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Kinsley stood perfectly still, her posture tense and guarded as if she was afraid one wrong move might shatter the fragile truce between us. The only sounds were the rodeo crowd’s distant chatter and Drifter’s content munching. He was oblivious to the tension crackling in the air.
“I should get him put away.” I gave Drifter’s reins a little tug, getting his attention away from the food, and he reluctantly followed me.
Kinsley fell into step beside us, her arm brushing against mine with each stride, sending sparks skittering across my skin.
“If you want to get the vet to… I mean, I could—”
Whatever she was going to offer, I didn’t want to hear it.
I didn’t want her rescuing me, so I interrupted her. “I’ll figure it out,” I said, my voice firm.
Kinsley’s blue eyes searched my face, protest forming on her lips. She wanted to push me, convince me to accept her offer of help, but something in my expression must have stopped her. I saw the frustration and concern warring in her gaze, the way her brow furrowed as if she was physically biting back the words threatening to spill out. Pressing her mouth into a thin line, she swallowed back the argument I knew was on the tip of her tongue.
I felt a pang of guilt at shutting her down, but I refused to back down. This was my problem to handle, my mess to clean up. I would figure this out on my own, even as a small voice in the back of my mind wondered if I was making a mistake.
Kinsley’s eyes searched my face a moment longer, likely looking for a crack in my resolve, but I kept my expression carefully neutral, and she gave a small nod of acceptance. Disappointment flickered across her face—there one moment and gone the next, replaced by a mask of composure.
“Right, okay.” She moved to leave.
Suddenly, I couldn’t stand the thought of her walking away. “How was your ride today?” I blurted, stopping her in her tracks.
She turned back to me, then rolled her eyes dramatically. “Ugh, a total disaster. Gambler and I are still trying to get on the same page.”
I couldn’t help the smirk that played across my lips at her exasperated tone. “The great Kinsley Jackson, struggling to handle a horse?”
“Oh, can it, Collins,” she fired back, but there was no real venom behind her words. In fact, her bright eyes sparkled with amusement at our familiar back-and-forth. “Says the cowboy who couldn’t even stay on the mechanical bull at Rhett’s birthday party last year.”
“Hey now, that bull was rigged!” I protested with a laugh. “Besides, I seem to recall you couldn’t stop staring at this cowboy’s ... skills ... that night.”
The words hung between us, reigniting the lingering sparks of heated awareness that still crackled in the air whenever we got too close.
Kinsley’s cheeks flushed, but she didn’t look away and held my gaze boldly. “Well, you put on quite the show, cowboy.” Her tone took on a sultry lilt. “As I recall, you rode me pretty hard later that night too.”
It was my turn to feel the warmth of a blush creeping up my neck at her brazenly flirtatious words. Kinsley had never been shy. She said things that could bring me to my knees in an instant.
“Is that so?” I replied roughly, unable to resist playing along. “The way I remember it, you’re the one who couldn’t get enough—"
“Okay, okay!” Kinsley laughed as she held up her hands in surrender. “Let’s just agree that we were both pretty ... insatiable back in the day.”
The words “back in the day” caused a pang in my chest—a reminder of everything that had gone wrong between us despite our intense physical connection. As easily as we fell into this teasing affection, we always seemed to find our way to the same stumbling blocks that made our relationship crumble in the long run.
Some of that must’ve shown on my face because Kinsley’s expression sobered, her smile slipping. We walked a few paces in tense silence before she finally spoke again. “You know, I missed this.”
When I shot her a quizzical look, she waved a hand between us.
“The talking, joking, driving each other crazy...” A wistful smile played across her lips. “We were pretty good at that, weren’t we?”
“Among other things,” I agreed softly.
There had been times when Kinsley and just ... fit. When our combative energies aligned into something electric and intoxicating. Until real life got in the way, of course. Our dreams, our ambitions, our vastly different upbringings—they all eventually wedged an impassable divide between us, no matter how strong the physical connection was.
Kinsley’s smiled turned melancholic. “Yeah, well, I guess we were good at some things but not so much at making it last, huh?”
The words struck me like a slap, not because they were cruel but because they rang so utterly true. Despite the spark that still burned between us, despite the comfort her presence brought me, Kinsley and I were a lighted match in a drought-stricken field. Eventually, we would burn everything in sight.
“I guess not,” I agreed. The rueful moment between us shattered, bringing us crashing back to reality. “Which is why we’re better off staying away.”
Kinsley’s shoulders slumped, but she still mustered up a tight smile and gave a small nod of acceptance. “Right. We just— We don’t work.”
