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Steam reached her face. She breathed it in, eyes shutting for one second.

I kept one hand under the mug.

"Drink."

She took a small swallow and winced.

"Too hot?"

"No. Good."

Her eyes opened.

There were a hundred things between us. The note. The cell. Bozeman. The road. The promise she broke and the lie I told first.

None mattered before heat.

I drew the blanket tighter under her chin.

Biscuit stayed across her feet.

Josie drank again, and I watched color begin the slow trip back into her face.

I had spent the whole night building sentences and lost every one when she looked at me.

The mug sat under her mouth. Steam dampened the loose hairs at her temples. Her shaking had eased from violent to steady.

I stayed on one knee before her.

"I would've come."

"I know."

"No." I put my hand over the blanket at her shin. "You need the whole thing."

She waited.

"The second there was a road, I'd have driven it. Wyatt took my keys. Cash stood in front of the truck. Said if I buried another ranch vehicle, he'd knock me unconscious and tell everybody I slipped."

That got the smallest breath from her. Not quite a laugh.

I kept going.

"The herd needed me. Two hundred lives. Calves hitting snow. Heifers down. Generator failing." My thumb moved once over the blanket. "I stayed."

Her eyes held mine above the mug.

"It was the worst thing I've ever done."

She lowered the coffee.

"Staying?"

"Knowing you were out there and turning back to the pens."

I could still feel it. Every step away from the door. Every calf I dried while my mind put her truck into another ditch. Every time the wind sounded like an engine and wasn't.

Josie watched me for a long second. Then she put the mug on the desk. "That's exactly why I love you."