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“Someone wanna tell me what’s going on?” Cassidy asked again, holding the tack next to his hip, looking wide-eyed between Cash and me.

Cash shot a sideways glance at me. “Ain’t nothin’,” Cash answered and then walked away toward the few horses left in the temporary pen.

Cassidy turned his head accusingly toward me, still not moving. “What’d you do?”

My mouth fell open. “Why is that your immediate assumption?” How dare he accuse me of something.

His eyes swirled like a lake lapping with fish, the greenery beneath the water’s surface dancing with mischievous life. And his lips lifted into a smile. Ugh, that man. “Go saddle your horse; we better get movin’ soon, or we’ll need to ride without lunch. I’ve got a couple things to run into town today once we get back.”

“We’ll get back in time for you to go to town?” I asked, walking toward my saddle.

“We can move a lot quicker now that we ain’t pushin’ a massive herd of cattle.” He stopped talking for a moment as I hoisted my own saddle up. I lifted my gaze to his, and he furrowed his brows.

“What?”

“I guess I thought you would’ve known that already,” he muttered.

“Well, yeah. I knew that the return trip would be faster. I guess I thought you’d be working with the stallion once we got back,” I answered, confused.

His gaze raked over my figure briefly, sending a shudder down my spine. What could possibly be going through his mind? But it was quick, and his eyes were looking out over the horizon before I knew it.

He turned and began walking toward the horses. I followed, though not quite as quickly as he managed to move. “I hope you ride as good as you say, ’cause I’m not waitin’ if you can’t keep up.”

My feet stopped moving. “What?!” I shouted. Half of the ride yesterday was in the dark, during a heavy thunderstorm. I had zero idea on how to get back down the mountainside, and if he left me, what was I going to do?

He chuckled, raising a brow and glancing back at me. “I like to run, Goldie. Cowboy here likes to move fast like I do.” He tipped his head toward his horse.

I pursed my lips. “You named your horse Cowboy?”

He grinned even wider, dimples pressing into his cheeks, almost completely hidden by his facial hair, but I still noticed. “Yeehaw, baby.”

“CASSIDY!” one of the ranch hands staying behind shouted, cutting through our conversation. Those hazel eyes left mine and shot back at a figure on horseback thundering over the wild, mountain grass. “We got a problem.” His horse slid to a stop, spinning beneath the cowboy whose collar was already stained with sweat.

Cassidy didn’t hesitate, didn’t ask any questions. He immediately hurled himself over the twine used as a makeshift fence line, sprinted toward his horse, and tossed the saddle pad over Cowboy’s back.

There was a problem, and it was something serious if Cassidy hadn’t questioned a thing. Standing here, watching this, did nothing to help them. Taking off, I ran, though not quite as gracefully or fast as Cassidy did, over toward the gelding I’d ridden yesterday.

“What are you doing?” Cassidy asked, somehow already tacked up and leading his horse toward the makeshift gate.

“I can help.” I slipped the bit into the horse’s mouth, gently gliding the ear farther from me under the bridle.

“No.”

“Oh, come on! You know—”

“We’ve got this.”

“Cassidy, yesterday was—”

“This has nothing to do with yesterday,” he snarled, unhooking the twine from the tree branch. “This is my job and their job. We’ve been doing this together for years. We’ve got this. Saddle up and start heading back down the mountain.”

And he threw himself over the back of his horse, and the two men thundered off without another word.

“But I don’t know where to go…” I mumbled, defeated.

This was totally about yesterday.

Chapter 9