Willow:The answer is yes.
Rose:Don’t you want to hear the question?
Willow:Fine. shoot.
Rose:There’s a rodeo next Friday.
Willow:I stand with my first answer.
Rose:The guys at work .?.?. they want me to help them sneak Wilder’s horse out to compete in a barrel race.
Willow:You lost me. What’s a barrel race?
Rose:I’d be helping them steal his horse (granted for a night) to compete in his rival’s rodeo.
Willow:Why would you even consider this?
Rose:Randy—he’ll be the one riding—says he’s sure the horse can win, and it would be huge for our ranch.
Rose:I mean Wilder and Dallas’s ranch. They’re taking a hit this year and this would help business.
Willow’s conflicted too. Or at least confused, because those three dots keep popping up and then disappearing.
Yeah, my thoughts exactly .?.?.
Willow:And if this Randy guydoesn’t win?
Rose:I don’t know. Then he doesn’t, I guess. Randy said he’ll only announce the ranch name if he wins. If not, he’ll just bring the horse back and no one has to know, right?
Willow:I don’t know, Rose, this seems risky. Just be careful.
Rose:Aren’t you the one always telling me to stop looking over my shoulder?
Willow:Not the same thing.
Rose:Right. OK, night babe.
Willow:Rose, I mean it. This doesn’t sound like a good idea. Please stay out of it. And maybe even warn him?
Rose:Love you.
Willow:(sigh) Love you.
18
Wilder
For the rest of the week, I’ve stationed Rose at the main office and asked Ginger to keep her busy. With any luck, some distance will help this boiling pot between us simmer down.
Survey says .?.?. it’s making me want her more.
These feelings, these distractions are all too familiar—but entirely different.
Maybe not entirely. Because everything settling in my chest is that same warm, dangerous feeling I had with Bonnie.
That same natural instinct to be around her, to protect her. To be the hero she never really needed.
Not going down that damn trail again—chasing someone who doesn’t see her forever here. Or with me.
