Page 105 of Sunrise & Serenity

I hug my laptop to my chest and scrunch up my nose. Maybe challenging him wasn’t the best idea.

Before I can respond, Chance’s voice cuts across the yard. “You gonna stand there flirting all morning, Holden, or help unload feed?”

I nearly drop my laptop. Holden doesn’t even flinch.

“Mind your own business,” he calls back easily, without looking away from me.

When I glance over his shoulder, I catch his brother grinning. Wonderful. I lower my voice. “See? This is what I mean.”

“Pretty sure Chance read the room weeks ago. He’s probably wondering what took us so long.”

I press my lips together as I stare at him, and the amusement fades from his expression. His gaze holds mine, suddenly serious. “I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, Sage. But time is short. It’d be a shame not to make the most of it.”

My heart free-falls into my stomach. It’s not like I need the reminder that this thing between us has an end date.

Or maybe I do.

Because the way he merely tips his hat at me and saunters off—as if we didn’t spend last night wrapped in each other’s arms and he didn’t share something deeply personal with me this morning—hurts in a way I couldn’t have anticipated.

With a sigh, I close the door and make my way back to the ranch house. Feeling the need to be outside, I settle on the porch swing, tucking one leg underneath me and opening my laptop. I try to forget what just happened and focus on work.

My screen glows with half-finished layout drafts for the guest marketing materials. They’re the professional ones, the technically perfect ones.

The ones that still look flat.

I click on the folder with my newer images. The photos I took of the mountains seen through Cozy’s ears, a close-up of wildflowers in bloom, a shaft of sunlight breaking through the gathering storm clouds. Others I pulled aside on Saturday—the imperfectly composed, the unstaged. The ones that feel like the real Wild Ember.

I find the one I took of Holden at the auction, the first photo I added to this folder. It tugs at my heartstrings. That distance between him and the others—I understand it better now.

I understand him better.

As if my thoughts have summoned him, he appears by the round pen. Chance is with him, gesturing as he talks, while Holden stands still, hands shoved into his pockets, his head tipped down.

The ranch house door creaks open, and Taryn drops onto the swing beside me.

“Are you working or spying on my brothers?”

“Working,” I say automatically.

She surveys the laptop screen, her brows raised. “Mm-hmm.”

My lips twitch, but I narrow my eyes at her. “Shouldn’t you be at school by now?”

“I’m waiting for my ride.”

By the round pen, Holden glances toward us. Just once, but it’s enough for my stomach to flip before I look down too quickly.

Luckily, before Taryn can make any more awkward observations, a sedan bounces up the drive and comes to a stop in front of the house. A guy about her age waves through the window.

“There he is.” She jumps up and scoops up the schoolbag at her feet. “I’ll see you later.” She trots down the steps, stopping on the last one to spin back. “Things have been better since you arrived.” Hefting her bag on her shoulder, she smiles. “I’m glad you’re here.”

It shouldn’t feel like such a big thing, being told someone’s glad I’m here. Somehow, it does.

She slips into the passenger seat before I can say anything. Not that I know what to say to that. I can only wave as the car makes a U-turn and drives off. Then I sink back against the swing.

Holden and Chance have moved on, and I’m once again alone with my laptop and a brain that’s become increasingly useless over the last few hours—scratch that, the last few days.

I pretend to work for another ten minutes before I give up entirely and wander inside the house in search of more coffee.