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"You told me she was seventeen."

"Exactly. Teenage metabolism."

Mikayla narrowed her eyes. "You're enjoying this."

"Watching you negotiate with a twelve-hundred-pound animal who doesn't recognize your authority?" I grinned. "More than you could possibly imagine."

"Lady," she said firmly, gathering the reins. "We are going to move forward now."

Lady continued eating.

I pressed my lips together.

"Don't," Mikayla warned.

"Don't what?"

"Laugh."

"I would never,” I claimed right before an amused huff broke my composure.

She pointed a finger at me. "You're a terrible boyfriend."

"Fake boyfriend," I corrected. "And according to your Aunt Laura, I'm ranking ten out of ten stars."

"That's because you told her she looked twenty years younger than she is."

"She does."

"She's sixty-two."

"And doesn't look a day over forty-two."

Mikayla shook her head, but the corner of her mouth twitched. There it was. My favorite thing in the entire world. Making Mikayla Parsons smile when she was trying her damnedest not to.

Ahead of us, the rest of her family had rounded the bend in the trail. Their laughter drifted back through the trees.

"Come on," I said, guiding Sawdust beside Lady Di. "I'll show you a shortcut."

"Why?"

"Because I want to get you alone."

Her head snapped toward me.

I grinned. "Relax, darlin’. I meant so I could ravish you."

"Damon." She rolled her eyes with a smile. Another reaction I was growing quite fond of.

"What? Too subtle?"

"You're impossible."

"And yet, here you are. Paying for my company."

"Remind me to request a refund."

"Sorry.” I cringed. “All sales final.”