move back home. Her parents had made the offer clear, and it made financial sense. Sell the house, cut her losses, start over in a place where the cost of living was lower and the expectations were different.
But the thought of giving up felt worse than the alternative. The thought of leaving this house where Dustin made coffee every morning and cooked dinner most nights and looked at her like she was precious.
When she got home, Dustin was waiting on the front porch, wearing jeans and boots and a black t-shirt that showed off arms she'd been trying not to stare at all week. He'd lost the crutches sometime in the past few days, though she noticed he still favored his left ankle when he thought no one was looking.
"How'd it go?"
