“Hey.”
“My mom wants you to come to Sunday dinner tonight at Aunt Ellie and Uncle Keaton’s. She misses you.” He crossed his arms over his chest as if he was prepared for me to argue with him.
“I miss her, too. I’d love to go.”
The Chadwicks were my second family growing up. And Isabelle Chadwick was a second mother to me. She and I had stayed in touch even after Axel and I had stopped speaking. She’d never pushed or gotten involved in our falling out. But she’d followed all my competitions and sent me texts to congratulate me after every single one.
“Oh. I’d prepared for a fight.”
“Not everything is a fight, Cowboy,” I chuckled. I snatched his hat off his head and popped it on mine as I ran toward the door at the end of the barn.
He chased me just like he always did, snaking an arm around my waist when he caught me before tugging me against him. He turned me around so that I was facing him, then pressed my back up against the barn door and smiled down at me.
“You always looked better in my hat anyway,” he said, his voice gruff as my chest brushed against his.
“You look damn good in a hat, and you know it.” My heart thumped rapidly against my chest, but I tried to appear unaffected.
But I was not unaffected.
“You know the saying, right?” he said. He leaned in even closer, standing a good foot taller than me.
The smell of leather and mint filled my senses.
“‘Don’t steal a dude’s hat if you can’t outrun him’?” I said, and I couldn’t hide the smile from my face.
He laughed. “I know there aren’t too many true cowboys out there in your world, but surely, you’ve been around enough to know the saying.”
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s hear it, oh wise one.”
“You wear the hat, you ride the cowboy, Wren.” His voice was gruff, and the little smear of dirt on his cheek made him all the more sexy.
I pulled the hat off and pushed up on my tiptoes to set it on his head. “Been there, done that, Cowboy.”
He chuckled, stepping back when I pressed my hands against his chest.
I needed space.
Air.
Ever since we’d made peace with working on our friendship, we’d quickly fallen into old habits.
There was just a comfort there that I’d never felt with anyone else.
I craved it. I yearned for it.
But I also feared it.
“That bad, huh?” he asked, and his smile looked forced.
Was he actually wounded?
The man had devastated me.
“I’m going to go catch a shower before we head to dinner at your aunt and uncle’s,” I said, ignoring the question.
He nodded and adjusted his hat. “Yeah, me too. See you in forty-five minutes.”
But it was the way his eyes stayed on me as I glanced over my shoulder to see him watching me.
