Page 69 of Wyatt

And then there’s the herd, cattle as far as the eye can see. Brown cows, black cows, spotted cows. Longhorns and Angus. Some are huge; others are still young, less than a year old. I can pick out the pregnant heifers by their full udders and the way their bellies bow out, making them look like walking barrels on legs.

“The moo-moos!” Ella shrieks, pointing.

Wyatt tilts his head, shielding Ella’s face from the sun with his hat. “Should we go see them?”

“Go, go,” she replies.

He taps his cheek. “Only if you give Uncle Wy a kiss.”

Grinning, Ella kisses his chin, then scrunches her nose. “You scratchy, like Daddy.”

Don’t I know it.

My face felt a little raw this morning. Mom even commented on how red my throat was when I came downstairs. I had to scramble to make up some excuse about an allergic reaction to my new face wash.

I am so,soready to have my own place again. I just wish my next apartment weren’t in Ithaca, New York.

Really, I wish my next apartment were here instead, and that I was renting it with a certain cowboy.

Wyatt takes the lead down the hill while Sawyer and I follow several paces behind.

“Looked like you and Wyatt had a good time last night.” Sawyer keeps his voice low. “You know he told me?—”

“I know.” I’m blushing again. “I get it, Sawyer. It’s really weird that we’re pretending to date. But Wyatt’s doing me a solid, which I appreciate.”

“Y’all are awful good at pretending.”

I shrug. “We know each other well, which helps.”

“Right. And you wouldn’t consider actually dating my brother because…”

My face isburning. “Because Wyatt is Wyatt. He’s not interested in dating anyone. Least of all me.”

Sawyer turns to look at his brother. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I think Wyatt does want to be with someone. He wants to settle down. He’s just afraid to put his heart out there after what happened with our parents.”

My own heart twists. “That makes sense. No one wants to experience that kind of pain—the loss—again.”

“You bring the best out in him, you know. He’s always happiest after hanging out with Sally Powell. That’s how it was with him and Mom. They were tight, two peas in a podwith their books and their sweet teeth. Sweet tooths? What’s the plural there?”

I laugh. “No clue.”

“I need to ask Cash. Point being, I don’t think he’s ever let anyone get close since she died. Anyone except you.”

I glance at the cowboy in question. Wyatt’s holding the reins in one hand, like he always does, his other arm wrapped around Ella. He’s leaning down, saying something in her ear, and I can just hear her giggle over the sounds of the herd.

My eyes sting. Blinking, I wipe my nose.

“You all right?” Sawyer asks. “I didn’t mean?—”

“Please don’t apologize. Thank you for saying that. I just—sometimes I forget how well y’all love each other. How well y’all know each other.”

Sawyer smiles. “We know you too, Sally. We love you too.”

Shit, now I’m really going to cry. One of the million reasons why I will always love Hartsville—beingknownthe way Sawyer describes.

Outside of this small town—at least in the places I’ve lived—so few people care to even say hello, much less get to know you as a person. There’s a sense of community here I haven’t found anywhere else.

I’m sure it exists in other places. But I’ll never have the same roots—the same relationships that span decades—that I do here. Maybe that’s why I’m having such a hard time getting excited about being in New York long-term.

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