Page 27 of Coiled Tight

It really did. Granted, all food smelled great after a day out of manual labor, but this smelled incredibly good. Hearty and hot and fragrant with however many veggies he’d added to it. I didn’t go around giving empty compliments.

Not anymore.

“I’m a good cook.”

“I know.” He’d taken it up to cook most days to the point the freezer was now mostly all his, and he complained when I tried to take over the kitchen. “Will you come to Saddle Up with me?”

That wasn’t the first thing I’d meant to ask him.

It got Cam’s attention, though, his focus shifting enough he dropped the wooden spoon on the stovetop and whipped around until he was facing me.

Maybe getting his attention had been a bad idea. I could’ve done without the red-rimmed eyes. I’d known they were there, and how it had felt to have the image etched into my head all evening, but the physical reminder was a sucker punch to the gut all the same.

“The cowboy convention?”

I swallowed. “You know it?”

“Some of the techs were talking about it.” He shook his head. “Um. Why would I go with you?”

“We set up a stand there every year and network. It meanswe hear it first if someone needs to offload a horse or if they know of an animal that needs rescuing.” I fidgeted with the leather wristband in my left hand. “Half of the stand is about donations, and one of the vets is there to talk about the animals and stuff. The other half, I sell leather gear, and it’s extra money for the sanctuary.”

Cam blinked. “Leather gear.”

“No one’s going to be openly kinky, and I’m not displaying nine o’ tails, but a bunch of people are, and they place orders beforehand.”

And now, Cam was the only worker in the sanctuary who knew about it. Everyone knew I crafted stuff with leather and set up half of our stand with those, of course. Sofía just pretended not to see when I handed over black, plain boxes to some of the people who came by our stand, and not a word was shared about it. I had half the mind that she thought I was involved in some trafficking scheme, but she was too loyal to say anything or let the rumor mill get to me.

Cam scratched at his elbow. “I’m not good at public speaking.”

“You are when you’re talking about the animals, and that’s all you’d have to do.”

Right away, he was protesting the claim. “Iamwhen I’m talking about animals to the people who work with me and need to know about them. It’s different.”

“The people who’ll walk by our stand need to know about them, too.”

Cam narrowed his eyes. To be fair, I didn’t know what was getting into me, why I was leaning into the stubborn streak that wasn’t only Cam’s to own.

“Why do you want me there?”

“I was always planning to ask you.” It felt important that he knew, that he didn’t think this was born out of pity or an attempt to make things better, even though the timing of ithad already muddled that chance. “Sofía can’t make the trip this year, and we always get more donations when there’s a vet there.”

“So. You and me. In… a week.”

His eyes widened at that realization. I frowned. Why was that the shocking matter?

“That a problem?”

Fuck.

What if he was only here because there were no flights heading off to New York? Or there were, but they were too expensive, so he’d bought one that left two weeks from now.

No.

I could not afford to think about the worst-case scenario.

“N-no, I—” Cam took a sharp intake of breath before he shook whatever thoughts were taking hold of his brain. “Where are you on the spectrum?”

Huh?