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Chyanne gasped and whirled around, throwing her arms around him. “Yes! Can we, can we, can we?”

Both men chuckled at her antics. “You can only pick one,” Chandler told her.

Immediately her joy morphed into worry. “Oh, how am I supposed to do that without making someone else jealous?”

“Well, there’s only three horses in the stables right now,” Chandler pointed out. “So they’ll all get some exercise.”

“Whoever you don’t ride now, you can ride tomorrow.Butthat means you’ll have to be extra good,” Aaron put in.

“Oh, I will!” she promised fervently.

It took her fifteen minutes to choose. They both waited patiently and then Aaron got Dandelion ready and Chandler helped Chyanne into the saddle.

It had been a long time since he’d ridden, and at first Aaron and Chyanne were in the lead. But part of his reason for hanging back was that he just loved watching her. Her hair had come completely undone and was streaming behind her like the most beautiful red-gold ribbons.

He drank in the sight of her, wondering if he’d ever get his fill. Then he used his knees to urge his horse to catch up. They rode for hours. They explored every single inch of the ranch, sometimes waving to people walking by. Other times they raced to the music of their own laughter.

But finally their horses were exhausted and they headed back to the stables.

Aaron helped Chyanne dismount while Chandler refilled his own horse’s water trough.

They were rewarding their mounts with carrots and apples when Chandler glanced over and saw that Chyanne seemed downtrodden as she offered Dandelion a carrot.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine,” she answered in a sad voice that had Aaron looking up.

“Do we need to have a conversation about lying, Chyanne?”

She sat up straighter, eyes wide, and shook her head. “No, Master.”

“I didn’t think so. I can think of plenty of creative ways to teach that naughty tongue of yours a lesson. Now, what’s going on?”

“Um…”

“Come on,” Chandler encouraged. “You can tell us anything.”

“I know, just…”

“Just what?”

“It’s not that big a deal,” she said in a way that made it sound like a very, very big deal.

“What is it, Chyanne?” Aaron demanded.

“It’s just… one of the girls…”

“The ones you were eating with today?” Chandler asked.

She nodded.

“They all seem to like you,” Aaron remarked.

“They do. Well, I think they do. Except…”

“Except who?” they both asked at the same time.

Chyanne gave them a reluctant little smile. “There’s this one girl… Veronica… I don’t think she likes me that much,” she admitted.