Page 20 of The Wrangler and the Tenderfoot

I walked over, aware of Gray just out of my line of vision. He had my back. “Maybe not,” I said. “But I wanted to.”

She laughed. “Are you always the white knight, or just when there’s a crowd?”

I considered it. “Crowds don’t bother me. Bullies do.”

She looked at me for a long second. “I had it handled.”

“I know,” I said, and meant it. “You’re clearly competent. But you shouldn’t have had to.”

She stared past me, at the empty street. The mask slipped, just a hair, and I saw the tremor in her hands, the way her left thumb worked the edge of the package, ready to tear something.

“Did one of them hurt you?” I asked.

She shook her head, but not in denial. “No, nothing like that, but I’m always on edge, waiting on something bad.”

I nodded. “You want to get coffee? Or do you want to just be done with this place?”

She looked up, and for a second, something in the air between us changed. “What I want,” she said, “is to not have to fight them every damn day.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. So, I did what felt right. I closed the distance, slow enough for her to step away, but she didn’t. I reached out, touched her shoulder and waited.

She let out a breath, let her guard drop, and then she got up on her tiptoes and kissed me. It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t pretty. It was all heat and teeth, and if I’d had a brain in my head, I’d have stopped it, but I didn’t. I wanted her, and she wanted to not be alone. Or maybe she wanted me too. I didn’t care either way in that moment.

She broke away first, face flushed, and said, “That’s not how this was supposed to go.”

I grinned. “‘Supposed to’ is overrated.”

She laughed again and her whole face lit up. It might’ve been the first time I’d seen her completely unguarded. “You’re trouble, Coulter.”

Understatement. “Always have been.”

She backed away with the box under her arm, and walked to her truck. I watched her go, watched the way she squared her shoulders and shook off the last of the shake. When she slid into the cab, she paused, looked back, and gave me a single, two-finger salute.

I returned it.

She drove off, and I stood there a beat longer than I should have.

Gray came over, expression unreadable. “We done?” he asked.

“Not even close,” I said, and we got in the truck.

We stopped at the feed store for grain. While Gray dealt with the order, I caught sight of Eli by the side of the building, staring daggers at the Coleman truck parked on the far side of the lot.

Levi and Bill stood next to it, shooting the shit. Harlan was gone. As I watched, Levi spotted Eli and said something too quiet for me to catch, but it made Bill laugh and Eli’s face go red. Eli didn’t walk away. He took two steps, fists clenched, and squared up to Levi.

Bill turned, real slow, and said, “You looking for a problem, kid?”

“Just looking at one,” Eli shot back.

Levi stepped forward, nose to nose, and for a moment I thought we’d be picking Eli’s teeth out of the gravel.

I moved, fast, and got between them before anyone could escalate. “Let’s not,” I said. “Not here.”

Eli tried to shove past, but I caught his arm, hard enough for him to get the point.

Levi grinned, all teeth and venom. “You got a leash on your pup, huh?”

“Better than letting him run wild,” I said. “Better for your sake.”