Page 48 of The Fire Line

Harris Shaw remained almost impossible to read, and somehow Jay had decided that was interesting rather than discouraging. A questionable development.

He lifted two fingers. “See you around, cowboy.”

Harris nodded, and Jay made it to the corner of the barn before looking back. Harris was still standing beside Rain, watching him.

Jay lifted his hand again.

Harris looked away.

9

The Last Useful Excuse

Harris waited until Navarro disappeared around the barn before pulling the radio from his belt. The number three was written plainly across the tape.

So much for Navarro not noticing anything.

Harris had spent the better part of a week trying to make sure the man saw no difference in him and had evidently managed to accomplish the opposite. First he had gone so careful around Navarro that the man had asked why he was difficult to read. Then Harris had taken the wrong radio because he had been too busy looking at something else to read a number he had known for fifteen years.

Now Walt had announced the mistake in front of them both, and Navarro, naturally, had made a joke out of it. That did not mean he had missed the fact that Harris had been acting strangely.

Harris clipped the radio back onto his belt and started loosening Rain’s girth. Putting his hands on Navarro for the better part of an hour had not improved matters.

Every touch had been necessary. Harris had made sure of that. The stirrup actually had been short. Navarro’s hands actually had been too tight. His wrist actually had been angled wrong.

None of that explained why Harris had remained aware of each contact after it ended: the solid weight of Navarro’s ankle in his hand, his fist loosening beneath Harris’s thumb, the pulse inside his wrist when Harris touched him there.

Harris pulled the saddle free and rested it against his hip. He had spent years handling people around horses without making anything strange out of it. Guests needed boots repositioned, knees corrected, reins shortened, stirrups changed. Half the job was putting somebody’s body where it needed to be without making them self-conscious about being touched.

He had never before needed to remind himself not to notice the warmth of somebody’s skin.

And then Navarro had looked down at him with that slight, knowing smile and called his bad habits charming. Harris’s attention had gone directly to his mouth.

One second, maybe less.

Long enough.

The attraction was settled. What Harris hadn’t considered was what his attempts to hide it might look like from Navarro’s side.

Across the yard, Navarro stopped beside Eli, who was winding cable outside the equipment room. He said something Harris couldn’t hear. Eli laughed, and Navarro touched his arm as he passed.

Irritation hit Harris before he had time to prevent it, stopping him with one hand on the corral gate.

Eli was a decade younger than Navarro, worked for him, and had done absolutely nothing except stand in the yard and laugh at something his boss said. There was no reason on earth for Harris to care where Navarro put his hand.

He looked toward the south pasture. Evan was waiting.

Except pretending the problem was work had already carried Harris to one perfectly functional trough, left him staring at a radio shelf without seeing it, and turned a routine riding lesson into something Navarro was now teasing him about.

The problem was Harris. He knew that.

What he had not considered until Navarro said he had been difficult to read was how the timing must look from the other side.

He had been short with Navarro since learning about Miles. Not openly rude. Harris was reasonably certain of that. He had simply made every conversation more controlled than it needed to be. If Navarro drifted into something personal, Harris found work to do. If he stood too close, Harris created space. If a conversation started feeling easy, Harris remembered exactly why it shouldn’t.

From Harris’s side, the logic had been obvious. From Navarro’s, it probably looked considerably simpler.

He tells Harris he spent five years with a man, and Harris suddenly stops talking to him.