Page 51 of His Tenth Dance

Something inside him told him itwouldbe bothersome to Bobbie Jo once she and Tucker saidI do. Maybe Tucker too.

And Tarr was definitely bothered by it.

“All right.” Tuck sighed the way he did every time Tarr brought this up. “Well, I don’t want you to go far.”

“Yeah, because you need me here to take care of everything when you’re gone.”

“Exactly,” Tuck said, not denying it. He could wear fire in his eyes if he had to—and right now, he did.

Tarr glanced down the fence that separated the pastures from the barns. “Maybe I could just build a small cabin out here.”

“That’s not gonna work,” Tuck said.

“Why not?” Tarr asked, genuinely surprised. Tucker usually went along with most things, but he wasn’t mindlessly scratching his forehead now. “It’s not like you need the land.”

“You’re gonna build what—a rudimentary cabin and live in it? No power, no plumbing?”

“I’d put power and plumbing in it,” Tarr said.

Tucker laughed and shook his head. “You’re good at building strong, sturdy, straight enclosures for chickens and goats, but you ain’t never built a house, Tarr.”

“They have classes at the hardware store,” he said.

“You better build it big enough for you and the rest of your life…else you’ll just be movin’ out soon enough.”

“Will I?” Tarr challenged. “Last time I checked, I wasn’t dating anyone. Do you know about a girlfriend of mine that I don’t?”

Tuck rolled his eyes. “Come on, you know what I mean.”

Do I?Tarr silently challenged, but bit the words back—because now Tuck had him thinking about Briar Prescott and her pretty, curly hair and dangerous-to-his-health hazel eyes. They’d been out once, though their first encounter before that had not been great. Tarr had really enjoyed the date and would go out with her again.

In fact, the woman followed him into his dreams and sometimes accompanied him around the farm as he worked with the rodeo animals and the rodeo stars they trained.

Briar lived in a corner of the property, as her animal care services came with the farm. She got to remain in her house and her job for a full year—at which point she and Tuck would have to figure out whether she would continue on, or move along with her life.

“Anyway,” Tuck said, “Bobbie Jo said she texted you and hadn’t heard back.”

“My phone’s around here somewhere,” Tarr said. He looked down to the small backpack he brought outside with him whenever he worked away from shelves and power outlets. He had snacks and water in it, as he’d lived in the wild—or close to the wild—for long enough to know he should always be prepared.

He fished his phone out of the front pocket and found Bobbie Jo’s message.

Briar is bringing by those signs I asked her to make. Will you see if they fit on the Goatel and the Lambulance?

His heart did weird things in his body—twisting and spinning and leaping—and he wasn’t sure if he was excited to see Briar or irritated.

No matter what, his chest felt too tight as he sent back a quickYep, you got ittext, then shoved his phone in his back pocket.

He turned away from his best friend to hide the flush creeping up his neck at the mere thought of seeing Briar in the flesh, but Tucker said, “I think she’s on her way now.”

“All right. Great,” Tarr said, trying to make his voice as even as possible.

“Just thought you might want to, I don’t know, put on a shirt or something.”

Tarr glanced down at his bare chest, then over to the dirty T-shirt he’d shed an hour ago as he’d become soaked with sweat.

Anyway, it seemed ridiculous to cover up just because Briar was coming by. It wasn’t like she cared what he looked like. They had each other’s numbers, and yet, they barely spoke.

He hadn’t even known that Briar made signs until Bobbie Jo had told him about it—and then he’d been jealous of their friendship, which in and of itself was absolutely ridiculous.

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