Page 63 of The Wildest Ride

“There’s no real trick to it,” she said more tersely than she should have. “You just look for signs of cows.”

A blush brought some color to the kid’s face but he braved on. “What signs are those?”

Lil heard the real question in the kid’s words, and it was AJ’s face that flashed in her mind—not mocking her from the front seat, as he was now, but uncertain, as he’d been at her doorstep.

The kid wasn’t asking just for the sake of some social media posts. He was asking becausehewanted to know.

Resigned, Lil gave him a real smile, it wasn’t his fault he was irritating.

His mouth dropped open slightly.

Making an effort to project more warmth into her voice, she said, “You start with your basic senses. The first one—better than even sight—is smell. Sound is next as listening is better than looking more than half the time. Then, finally, you can turn to sight, but usually if you can see them, you don’t need to be looking for them. If they’re moving fast, even your sense of touch is better than sight. Either way, your greatest ally is the cows themselves. It’s their nature to group up, so usually once you find one, you’re not far from the lot.”

The boy took notes furiously.

In the front seat, AJ sat straighter, his posture alert. He was listening in, too.

Good.

They hadn’t seen any cattle in miles, which meant they’d have to track them down.

He needed to know as much as, if not more than, the kid beside her.

The driver stopped the truck in a spot so similar and unremarkable to the rest of the ride that it felt like it couldn’t be anything but random, but then he double-checked the location on his phone, nodded, cranked his door open, and hopped out with a grunt. Behind him, the van also parked.

The kid scrambled to follow him out of the truck, saying over his shoulder, “That’s enough to get a post out. Thank you, Ms. Sorrow.”

Lil sighed behind the kid’s back, mentally thanking Gran once again. It would be absolutely futile to tell the kid her last name wasn’t Sorrow, but Island.

Working together, the greenies unloaded and saddled the horses and packed the saddlebags. It was all Lil could do not to snort.Realcowboys took care of their own gear. But the Closed Circuit was the Closed Circuit: it would prove its contestants had grit its own way.

In reality, it had to respect union rules. Since the competition was being filmed, all the contestants were considered on-screen talent and had to be treated with kid gloves when it came to things like luggage handling and wet sidewalks.

In the cab of the truck, Lil asked, “You ready?”

AJ gave her a nonchalant smile through the rearview mirror and said, “Of course.”

Lil raised an eyebrow and pressed, wanting to push him past his front. “Really?”

AJ took his sunglasses off to meet her eyes in the mirror, and her heart did a little flip like it always did when their gazes connected. With more seriousness, he said, “We’re about to start, aren’t we?”

Lil couldn’t help the slight upward quirk of her lips at his response. It was a kind of logic she understood. “You’re right, there, Garza,” she said.

AJ opened the door and slid out of the truck. Lil followed him out, grateful to stretch her legs.

Standing by the horses, AJ pulled on a navy-colored Western-style long-sleeve over his T-shirt and started to button it while the older greenie gave them the rundown on their supplies.

The chatter faded into a quiet buzz in the back of Lil’s mind as she watched the quick work of AJ’s fingers moving up his chest, button by button.

It was going to be a long twenty-four hours.

Shading her eyes with her hand, she distracted herself with scanning the horizon around them.The best way out, she thought,was always through, which meant finding the cows and getting them back. Quickly.

The older greenie handed Lil her horse’s reins and she thanked him. The horse was a blond buckskin that Lil immediately named Becky. Patting her neck in introduction, Lil breathed in deep and pressed her forehead against Becky’s white blaze, the scent and sensation momentarily transporting her back home to Rory and the ranch and Gran, all of whom she missed more and more with each passing day of the tour.

The old-timer asked them once more, “You guys know the rules?”

Lil and AJ nodded, though she was sure there was probably a rule in there against stripping your partner with your eyes. The man checked his phone one more time before finishing up with, “Good. This is the spot. The cows aren’t too far from here. Round them up, get them to the corrals, then pen ’em up before time’s up.” He nodded toward the saddlebags. “You’ve got all the supplies you need and then some. Good luck.”