Page 25 of Long Time Coming

I make sure to catch Tagger drop to his feet. It’s still quite the sight—his arms flexing every muscle as if they’re in competition for most cut. His ass is hidden by denim, but that doesn’t keep me from noticing the indention on the side I’m closest to. And when he lifts his hat, he swipes his fingers through his hair, sending droplets of sweat to roll down his neck.

Walking past him, I try to keep from ogling after the show he just put on for me. It’s a struggle, so I switch gears. “How sore will you be tomorrow?”

“Unable to walk, I suspect.” He chuckles, following close.

I glance back at him over my shoulder. “It’s been a while.”

“More than a while, but it felt good to ride again.”

“That first time back is always a bitch, but you’ll settle back in.” I grab a wrench from the peg wall and head to the far side, where our tractor is hooked to the system trailer. “Maybe not before you leave, though.” Ducking under the right side, I peer up at the bolt. An inkling of something twists in my chest. I have no right to concern myself with his visit, but seeing him around again has been nice.

“Probably not.” Grabbing the top slider bar, he ducks underneath. “Where’d you learn to fix this thing?”

“Hands-on like everything else.” I remove my phone from the holster again. “And technology helps.” Lowering the wrench with the bolt in the same hand, I set them down, then search for a fix online. It doesn’t take long before I find the blockage and reattach the feeder pipe and then the bolt again.

“I’m impressed, little Pris.”

“Don’t be. It’s learning by necessity, not by choice.”

He files around the tractor just as I duck out from under the irrigation system.

“Still.” He nods. “Impressed.”

Though I used to be intimidated to jump in, not wanting to screw up anything, but I don’t really think about this type of thing anymore. It’s just part of a day’s work. As soon as I hang the wrench back up, I say, “You wanted to get your hands dirty. How do you feel about helping me herd the cattle from the lower field to the upper pasture? They’ve been in the lower field all night and today. We need to rotate them out.”

“Sounds like my kind of job.”

“You remember how to do it, right?” I ask as we walk back to the horses.

He shoots me a sideways glare and grabs my hat. “Don’t worry about me, babe.” He places my hat on my head, then zips the toggle up to secure the strap under my chin. “I know how to do it, alright.”

I tease, “It will be like riding a bike or?—”

“Or?”

I bite my lip as he latches his hands together to give me a lift onto my horse again. I can get up on my own, but I’ll accept the offer. Swinging my leg over, I sit up straight in my saddle, then move my hips to adjust. “Making love. It’s just not something you forget.”

Tag’s eyes haven’t left my body where I’ve found the most comfortable spot on my saddle. I watch his Adam’s apple dip and then rise again with his eyes. I thought it was fun teasing him, but his expression makes me wonder if I took it too far. “I . . . Not that.” I release a heavy sigh. “Sorry. I thought we could joke about that, but?—”

“We can.” He leaves to get the reins from the hook and hands them to me. Our hands meet, and neither of us moves. “This is new with you.”

“Bad new?”

“Good new.” He smiles, relieving me like the words. His gaze drops to my lips and back up again. “I like this new stage with you.”

“Me too.” I’m so quiet that I don’t know if he heard me.

His gaze is fixated on the connection that has me tingling inside from his touch. Turning his palm up, he captures my hand and runs his thumb over my knuckles to my wrist and back again. I can’t see his eyes, and his expression of indifference twists my belly.

Suddenly releasing me, he says, “The cattle aren’t going to herd themselves.” Walking to his horse, he gets on like an old pro and takes off on Nightfall, leaving me and Sunrise here wondering what went wrong when it felt like so much was going right.

CHAPTER 9

Tagger

What the fuckam I doing?

Baylor is going to fucking kill me.

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