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"Like hell," August scoffed. "You can't even win a game of cards."
"I haven't been trying!" Gus turned his attention back to the game, and West slid Aiden a knowing wink. He'd worked for Gus since he was a boy; he knew how to handle the ornery old cuss.
Aiden turned to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup in a chipped ceramic mug. The liquid on the bottom of the pot was thick and lukewarm, and the glass desperately needed to be descaled, but he didn't care. Cowboys weren't picky when it came to caffeine. He sipped gratefully, letting the warmth seep into his cold hands. His eyes drifted over the community board above the beverage station. It was filled with the usual ads for animals, firewood, and farm equipment, but one bright blue flyer caught his attention. The page was filled with the graphic of a skier mid-jump, clinging one-handed to a tow rope attached to a racing horse.
"Skijoring, huh?" he asked, plucking the announcement off the corkboard. "They're really going through with it?"
"Damn fools," Gus muttered. "Skiing is tricky enough. They got no business hitching themselves to a racing horse on top of it."
"Reminds me of when we were kids," August cackled, "and you tried to impress Mable by strapping wheels on a sled and tying it to your brother's motorbike."
"That was different," Gus protested.
August's bushy eyebrows crawled up his forehead. "How?"
"I won Mable, didn't I?"
"Fifty years later!"
Aiden tuned them out, scanning the details on the flyer. The grand prize caught his attention. "Five thousand," he murmured, whistling through his teeth.
"You thinking of trying it out?" West asked.
"You gonna pull me?" Aiden cracked back.
"No way." West grinned and adjusted his ball cap. "The thing about bronc riding is that I only risk my own safety. I don't want to be responsible for you. You'll do something stupid, guaranteed."
"Thanks," Aiden said wryly.
West shrugged. "Everyone knows you're crazier than a bag of wet cats."
"I guess I'll need to find someone crazier than me," Aiden said, grinning hugely.
"Good luck." West laughed and returned his attention to his inventory list.
Once the focus was off him, Aiden's smile faded. He studied the flyer, turning it over in his head. That prize money could solve so many problems. Contrary to what his mother thought, he wasn't made of money. He'd been working his ass off at odd jobs since age fifteen, but they'd never paid much.
The slow, wobbly gears in his brain had just started turning when the bell above the door clattered again, gentler this time.
Seth entered on a gust of frost-scented wind, looking as rugged and worn as he had the day before. The broken saddle was slung over one shoulder. His hair was so long it brushed his snow-dusted shoulders and dark enough that it blended into the black felt of the Stetson tipped low over his eyes. His expression was wary when he scanned the room, and then his gaze locked onto Aiden.
For a moment, the world seemed to fall silent. All Aiden could hear was the blood rushing in his ears and the click in the back of his throat when he dry swallowed.
A young woman blew in behind him, rosy-cheeked and voluptuous in a way Aiden found disconcerting for the little girl who used to make funny faces at him through the farmhouse window.
"Well, look who the cat dragged in!" Aiden cried, grinning broadly and scooping Tessa into his arms. "I haven't seen you since you tripped up the stage at your high school graduation!"
"Put me down!" she shrieked as he swung her in a quick circle, grabbing hold of his neck while her feet flew out from under her.
Aiden reluctantly set her on her feet, but he couldn't resist tweaking her nose, delighted when she batted him away and angrily adjusted her hat.
"You're going to give people the wrong idea," she hissed, flushing when the Jensen brothers walked through the door behind them. Riley Jensen, a handsome, clean-shaven kid about Tessa's age, cast them a swift and disapproving look before trailing his older brother to the livestock medications.
"Aw, there ain't nothing wrong about our love, sweetheart," Aiden drawled loudly, slinging his arm over her shoulders and hauling her against his side.
She jabbed him in the ribs with a hard elbow and demanded, "What were you doing at my graduation?"
"The whole town was there," Aiden muttered, rubbing at the sore spot. "Besides, I wouldn't have missed my favorite girl's big day."
