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Westin reached up and pushed his hat back a little so he could scratch his hairline. “Asa taught me more in just a month on this ranch than I would have learned in a year under anyone else. He was the kind of guy who’d just throw you into the ring and expect you to figure out how to fight your way out. He expected me to earn my wage from the word go, and if I hadn’t, he would have cut me loose without thinking twice about it.”

“Sounds tough.”

“Sometimes that’s the only way to teach someone.”

“I had a boss like that once,” Lea agreed. “Put me in a bad situation in order to prove a point. I think he’s serving burgers at McDonald’s now.”

Westin looked hard at her like he didn’t believe her, but then he nodded, scratching his forehead again. “That’s the difference between—”

“Men and women?”

“I was going to say city folk and cowboys, but I suppose that works, too.”

She grunted. “You really think you have it all figured out, don’t you?”

“No. No, I don’t, and I hope I never do. But there are a few things I understand, and ranching is one of those things.”

They rode on in silence for a while, only the sound of the leather creaking and the horses breathing to fill the space around them. The sun was just beginning to peek through the high, winter clouds. They had to pause at a closed gate that Westin leaned down to release, gesturing for her to lead her horse through ahead of him. As she tugged on the horse’s reins to stop her before she got too far ahead of Westin and his horse, a few snowflakes fell and brushed against her nose. She tilted her head back and watched as a shower of big, lazy snowflakes began to fall around her. Their touch was like a lover’s caress on the bare inches of her flesh exposed below her hat and above the scarf Westin had given her. She was overwhelmed for a moment by how beautiful and graceful nature could truly be.

“Sometimes I allow myself to get so caught up in the darkness in this world, I forget there’s some good out there, too.”

Westin moved up beside her, his horse brushing at her leg as he came to a stop. “I guess cooking up drugs and being dragged out of cars by ex-lovers will do that.”

“I never said Fang was my lover,” she corrected him quickly, the idea of that man touching her sending a shiver of revulsion down her spine.

“You said he was your ex. The lover thing was just an assumption.”

“An incorrect assumption. We only knew each other a few months.”

“In my experience, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything when it comes to becoming lovers.”

“Oh? Are you insinuating that I’m some sort of slut?”

Westin studied her, his eyes moving quickly over the length of her. “That’s not the word I would use.”

“Then what word would you use?”

“Impatient? Maybe eager?”

Lea sniffed. “I love the double standard men have when it comes to women. You meet a woman in a bar, and you screw her brains out in the front seat of your truck, and it’s a normal Saturday night. I meet a guy, talk him into a little slap and tickle in the bathroom, and suddenly I’m a slut.”

“In that scenario, we’d both be sluts.”

He was so earnest about it that she had to laugh. “Is that right, cowboy? Are you just as much a slut as I am?”

“I’ve had my moments.” He shrugged. “Sex is a physical need that all human beings must satisfy in their own way, in their own style. Some are strong enough to control the impulse until they find the right person. Some aren’t. And some can remain monogamous, and some can’t. But there’s no shame in it as long as everyone goes into it responsibly. It’s the ones who aren’t responsible who should be ashamed of themselves.”

“You mean people like Clint’s wife?”

Westin gave his horse a kick, starting them on their path again. Lea’s horse kept right up, sauntering along like this walk was one she took every day. Westin glanced over at Lea, his eyebrow cocked.

“How do you know about Melanie?”

“He told me last night. I think he just desperately needed to say the words out loud.”

He nodded. “He’s taking it hard. And I don’t blame him, what with their daughter and everything.”

“He told me about her, too. He’s afraid his wife will take her to Denver and not allow him to see her again.”