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“It is,” he agrees. “Most days. Others it’s a riot of noise and one catastrophe followed by another.”

“Yeah, but you love it,” I say, and note the glitter in his eyes.

He doesn’t answer, but that’s okay.

There’s this lull. But it isn’t awkward.

Just quiet. Comfortable.

I glance over again, watching the way he rides.

Confident, easy, like he was born to straddle a saddle.

He belongs here.

In this world. In this moment.

“What made you want to do this kind of thing?” I ask. “Ranch life, I mean.”

He thinks about it for a beat, his gaze fixed on the horizon.

“Like my space,” he says at last. “Like working with the animals. They don’t talk much. Don’t lie. It’s a good fit for me.”

His words are simple, but they hit somewhere deep.

“And you?” he asks, flicking those steel-blue eyes to mine. “Always wanted to be a school nurse?”

I laugh, but it’s hollow. “Oh. Um, not—not really,” I say, the truth clawing at the back of my throat.

I don’t offer more.

And Zeke—intuitive, impossibly sexy, alarmingly perceptive Zeke—doesn’t push.

He just nods like he gets it.

Like he understands what it’s like to live with a truth you’re not ready to speak aloud.

For the first time in what feels like years, I don’t feel like I’m scrambling to prove myself. I don’t feel like I have to fight to be heard or twist myself into a more palatable version of me.

I feel wanted.

Safe.

Seen.

And as the wind brushes my skin and the sun warms my back, I realize something that makes my throat go tight.

Falling for this cowboy?

It’s not a question.

It’s not a risk.

It’s already done.

And I am so screwed.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN-ZEKE