Page 125

I pull back the barn door, and the lights come on. I think I’ll ride Gabe today. He’s already up and waiting with his head over the door. He eats, and I get him brushed and saddled. Then, I shift my weight and let his reins drop, allowing him to surge from the barn and up the hill. It’s not my turn to ride the fenceline, but I think I’ll do the west pasture as a favor to Colin, who’s on the docket for it.

I let Gabe run as long as he wants.

Some mornings, I think about everything that happened since that day in the diner, when Jamie told me I’d hit rock bottom. Other days, like today, I ride with my head empty. I’ve examined my life a hundred times, sometimes a hundred times a day. I’ve thought about the past until it was worn thin. I wondered what my life could have been if I hadn’t opened Pandora’s Box and become who I am.

Now, I don’t ruminate anymore.

Now, I let go and just ride.

It’s getting hot when I finally put Gabe away and head inside. It took a little longer than anticipated to do the fence check. Sabrina is already up, making scrambled eggs in the kitchen. I give her an up-down glance. She always looks so damn good in those jeans shorts that barely cover her ass. Maybe she’ll have a few minutes for me after breakfast.

“Hey, baby,” I say, turning on the kitchen sink.

“Bathroom,” she says. “Don’t wash up in my sink.”

“Sorry.” I snap the water off and lean in to kiss her neck. God, she smells so fucking good.

“It’s fine. Now go on, get.”

I kiss her again, nipping her shoulder before disappearing to wash up. When I get back, I almost run directly into Serena. She’s still in her pajamas, brandishing her phone.

“Did Jamie tell you he was coming?” she says.

I consider my answer, based upon the crease between her brows. “Yes…no…yeah, he did.”

She scowls harder. “Okay, well nobody told me.”

“He’s just coming for a visit. I wanted him to listen to some shit I’ve been kicking around in the studio.”

She gives me a faintly sour look, jaw working. Then, she turns on her heel and goes into the kitchen, but I saw that micro-expression, the tiny, tiny smile at the corner of her mouth. After Jamie’s visit—during which they hooked up at least three times, because Sabrina and I could hear the bed slamming into the wall—he left and went back to the city. I flew to Nashville, taking Sabrina with me for one of those visits, so we could complete our contracts, but it’s been a year since he set foot in Wyoming.

I can’t figure out where they stand. Serena seems pissed. Jamie is acting like it’s all casual, all good.

It doesn’t seem all that casual, but what do I know?

“How’d your writing go?” Sabrina asks when I sink down at the breakfast bar.

“Good. It’s still strange to not have a deadline for something.”

“Good strange?”

I nod, taking the plate she hands me. “Yeah, it’s some of my best work.”

“Pulitzer Prize, here he comes,” she says.

I shake my head, turning my attention to the breakfast wrap in front of me. Serena starts in on something to do with the wranglers. All the washing machines in the bunkhouse are broken. I offer to go and take a look at them this afternoon. Sabrina says no, I have to pick up Jamie from the airport. I get up, putting my dish in the sink.

“Serena will get him,” I say.

She puts her dish in the sink too, head jerking up. “What?”

“Yeah, didn’t you just offer?”

She’s speechless for a second and then leaves the kitchen without saying another word. I know she’s dying to go, or she’s dying not to. Either way, they both want it.

“Don’t bait her,” Sabrina says, pulling open the dishwasher. “Or do. I don’t know what she wants.”

There’s an exasperated tinge to her voice. I take her by the shoulders, brushing back her hair.