Page 12 of September’s Cowboy Travis

Her eyebrows climbed a little higher with every step. “You're saying that like it's a reasonable thing for a grown man to do.”

“It is.”

“And how often do you get hurt?”

“Sometimes.”

“That isn't an answer.”

I should've known better than to give an accountant a vague one. “I’ve broken a couple fingers. Cracked a few ribs once. Jacked up my shoulder for a while.”

Her gaze dropped to my right shoulder before coming back to my face. “And you're doing this tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

She shook her head. “Accountants have better survival instincts.”

“Accountants don't win buckles.”

“We get retirement accounts,” she fired back. “And life insurance policies with much lower premiums.”

“Neither one of those are as shiny.”

Her laugh carried over the clang of a gate behind us. I liked the sound of it enough that I caught myself smiling before Cody walked up with a coil of rope over one shoulder.

The second he looked from Kaycee to me, I knew what was coming.

“Well, Kaycee, you're spending enough time with Cole that somebody ought to give you the warning label.”

There it was. I'd heard some version of that joke for years.

“Half the women in Mustang Mountain could probably give you references.”

My shoulders tightened, but I kept my expression easy. Cody wasn't saying anything I hadn't heard before, but Kaycee didn't laugh.

“I've met Travis,” she said. “I can decide what I think of him myself.”

Cody's grin slipped. He lifted both hands. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Then he headed toward the chutes.

I kept my attention on the arena. A steer shoved against another one behind the gate, and Cody yelled at somebody to move a panel before it got bent.

Kaycee bumped my arm lightly. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“That wasn't nothing.”

“I don't need you defending me.”

“I wasn't.”

The hurt in her tone made me look at her.

Her grip on the folder under her arm tightened. “I don't know enough about your past to defend it. I was saying I don't need somebody else deciding what I think.”

She said it like that should've been obvious. Maybe to her it was.