Stead woke and, careful not to move his deadened legs, considered the face of the angel in his lap. Her eyelids were translucent, her sable eyelashes against pale cheeks. Relaxed in sleep, her lips were fuller, the dip in the upper one more pronounced. She lay on her side, wrapped around him, head resting on his arm. She looked young, innocent, breakable.

Way too fragile for the likes of him. Had he made a mistake? He’d wanted her–wanted the warm banked fire in her eyes, in her soul. But he was clumsy, with his words, with his habits. He’d already seen how he could cut her without even meaning to.

He was committed to his new lifestyle. Not only for her; his life was already better for them. But what if he screwed up? It was one thing to live when it was only him that would go down, but now . . .

He knew alone. He knew how to navigate the ins and outs of a solitary life. He’d never considered that not being alone could be scary. Nodding your head in the chute, you committed for eight seconds. This—this was much scarier. How did men do it? Stead had had lots of women, but he’d never let a woman in before. Now that door was open, and Harper curled up next to his heart.

She knew his secrets and wanted him anyway. Him. Steadman James, the one the prospective parents always hurried past, never looking him in the eye. The one nobody ever chose. Until Harper.

It made him feel normal. Clean.

Whole.

How could he not give his whole self to the woman who convinced him he was?

She stirred in his arms and stretched. “What time do you think it is?”

“No idea. But just in case, we’d probably better get into some clothes.” He pulled her bra from under his butt. Sometime during the night, they’d spread a layer of clothes on the table as a buffer between their skin and the frigid steel. He waited until she sat up, then scooted off the edge of the table.

His bad knee buckled. “Unh.”

She grabbed his arm to steady him. “You okay?”

He grabbed his jeans. “Oh yeah. No problem.”

“Why do you do that?”

He leaned against the table and put one leg in his jeans. “Do what?”

“Play Superman. You go into ‘tough guy, bull-rider’ mode and I’m on the outside again.” She shrugged into her clothes fast, like she didn’t want to be naked in front of him.

He stepped into the other leg, pulled them up, and fastened them. How did this woman know what buttons to push to unlock every secret he possessed? What the hell. She knew the worst. Might as well tell the rest. “Hardly Superman. Not even a bull rider much longer.”

“Why?”

“My reaction time is shot. So is my balance. I can’t compete at the top level.”

“But you only bucked off in the final round.”

“It’s something you just know.” He shrugged into his t-shirt. “I can limp along I guess, hoping for a good draw in the finals, making enough to pay for my half of gas and keep me in rodeodogs. But I’m not holding out hope of making it to Vegas at the end of the season.” His words echoed up from the hollow space that had opened, deep in his chest. Saying it out loud made it real. This time next year, Ace would be hitting the road alone. The one constant in Stead’s life would be moving on. Leaving him behind.

He ground bitterness between his teeth.

“Oh, Stead. I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged. “Is what it is.”

She stopped putting on her shorts, mid-pull. “No.” She scooted to the edge of the table and wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t shut me out like I’m somebody who doesn’t matter. You’re hurting. I’m here. Lean on me.”

He held himself stiff—apart. For about thirty seconds. Then, without his say so, his arms went around her. He rested his cheek on the top of her head and breathed in her scent. Her acceptance. He stayed there until his jaw unlocked. When he lifted her chin and kissed her, his brain got all mixed up with wanting, and gratitude, and . . . he steered his thoughts away before they went off a cliff. He couldn’t love someone. He made that vow years ago . . .

“It’s a good thing your father didn’t open this door.”

“Mom!” Harper jerked upright to face the ample woman who stood towering in the doorway, much more than a five-foot-nothing woman should be able to.

“Sitting there with your pants around your ankles, kissing this . . .” She looked him up and down, like he was a wad of shit tracked in on someone’s shoe. “drifter—there’d be a wedding. With or without a shotgun motif.”

Harper hopped off the table and pulled up her shorts faster than he’d thought possible. “We got locked in.” She stepped into her shoes.

“I see that.”

Harper’s chin notched up. “I’m a full-grown woman, mom. I’d say it’s about time I had someone.”

The woman’s mouth remained a thin line. Her toe-tapping didn’t slow.

But there might have been a twinkle in her eye. “So would I.”

Harper handed Stead his dress shirt, took his hand and, nose in the air, led the way past her mother and out the door. Stead inhaled air laced with the smell of donuts and baking bread. His stomach growled as she dragged him past several workers to the front of the store.

Damn, Harper was a force. He’d face down a bull in the arena alone before he’d be stuck in a room with a pissed-off momma.

The counter was crowded with customers, the line snaking out the door. Harper’s chin notched higher, but her steps didn’t slow. The room went from Monday-morning-babble to midnight-funeral-home when she dragged him past the refrigerator cases at the entrance. There, she stopped and stared down the crowd while he shrugged into his shirt.

