Pretty tan legs and ice-blond hair piled high, blowing in the breeze. Muck boots and cutoffs—she always could clean a stall faster than most.
That summer, she’d made it her mission to find more trouble than was good for her. Caleb and I had a hell of a time chasing away the assholes—Alphas and Betas alike. And somehow, something about her had crawled under my skin and made a home there. Those stormy eyes looked at me in a way I wasn’t expecting. Then she kissed me, and fucking unmade me…
My chest aches with the memory.
I had known for years that she had a crush on me, but it wasn’t until that summer that I felt it pull me under. That desperate, bone-deep need to protect her, to claim her, to never let her out of my sight again tormented me.
The feeling had terrified me so much that I’d run like a coward instead of staying, instead of asking her brother to court her. I left for college again, figuring she’d be there come Christmas break, but that’s not what happened.
Caleb and I had come back for Christmas, and I was determined to talk to her. If she’d felt the same, I wouldn’t have let Caleb say no. But she was gone. I never did find out what chased her away. All I ever knew was that she was gone when I got back from college, ready to throw down for her.
Gone.
I should turn around. Walk right back out that door and tell Eli I’ll come back tomorrow when she’s not here. I have no idea where she’s at or who she may have brought back with her.
But I don’t.
I edge closer to the stall, and there she is. Perched on a bucket beside a nervous mare, her blonde hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, wearing jeans that hug her curves and an APBRA jacket that’s too big for her frame. She’s got the mare’s hoof propped between her knees, completely focused on her work.
And fuck me, she’s beautiful.
Not in the polished way of the buckle bunnies who hang around the circuit. But natural…real.
“See? Not so bad, pretty girl. Quick peek, just checking why it hurts, then you can go back to pretending you hate me.”
A rush of emotion sends goosebumps over my skin.
“Easy, sweetheart. Don’t make me call you dramatic. I already have one cowboy with too much ego in my head. Don’t you start.”
The mare settles under her touch, leaning slightly into her ungloved hand as she smooths over her side. Willa mirrors the mare—her shoulders drop, her breathing evens out as the horse settles. There’s something almost meditative about the way she works. Gentle but confident, like she was born to this.
Which she was, I guess. Caleb always said she’d be a vet someday, back when we were all kids running around the circuit. Said she had a gift with animals, that they trusted her in a way they didn’t trust most people.
He was right.
“Willa?”
The sound of my voice in the quiet barn makes her jump, and a startled shriek fills the once-quiet space.
“What the hell? Don’t sneak up on a—” But she doesn’t finish what she was about to say.
Recognition crosses her face when she sees me. She was always total shit at keeping anything she’s thinking to herself.
Our eyes meet across the stall, and time does this weird stuttering thing where everything stops and speeds up all at once. Those gray eyes I’ve been dreaming about for the better part of a decade widen, then narrow as panic, regret, longing, and joy flit across her expression in rapid succession.
“Charlie? How are you here?”
Does she not know that I never left?
“I’m here for the horse,” I say lamely, and regret that those are the first words I say to her.
She looks at me for a long minute and then throws her head back and laughs.
“I can see that. I meant, well, I… I figured you’d be long gone from Muddy Creek.”
“Eli called. Asked me to take a look at this mare before tomorrow.” I gesture toward the horse, but I can’t seem to look away from her face.
“I was just finishing up…” She releases the mare’s hoof and stands, brushing sawdust off her jeans. The movement puts us closer together, close enough that her scent feels like a physical thing.
