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And he didn’t know the truth. He didn’t know what followed me no matter how far I ran. He looked at me like I was something worth wanting, something he could pull closer and keep.

He didn’t know he was already too late for that.

“I’m not your girlfriend,” I hissed, making sure he heard every word. I needed them to be true. I needed them to stay true.

And I was hoping if I said it fiercely enough…my heart would hear it, too.

Sterling didn’t argue or try to correct me. He just looked at me with that maddening calm, like this was a disagreement he was willing to have later because he already knew how it would end.

Ryder, of course, had to insert himself. “Wow. She said that with her whole chest.”

Sterling’s mouth twitched. “I noticed.”

I crossed my arms, trying to keep my face hard. “Good. You should try not to forget that.”

Hattie cut straight through the sexual tension like she was wielding a machete.

One second I was standing there, trapped in Sterling’s gaze and everything it promised, and the next she was suddenly at my side, her fingers hooking around my arm with unapologetic enthusiasm.

“You,” she announced, already tugging me forward. “You have to ride the bull.”

I blinked. “I really don’t⁠—”

“No,” Sterling said instantly, stepping in front of us.

Both of us looked at him.

“She had a concussion,” he said firmly. “It’s not happening.”

Hattie scoffed, looking completely unimpressed. “It’s been a week. She looks fine. And also alive. Which is kind of the point.” She leaned in toward me with eyes that had gone a little feral. “Come on. It’s tradition.”

I looked past them to the bull, to the crowd circling it…to the noise and laughter and reckless joy of the room. I was tired of being careful. Tired of letting fear decide what I did next.

“She’s right. I should try it,” I said, thinking it was also a way to give me a little distance from him and all the pesky little feelings I was experiencing.

Sterling’s jaw tightened. “Sienna⁠—”

“I want to,” I repeated in a steadier voice. “I’m okay. You do remember my lesson today, don’t you? I seemed to be just fine for that.”

The color hit his cheeks instantly, and he groaned under his breath, his eyes closing for half a second like he was bracing himself against a memory he very much did not want revisiting in public.

Hattie raised her fist in a triumphant fist pump. “Victory,” she said in a stage whisper, shooting me a grin so smug it should’ve been illegal. Then she straightened and zeroed in on the bull, where a woman with perfect curls and a death grip on the rope was mid-climb, one boot already hooked over the side.

“Oh no, Cleo,” Hattie hollered. “Unhook the leg and dismount the beast. This ride’s reserved. Go get a drink and heckle like everyone else.”

The crowd laughed as Cleo glanced back, looking confused. Whatever she saw on Hattie’s expression must have been convincing…because she shrugged and hopped down to a chorus of good-natured boos.

Hattie waved her off like a pageant queen. “Thank you for your service!”

Sterling was still flushed, but the fight had finally drained out of his eyes. “You’re impossible,” he muttered to me.

I smiled up at him innocently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He made a sound in the back of his throat, something between a huff and a surrender, and then reached down and grabbed my hand firmly. “I’ll be taking her over there,” he told Hattie.

I inwardly groaned. Of course he wasn’t going to give me space.

Hattie shot me a wink and waved her hand dramatically over her face, mouthing the word hot. My cheeks burned, but I unfortunately couldn’t argue with her. Sterling was hot.