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“What?”
“Look.” I pointed at the river a few hundred yards ahead. Her eyes widened, and she slapped a hand over her mouth.
“There he is!” she shrieked, her eyes studying the horse, whose nose was dipped in the water. “Wait, why do we have to make camp? Can’t we just ride an hour or so more and make it home now that we have Bud?”
“You have no idea where we are, do you?” I asked and glanced up at the girl sitting quietly in the saddle. “Goldie, when you ran away—as asked by me so this isn’t me blaming you—but when you ran away, you ran in the opposite direction of home. We’ve got at least a four, maybe five-hour ride to still get back down to the main ranch.”
She blew her cheeks up and looked away from me. “Oooh, my bad,” she mumbled sheepishly.
“It’s fine. Let’s go get Bud, and I’ll do some fishin’. There’s a spot further up the river that’s got quite a bit of trout. I should manage to catch one or two without a rod.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and began walking over to the lone horse, my spurs ringing out behind me.
∞∞∞
Crouching beside the river, my mind swam as rapidly as the trout darting beneath the surface. The bank was a bit muddier than normal from the rain last night, which raised the height of the water. And I wondered what in the world I was doing.
Having this moment to myself was toeing on the line of productive thoughts and those of Briar. I knew I should’ve been thinking about what to do next with these illegal hunters—possible poachers—who had probably killed that poor cow and then tried to destroy her carcass and her two-headed baby to make it look like coyotes or something.
But all that was swirling in my mind was that kiss. Briar’s silky lips against mine.
There was this desperate need to feel that again. To hold her tightly against my body and kiss her more deeply than I’d ever kissed another woman before. If I wasn’t careful, I’d step over the line she was clearly trying to draw between us. A line that confused me, made me wonder what her intentions were behind both the boundaries as well as the motivation of her kissing me in the first place. That kiss must’ve only been her way of expressing gratitude that I didn’t leave her stranded out here.
Groaning, I rammed my eyes closed, ignoring the prickling cold sensation of the brisk water turning my hand numb. Wet fish scales slithered against my palm, close enough that I should be able to snatch a second trout out of the river in another second.
But first, I needed to convince myself of that lie.
The only reason she’d kissed me was because I’d rescued her.
Her feelings for me had been made clear—she did not like me, even if her reasoning was very much unclear. She said that right before I kissed her. That was right. I kissed her.
But she kissed me back.
Since when were women confusing for me. It had always been straight forward before; in every interaction with the opposite gender, I knew exactly what to say or do to get what I wanted from a woman. How conceited am I? But it was true, I never had any issue with things like that.
Until now.
I thought I’d been able to learn from my past mistakes, but now, I wasn’t sure how they were helpful at all. She made me feel… strange. So, indescribable…
Was this what Weston meant when—
“Cassidy?” her sweet voice called out, and my eyes snapped open. As I shifted to raise my gaze to meet hers, a smile tugged at my lips.
Just as my boot slipped.
And my entire body plummeted into the cold river.
Like daggers stabbing into my skin, the bullet wound screamed with pain as it scraped against the rocky bed. My fingers tightened around a fish, and I thrashed about. Spinning uncontrollably, the current tore me down the river.
My free hand reached toward the silver light dancing across the surface of the rapidly moving water, and I sputtered. My lungs convulsed, begging for oxygen.
My fingers briefly broke through the surface. As air brushed against my exposed skin, the summer warmth drew blood to my outstretched hand. Pushing my feet as hard as I could against the bottom of the river, I shot through the grave that had unsuccessfully tried to bury me.
Swimming gangly with one arm, I kicked toward the bank and dug my fingers into the muddy bed. It wasn’t too difficult to drag myself out of the river, and I plopped myself on my back. Cold and wet.
And annoyed.
Laughter erupted around me, and the most angelic face popped into my vision.
Alright, I was also slightly embarrassed, but she would never get to know that.
