The wind that had been howling outside my bedroom window a few nights ago had dragged a freak early September cold front straight off the Bighorns. It snapped the mild summer weather clean in half, dropping the temperature thirty degrees overnight.
I hadn't stopped thinking about what Sienna had said to me in the dark that night. I’d promised I had her back, and I meant it. That started with getting myself healed up properly so I could keep her in Wyoming, and getting her the hell away from her laptop for a morning so she’d stop stressing.
Which was why I’d dragged her out of bed before dawn.
"Explain to me again why you made me shove these flip-flops in my coat pocket," Sienna called out over the thud of hooves on dirt.
Her breath plumed white in the freezing air. The early morning sun was just starting to melt the silver frost off the sagebrush, and she was bundled up to her chin in a fleece-lined denim jacket.
I rode a little ahead on Rio, guiding us up the incline through a stand of ponderosa pines. "Told you. Bottom’s rocky."
"You want to soak our feet in a freezing lake. Are we doing some kind of cowboy cold-plunge therapy? Because I survivedtwenty-six Chicago winters with all ten toes, and I refuse to lose one to a puddle in Wyoming."
A grin tugged at the corner of my mouth. "Trust me, Starlin’. Almost there."
We rode up to a towering wall of jagged red sandstone and gray limestone, hidden from the rest of the ranch by the trees. A narrow gap split the rock, barely wide enough for a horse to squeeze through. I led Rio into it, and she followed close behind on Dusty.
The moment we passed through the rock wall, the biting wind died. The air turned thick, damp, and warm.
Sienna pulled Dusty to a halt beside me as the canyon opened up. The reins went slack in her gloved hands.
"Oh my god," she gasped.
Tucked against the base of the cliffs was a natural hot spring. Mineral water had spilled down the rock for centuries, carving a staircase of smooth limestone pools. The water was crystal clear and glowing turquoise, catching in three deep basins before cascading into the creek below. A narrow cedar boardwalk, weathered to silver, traced the edge of the largest pool.
"Welcome to the Painted Basins," I said quietly, watching her face.
She sat frozen in the saddle, just staring at the thick white steam rolling off the hot water, drifting across the rocks like a trapped cloud. Then she looked back at me, her dark eyes wide.
"Brock, this is... it's incredible.”
"Told you I wasn't dragging you out here for nothing," I said, a little smirk tugging at my mouth.
I swung down off Rio, then stepped over to her. "Come on."
She slipped one boot free of the stirrup and leaned toward me. I caught her around the waist and lifted her to the ground, her eyes still fixed on the steaming pools.
I led Rio and Dusty to a gnarled juniper tree growing just feet from the largest pool, its branches low enough to loop reins over. I fished two apples from my saddlebag, let each horse crunch one, then secured the reins.
By the time I turned around, Sienna had her phone out, aiming it toward the pools. She snapped a picture.
"I'm sending this to Mara later. She's going to think I photoshopped it." She let out a laugh, the sound echoing off the canyon walls. "She’d go crazy for a place like this."
I walked up behind her, my boots thudding softly on the boardwalk. "You should invite her out here to see it herself. We’ve got the room.”
She cast a sideways glance at me. "Careful, cowboy. She might actually take you up on that."
She'd taken to calling me ‘cowboy’ over the past few days. I sure as hell wasn't complaining.
"Hope she does." I held her gaze for a beat. Then, I started unbuttoning my heavy canvas jacket. "Now, take your clothes off, darlin'."
"Right now?"
"Can't soak in a pair of jeans."
I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it onto a dry rock. The warm air clung to my skin, thick as a blanket. When I glanced up, Sienna was staring, her brown eyes locked on my chest.
I winked, then sat to pull off my boots and socks before shucking my jeans and stepping into the hot water.
