Page 4 of His Big Hometown Cowboy
“For ranching?” He knew damn well what I meant.
“For everything.” I held his gaze, letting him see the truth for a moment. “Dating especially.”
He nodded, absorbing that. “I figured. Travis never mentions you seeing anyone.”
“Your brother respects my privacy.”
“So, therehasbeen someone?” His tone stayed casual, but I caught the slight tension in his shoulders, the way his fingers tightened on the rock beside him.
I hesitated. How much to admit?
“Nothing serious.” Truth was, there had been a few men over the years—discrete encounters in the next county over, nothing that lasted beyond a weekend. Nothing that felt like... this.
Like sitting next to Tim Prescott, half-naked by a creek, feeling years of unspoken things finally surface. Nothing that made me want more.
“What about you?” I turned the question back on him. His proximity was doing things to my focus. I was hyper-aware of the space between us, of his heat radiating off his skin. “California must have offered plenty of options.”
“It did.” He squinted at the horizon, lost in thought for a moment. “Dated a startup founder for a while. Brilliant guy, intense. Not my boss, by the way… that would’ve been way toomuch drama. Then there was a graphic designer. Sweet, artistic. Both ended badly.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
He shrugged, a wry twist to his lips. “Occupational hazard of working eighty-hour weeks, I guess. Relationships take time I didn’t have.”
“Is that why you came back? Burnout?”
“Partly.” He pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. “Mostly I missed this.” He gestured vaguely at the surrounding landscape. “Open sky. Quiet. People who knew me before I was whatever Silicon Valley wanted me to be.”
Understanding washed over me. I’d never left this land, never wanted to, but I knew what it meant to wear a mask—to be the stoic rancher, the responsible son, keeping parts of yourself carefully hidden away.
“Well, for what it’s worth,” the words slipped out before I could censor them, “I like this version of you.”
Tim’s smile was slow, softening his features. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. You seem more... yourself.”
“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me in months.” He bumped his shoulder against mine gently. His head barely reached my shoulder when we sat side by side like this. The contact sent another jolt through me. “Though I’m not sure what version of me you’re comparing to.”
“The version that used to follow Travis and me around like a shadow,” I teased, smiling at the memory. “Always watching, taking everything in with those big eyes.”
“I wasn’t following Travis.” His admission hung in the air.
Heat crawled up my neck again, fierce this time. I looked away, toward Pepper.
My clothes were nowhere near dry, but the need todosomething, anything, was sudden and urgent. I stood, my height momentarily casting a shadow over him. I ran my handsover my thighs, as if I were brushing the day’s grime off my jeans, though I wasn’t wearing any.
God, this wasn’t how I pictured this day going—nearly buck naked in front of Timmy Prescott.
In my bare feet, I went and checked Pepper’s reins, fussing unnecessarily.
“How long are you planning on staying?” I asked over my shoulder, keeping my back to him for a moment, trying to gather myself.
I knew what I wanted to do, but asking him out felt like jumping off a cliff blindfolded.
Travis’s brother.
Here, in this town, where everyone knew everyone’s business.
But the way he looked at me... the way I felt looking back... maybe some risks were worth taking. It had been a long, lonely few years.
