Page 19 of Just Say When

And itwasnew, that was the crazy thing about it. I had spent my whole life around horses. First as a barn rat, latching on to the Hale family, helping with ranch chores because they were nice enough to let me ride their horses whenever I wanted. Then as a horse owner myself and professional barrel racer.

That all helped, but the actual business of horse training was entirely new to me. I had only ever been on the client side of things. I’d had no clue what it took to turn a horse and rider into a winning team. The nuanceof it all. As a barrel racer, I had focused on how a horse performed for and with only me. Now the thing I cared most about was getting the horse ready for someone else—and since riders had their own quirks the same way horses had their own quirks, this was no easy task.

But damn, it wasinteresting.

It was something I could see doing a good long while. Maybe not forever. Forever wasn’t something I could wrap my brain around. But a decade, at least.

I wasn’t interested in planning out the rest of my life. Right now, the only thing I wanted to plan was dinner.

With both Mom and I working long hours most days of the week, we usually made do with whatever she brought home from Sweetie Pie. That didn’t mean Icouldn’tcook. I actually loved cooking, when the mood struck me. I had a whole Instagram account dedicated to chefs and recipes so I never had to make the same recipe twice. I loved scrolling through, discovering food I would otherwise never know existed. Aspen Springs was my favorite place in the whole world, but good luck finding a restaurant that served anything other than burgers or pizza.

Tonight I was making red lentil curry, if I could reach that can of coconut milk. Normally grabbing things off the top shelf wasn’t an issue for me, since I was on the tall side, but my shoulders were still burning from this afternoon’s ranch chores.

I groaned as I lifted my arm. And then suddenlythere was another arm stretched over my head, swiping the can of coconut milk in front of my face. I knew who that fucking arm belonged to before I even turned around. Brax had chosen his aftershave and deodorant in high school and never wavered from it. I would recognize that spicy clove scent anywhere.

He was frowning when I turned to face him. “What’s wrong with you?” he demanded, looking me up and down like he was searching for injuries.

“Why are you literally everywhere?” I grumbled as I reached for the can. “Give me that.”

“I can’t beliterallyeverywhere,” he reasoned. “It’sliterallyimpossible. But if what you mean is we seem to run into each other a lot, well, the explanation is simple, really. You work at my family’s ranch. My house is a block from yours. There’s only one grocery store in this town and, being human, we both have to eat, so here we are.”

“Gee, thanks so much for explaining the obvious. You just can’t help yourself, can you?” I shook my head. “This is why people don’t like you, Brax. In case you were wondering.” I moved to get past him, but he angled his cart to block my path.

“The only thing I’m wondering is why you’re rubbing your shoulder like that. What’s wrong with you?” he asked again.

I immediately dropped my hand and glared. “It’s nothing you need to worry about. Aches and pains arepart of ranch work. I guess it’s been a while since you did anything but sit at a desk and get soft.”

“Honey, there’s nothing soft about me, I promise you that.” His lips quirked.

I gave him a skeptical look and took my time with it, my gaze lingering where it would hurt the most. But the joke was on me because that only served to remind me of what James had said about Adam being thesmallbrother. My cheeks felt hot as I pushed past him.

This time, I was successful in outmaneuvering him. I had almost made it out of the aisle when his hand clamped down on my shoulder, his fingers splayed across my collar bone above my breast. “Hey!”

“I can fix this.”

“It won’t work,” I said. “You’re too irritating. It makes my muscles even more tense. My body will reject you.”

But his thumb found the knot where my shoulder met my neck and I whimpered. He laughed softly. “There you go,” he soothed, like I was a high-strung filly.

I wanted to stiffen up again just to spite him, but instead my eyes drifted closed and my head lolled to the side, giving him more room to work. His hand slid under the collar of my shirt. The knot didn’t stand a chance against the gentle, relentless pressure. It melted away. Fucking traitor.

Brax leaned down, his five o’clock shadow scraping the shell of my ear. “I think your body likes me just fine,” he whispered.

“Yeah, well, my body likes a lot of things that aren’t good for it,” I muttered. “Tequila, bacon, Bobby Waters.” That last one happened to be a bull rider with more charisma than brains, and a mistake I’d embarrassingly made more than once, usually after too much tequila.

His thumb dug in with sudden force and my eyes popped open. “Do noteversay his name when my hands are on you,” his voice growled in my ear.

I twisted to stare up at him in disbelief. “Are you serious right now? I’m not—” The words evaporated in my throat at the fury in his eyes.

I had never seen him like this before. Annoyed, sure. Irritated, most definitely. But this was something else. Something that made every cell in my body shiver with sudden awareness.

And still, I couldn’t resist taunting him, just a little. “Take your hands off me, then, because I’ll say whatever name I want.”

He didn’t move, just kept staring at me. Waiting me out.

Well, he could wait forever. I wasn’t giving in.

Except…the look in his eyes was doing uncomfortable things to my insides and I was aggravatingly damp between my thighs. Plus he hadn’t done my other shoulder yet and it was every bit as knotty.

---