This was her hometown. She knew these people, probably some since she sat in diapers in the local sandbox. And there she stood, daring someone to judge her. A tide of tenderness rose in him. He whispered over her shoulder, “Let’s give ‘em something to talk about.” He pulled her around, laid her back against his arm and kissed the hell out of her.

Every thought of the bystanders, her mother, and everything else flew out of his head, as he kissed his little warrior for all he was worth.

When he ended it, she looked up at him, eyes unfocused and yearning. It gave him crazy ideas. “You sure you don’t want to leave all this and come on the road with me?”

Her smile was wistful. “Don’t think it’s not tempting. But I’ve got to get to school. I’m late.”

“All right then.” He set her on her feet, patted her on the ass, and said, “But don’t think you’re getting rid of me that easily, Beautiful.” He winked, walked past the gawkers and out the door.

* * *

A little over an hour later, he and Ace were on the road. Stead rolled his window down.

“Hey, what’re you doing?” Wrist slung over the steering wheel, Ace glanced from the road.

“I like the fresh air.”

“Since when? What the hell’s gotten into you? You look happier’n a boxful of puppies.”

The fact that his cheeks were starting to cramp couldn’t stop his smile. “Shut the hell up and drive.”

“Somebody got laid last night. About time.”

“Hey. Don’t you be crass.”

His head snapped around. “Crass? Who are you?”

He flipped Ace the bird, picked up his phone and texted:

Miss you already.

In a few seconds, his phone dinged:

I know you. You’re that horny bull rider. I know what you miss.

He chuckled and texted back:

Aw, don’t sell yourself short. Has your mother disowned you?

Nah. I think in a perverse way, she kind of approves. Break’s over. I’ve got to go fill kids’ brains now.

He looked up to Ace’s raised brow. “You gonna tell me now, or do I have to pull over and beat it out of you?”

“I don’t know where to start. Oh, wait, yes I do. You gotta get all your buds to agree to do Rodeo on the Rez.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a rodeo in El Paso, after the first of the year. Proceeds go to the Rez outside of town.”

“What?” He waved a hand. “You’d better back up and start at the beginning. And if you can’t explain, I’m getting my gun out and shooting you, because Vulcans have done that mind-meld thing on you.”

Stead explained. It took some time. But it must have made sense, because Ace didn’t reach for the locked glove compartment.

“Damn, Bro. That’s about the wildest thing I’ve heard since that steer got out on I-10 in the ice storm, and we had to go rope it.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Just goes to prove, you can be lost one day, and find your future the next.”

“I assume this Harper chick is a part of that future?”

“I think the jury is still out for her, but as far as I’m concerned?” He stretched out and put his hands behind his head. “Oh, hell yeah. If she’d let me, I’d hang out like a dog on her porch. I’d paint her toenails.”

Ace had been taking a sip of his soda. It sprayed all over the windshield. “Damn, man.”

Stead smiled at his friend as he mopped his face. “Okay, so I made up the toenail thing, but the rest? I’m all in.”

Ace rolled his eyes to the roof of the truck. “Oh God, if this is love, please save me from it.”

“You know me. I’m a zero or a ten. Not so good at the in-between numbers.”

“No shit.”

Stomach jumping, he made sure his eyes stayed on the sage covered landscape out the window. “Oh, and you’re gonna have a vacancy in your shotgun seat next year.”

Ace snorted. “Right. What, are you going to open a nail salon?”

He shot Ace a look.

“You’re serious. Why? I mean, I know you wanna see her, but—”

“Got nothing to do with her. It’s got to do with the brain scramble from last year.”

“But you—”

“Got lucky. Right up to the finals. Put a top-tier bull under me, and I’m off in, what was it, 3.5 seconds?”

“You had a bad wreck. It’s gonna take time to shake off the rust.”

“If it were rust, I’d agree. But if your reflexes were off, would you know it?”

A muscle worked in Ace’s jaw. The only sound was the wind whistling in the window.

Stead’s stomach went into freefall with the realization he had been hoping Ace would come up with some logic to make it not true.

“So, besides the ‘apology tour’, this season is gonna be my goodbye tour.”

Ace glanced over, his heavy brows drawn like a shelf over troubled eyes. “Shit, what am I gonna do? It’s always been you and me, since I can remember. You’re my partner.”

“Just be sure the next guy can read you those bedtime stories you love so much.” Stead reached across the seat and grabbed Ace’s shoulder and shook it. “It’s still you and me, Ace. You don’t leave family behind. Wherever I wash up, the door will always be open and there’ll be a beer in the fridge.”

Ace’s voice wavered a bit. “You’re assuming you are gonna have a door. Without me to keep an eye out, you’ll probably end up in a gutter.”

“I wouldn’t rule it out, Partner. I really wouldn’t.” He patted Ace’s massive shoulder. “If so, I’ll save you a spot next to me.”