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Her eyes filled with moisture again. "You're making this very difficult."

"What?"

"Not falling for you."

My heart stopped. For one glorious second, I forgot how to breathe.

Then a voice carried up from the trail below, bursting the intimacy of the moment. "Mikayla!"

We both turned. Joanie, her cousin, appeared around the bend on Pringle, waving one arm. "There you are!"

Mikayla sprang away from me like we'd been caught robbing a bank.

I bit back a smile.

Her cousin rode closer, grinning. "We've been looking everywhere for you two!"

"Sorry." Mikayla slipped into her professional voice. "We took a different trail."

Her cousin looked at me. Then at Mikayla. Then at her rumpled shirt. Her grin widened. "Uh-huh."

Mikayla closed her eyes. "Please don't."

Joanie lifted one hand and shook her head. "I didn't say anything."

"You're thinking it."

"Oh, I'm thinking several things."

I stepped forward. "All of them true, probably."

Mikayla elbowed me.

Her cousin burst out laughing. "Come on, lovebirds. Everybody's waiting for lunch." She headed back down the trail.

I helped Mikayla into the saddle. This time, she didn't tell me she could do it herself. She looked down at me. And for one brief, beautiful second, the woman who ran a billion-dollar company looked almost shy.

"Thank you for bringing me here."

I smiled. "Anytime."

I meant it. Anytime. Tomorrow. Next week. Ten years from now. Whenever she needed a place to breathe. Whenever the world got too loud. Whenever she forgot she didn't have to carry everything by herself.

I'd bring her here. I'd sit beside her. I'd remind her.

Even if she never loved me back. Even if Monday came and she walked away. Because that was the thing about loving someone. It wasn't about what they could give you. It was about wanting to give them everything.

And as I swung into Sawdust's saddle, I realized something. I wasn't going to spend the next two days trying to convince Mikayla Parsons to fall in love with me.

I was going to spend them showing her what it felt like to be loved by someone. Somebody who showed up. Somebody who saw her. Somebody who valued her. Somebody who didn't disappear when things got hard. Somebody who loved her unconditionally.

19

THE THIGHS HAVE IT

Mikayla

“No, I don't want to reschedule the meeting. I want them to explain why they thought moving the deadline without consulting me was an acceptable business practice.”