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He needed time to think about that.
TJ stepped into the barn ahead of her, giving her the choice of where she wanted to go.
She moved as far away from him as possible, using Smokey as an excuse to go to the other side of the barn, but it didn’t bother him. TJ considered it progress, considering she hadn’t been able to go inside with him only a few hours earlier.
‘Do you have social media?’ she asked, drastically changing the subject.
‘Sure. It’s a good source of revenue if you have a following. Why?’
Skye pulled a hoof pick out of her tack bag and disappeared into Smokey’s stall. She raised her voice to be heard. ‘I’ve been thinking of starting one. I have a personal Instagram, but I don’t post to it anymore—’ She stopped talking abruptly, but when she carried on, her voice was more cautious. ‘But if I started a travelling one, I could use a pseudonym, for privacy, kinda build a community on there. Maybe eventually make a little money on the side.’
He didn’t ask any questions, just rolled with her new topic of conversation. ‘It’s not a bad idea if you have the time to make content. I’m shit at it, so I pay a content creator to do all my videos.’
‘I’d have to do it myself. I’d called it “A Girl’s Guide to Solo Travel”.’
‘“Wild Skye”,’ he stated.
‘What?’
‘“Wild Skye”. Short, to the point.’
‘Hmm. I’ll think about it.’
‘You’re welcome.’
Skye snorted. ‘Your arrogance knows no bounds.’
TJ just grinned as he ran a curry comb over his gelding, Kai’s, coat. He’d already groomed all the horses, but just then, he couldn’t think of anywhere else he’d rather be than standing in his family barn with a pretty girl, surrounded by the familiar smell of horse.
‘How many followers do you have?’ she asked.
‘Last I checked, maybe half a mil or so.’
‘What?’ she squeaked.
TJ grinned. ‘Most people don’t think I’m a dime a dozen.’
Her light giggle reached for him, called to him, and wanting to be closer, TJ let himself out of Kai’s stall. He slid the door closed, then sat on the concrete floor and leaned his back against the warm wood.
He could see Skye through the slatted top of Smokey’s stall, and obviously unaware that he was watching, she wrapped her arms around her horse’s neck and rested her cheek against the warm horseflesh. She closed her eyes and smiled, and even though it was supposed to be a private moment, TJ couldn’t tear his gaze away.
When she moved to let herself out of the stall, he finally shifted and pretended to be preoccupied with dusting his mud-caked boots.
Skye hesitated, but he just picked up the conversation, saying, ‘If you post while you travel, make sure to leave a lag time.’
‘Lag time?’ She walked over to where he sat.
TJ’s heart pumped thickly as she closed that distance by choice for the first time. He barely breathed as Skye sat down beside him, their shoulders a mere foot apart. When he replied, his voice was husky. ‘Backlog content, so that you only post about a location once you’ve moved on. There’re some crazies online. I had one girl stalk me to six rodeos in a row before I wised up.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah. It was actually kinda terrifying. She knew my parents’ names and that they owned a dairy farm. I hadn’t realized before that, to the wrong person, every little snippet, every post or story, is a goldmine of information.’
‘I know how to be careful.’
‘I bet.’
‘But thanks. I’ll leave a lag time.’
