"No, but you're not asking him to work for a living either."
She walked Thunder over to where he was standing, and he noticed she'd picked up the easy confidence that came with handling large animals. No sudden movements, no nervousness, just competence that made horses relax around humans.
Just like everything else about her. Competent and beautiful and so far out of his league he should have walked away a week ago.
Except he wouldn't. Not when she was looking at him like he'd just given her a gift.
"This is what you do?" she asked, handing him the lead rope. Her fingers brushed his, and the contact sent electricity up his arm. "Travel around the country competing with him?"
"More or less. We load up in the truck, drive to wherever the next rodeo is, see if we can stay on long enough to win some money."
"It sounds..." She paused, like she was trying to find the right words. "Like a lot of driving."
He laughed. "Yeah. A lot of driving, a lot of motels, a lot of truck stop coffee that tastes like battery acid."
"Do you ever get tired of it?"
The question landed differently than he'd expected. Not accusatory, just curious. Like she genuinely wanted to understand what kept him moving.
"Sometimes," he admitted. "But it's what I know. What I'm good at."
"That's not the same as what you want, though."
Thunder nudged his shoulder, impatient with standing still when there were more interesting things to do. Dustin led the horse back toward the barn, acutely aware of Vanessa walking beside him. Her presence felt solid and real in a way that made everything else feel temporary by comparison.
In a way that made temporary feel like the worst thing in the world.
"What about you?" he asked as they arrived at Thunder's stall. "You always wanted the corporate job, the house, all of it?"
"I wanted security." She leaned against the stall door, watching him work. "My parents split up when I was twelve. They fought constantly about money before that. I remember lying in bed listening to them argue about which bills they could afford to pay. Which ones they'd have to skip."
He settled Thunder in his stall, checking his water and making sure he had enough hay for the evening. The memory in her voice made him move slower, giving her space to talk if she wanted to.
"I swore I'd never live like that," she continued. "Never be in a position where I couldn't take care of myself. So I got the degree, got the good job, bought the house. Made myself financially independent."
"And then the economy went to hell."
"And then the economy went to hell." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Turns out you can do everything right and still end up three weeks behind on your mortgage."
Three weeks behind. The confirmation of what he'd suspected made his stomach twist. She'd taken him in when she was already drowning, trusted him with rent money she desperately needed.
"Vanessa."
She looked up at him, and he saw the vulnerability she'd been hiding behind her composure. The fear that she was going to lose everything she'd worked for.
"Yeah?"
"You're going to figure this out. You're too stubborn not to."
"Stubborn." She laughed, but it sounded more genuine this time. "That's one word for it."
"Determined. Resilient. Take your pick." He moved closer, drawn by the afternoon light catching in her hair, by the way she was looking at him. "You're still standing, aren't you? Still fighting. That counts for something."
"Does it?"
"It does to me."
The late afternoon sun was slanting through the barn windows, casting everything in golden light that made her hair gleam and her skin glow. She was beautiful, yes, but it was more than that. She was brave and stubborn and real in ways that made him want things he'd never let himself want before.
