Cassie doubled over laughing. “Oh my god. Winnie, your face. This is the content I crave.”
“Shut up,” Winnie muttered, eyes still on me.
“I’m just saying,” I continued, stepping closer, “you spend all day telling me to lift things and fix things. Figured I should at least get to appreciate the view while I’m doing it.”
“The view,” Winnie repeated slowly.
“You. The view is you.” I gestured at her, at the sunset. “In case that wasn’t clear.”
“Oh, it’s clear,” Cassie said, leading Thunder toward the barn. “Crystal fucking clear. You still gonna pretend there’s no tension?”
“There’s no—” Winnie’s voice cracked.
“There’s definitely something,” I said, holding her gaze. “Has been since week one. I’ve just been trying to be respectful. But pretending it’s not there is exhausting.”
Winnie stared, mouth open. I could see her brain short-circuiting.
“You…” She swallowed. “You can’t just… after three weeks of being professional, you don’t get to just switch—”"Switch to being honest?" I stepped off the last porch step, closing some of the distance between us. Not too much—I wasn't an asshole—but enough that she had to tilt her head to look at me. "Yeah, I can. Because I'm tired of acting like I don't think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Like I don't watch you work and wonder what it would feel like to—"
"Okay!" she cut me off, face fully crimson now, glancing frantically toward the house where Pops might be watching. "Cassie's right. You need to make yourself useful. Help us with the stalls before you say something we can't take back."
"Who says I want to take it back?"
Her eyes met mine. For a second—just a second—I saw want flash across her face.
Then she spun, grabbing Bandit’s reins. “Come on. Before Pops hears whatever this is and gets the shotgun.”
Cassie was cackling when we walked into the barn. “Holy shit. Three weeks of good boy behavior and you just… unleash that?”
“Figured it was time to remind everyone I know how to flirt.” I grabbed water buckets.
“That wasn’t flirting. That was a declaration of intent.”
“Was it?” I shot Winnie a look as she started unsaddling with shaking hands. “Yet.”
“Oh my god,” she muttered to the horse. “Did you hit your head? Eat bad hay?”
“Nope. Just stopped fighting what’s obvious.” I filled Thunder’s trough, keeping my tone casual despite my pounding heart. “You’re hot, Winnie. And I’ve been pretending I haven’t noticed. I’m done with that.”
Cassie pulled out her phone. “I’m recording this for posterity.”
“Delete that,” Winnie said weakly.
“Absolutely not. Tyler’s gonna lose his mind.”
“Why would Tyler care?” My head snapped up.
“Because he’s been nursing a crush on Winnie since high school and she dumped him for being boring.” Cassie grinned.
I looked at Winnie, who was determinedly not looking at me. “You dumped a guy for being boring?”
“He wanted to watch the same three movies and thought adventure meant trying a new pizza place,” she said to the saddle. “I needed more.”
“Fair.” I moved closer, grabbing the brush she’d dropped. “So what’s not boring? Hypothetically.”
“Hypothetically?”
“Yeah. What would someone have to do?”
