His eyes narrowed. “No, you’re not.”
Heat raced up my neck and spread over my cheeks. “Are you always this… intrusive?”
“I’m always this honest,” he shot back.
Ruby made a pleased little sound like she was watching a show she’d paid for.
“I can handle town gossip,” I said. “It’s not the first time someone’s assumed I didn’t earn something.”
Slade’s jaw flexed. “That’s not gossip. That’s a warning.”
“A warning?” I repeated, keeping my voice low even as my pulse kicked up.
Slade leaned closer, just enough that I could pick up the faint scent of horses and pine. “People around here decide what they believe first. Then they look for proof. If they think you’re here because your daddy bought you a job, they’ll find a way to make that story true.”
I held his gaze. “And you’re telling me this because you care about my reputation?”
His expression hardened. “I’m telling you because it could affect the rodeo.”
“Bull,” I said, my voice quiet.
Ruby’s eyes widened a fraction, clearly delighted.
Slade’s gaze sharpened. “Excuse me?”
“If this was about the rodeo,” I said, being sure to keep my tone calm and even, “you would’ve stayed out of it. You would’ve let me deal with it. You’re not the kind of man who goes out of his way unless something’s irritating you.”
His eyes narrowed. “Irritating me?”
“Yes,” I said, meeting him head-on. “The idea that someone else got to take a shot at me before you did.”
For a second, his expression flickered to something like surprise, then amusement, then a darker kind of interest that made my stomach flip.
Ruby made a soft humming sound like she was savoring the moment.
Slade leaned forward, setting his palms on the counter. “You’re feisty today.”
“I’m competent,” I corrected.
“And stubborn.”
“That too.”
He stared at me for a long beat, and I had the uncomfortable sense that he was seeing me differently now. Not as the planner. Not as the outsider, but as something else.
Then his gaze flicked to my boots. I was still wearing the same ones I’d had on when he led me all over the ridge. The toes were scuffed from being out in the snow and ice. It was like he was judging my entire character based on my choice of boots.
“Have you ever even been on the back of a horse?” he asked.
I blinked. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Ruby laughed outright. “Oh, honey.”
Slade stared at me like I’d confessed to a major crime. “You’re planning a rodeo and you’ve never sat in a saddle?”
“I plan infrastructure,” I said. “Not stunts.”
His mouth twitched. “You oughta fix that.”
