Bear bit back a sigh. One step forward, two steps back. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
They walked in silence back toward his truck.
Bear scanned the yard for King, finally spotting him near the training paddock where he’d wandered off after Goose.
“King!” Bear called, but the dog was too distracted by whatever was happening in the paddock to respond.
Logan followed his gaze and stopped dead.
A half a step ahead, he almost kept walking before he registered his son had stopped. He turned back to find Logan staring at the paddock, one earbud dangling loose from his ear.
What was so damn interesting about that paddock?
He followed Logan’s gaze and snorted.
Xavier Vega stood on Troubadour’s back, performing some kind of dance that violated several principles of physics while he lip-synced to the music blasting from a wireless speaker nearby. Kavik, X’s husky, weaved in and out of the horse’s prancing hoofs.
A phone stood on a tripod, recording it all.
Logan pulled his other earbud out, slowly, and drifted toward the fence, his eyes wide, mouth open. “That’s the guy from TikTok.” The words came out in a rush. “The one who does those horse tricks.”
Bear had no idea what his son was talking about. “The what now?”
“TikTok. It’s an app.” Logan gave him a look that suggested Bear was ancient and obvious.
At the moment, he felt like he was both. He wasn’t a technophobe, but eight years in prison had left him behind on the technology curve. He still had the flip phone he got after his release.
“You know X?”
“Yeah. That’s @CartierCowboy. He’s got like a million followers.”
Cartier Cowboy? It was the nickname that River had given X on his first day at the ranch years ago, but how the hell did Logan know that?
On the horse, X clocked their presence but didn’t break his rhythm. He finished the dance and brought Troubadour to a perfect stop three feet from the fence. He swung down from the saddle in one graceful motion and headed toward them, phone left on the tripod.
Kavik immediately abandoned his circular frenzy to trot alongside his owner, tail wagging.
“Hey,” X said as he reached the fence. He had a distinctive swagger to his walk—confident without being showy—and aneasy smile that Bear had seen charm half the women in Solace. “You must be Logan. I’m Xavier, but everyone calls me X. You ride?”
Logan shook his head, still looking stunned. “No. I just watch your videos.”
“Good,” X said with a grin. “We’ll fix that. Troubadour loves beginners.”
Bear expected Logan to shut down, to retreat behind his hoodie and earbuds. Instead, his son’s face lit up with something that looked almost like excitement.
“Seriously?”
“Absolutely.” X glanced at Bear. “That okay with you, big guy?”
Bear nodded, trying to hide his surprise. “Yeah, sure. If Logan wants to.”
Logan didn’t answer, but he didn’t say no either. Instead, he asked X a question about one of his videos, and the two launched into a conversation Bear couldn’t follow. It might as well be in a foreign language.
King finally wandered back, tongue lolling, and pressed against Bear’s leg. Bear scratched behind the dog’s ears absently, watching as X and Logan talked like they’d known each other for years instead of minutes.
He should be happy. This was the most engaged he’d seen Logan since Denver. But the tightness in his chest didn’t ease. Instead, it got worse, because he realized with a sickening clarity that his son could connect with a stranger in five minutes better than he could in two weeks.
X must have sensed his discomfort, because he turned back to Bear. “You staying for dinner? Johanna’s making her famous chicken enchiladas.”
