Cami’s phone rang with the tweet-twirp! of a forwarded call. Someone’s toilet was out on a Friday night. Great. Just great.

She sighed as she reached for the phone on the edge of the bathtub, where she’d retreated after chickening out and not even letting her phone connect to Dylan’s.

“Rogers Plumbing,” she said in the most business-like voice she could muster while in a bubble bath.

“You’re kind of hard to track down, you know that?”

Cami’s heart beat triple-time and water sloshed as she sat straight up. “Dylan?”

“I have a leak at my place,” he said, his voice on the outer edge of flirtatious.

She relaxed back into the tub, a smile playing with her mouth too. “You do not.”

He sighed, any playfulness that had been there before gone now. “No, I don’t. I just…hey, so what happened today?”

Cami pressed her eyes closed as the way she’d treated him replayed behind her closed lids. She’d been a jerk today, that was what had happened. But she’d wasted half her day digging those wells, and the rental fee for the excavator had been several hundred dollars. Several hundred dollars she couldn’t get back.

Still, she needed to learn how to control her temper. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That wasn’t my finest moment.” She started to slip in the tub and she sat up, pushing the water dangerously close to her device.

“What was that noise?” he asked.

“Nothing.” Her face heated at the very thought of him knowing she was in the tub. “This was an emergency call, you know.”

“I was in crisis.”

“Oh?”

“I…miss you.”

Cami didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t possibly miss her. They’d barely spent any time together before the bid on Monday, and they’d gone to dinner once. For a few hours.

She shook her head, though that didn’t translate over the phone. He couldn’t possibly miss her. Could he?

“What are you doing tonight?” he asked.

She glanced down at the bubbles drifting across the surface of her bathwater. “Nothing.”

“Want to do nothing with me?”

She did, but not this kind of nothing. “I need a few minutes to get ready.” More than a few, but maybe he wasn’t available—

“I’m on my way over.”

“I—no—” But the line had gone dead, leaving her in the bathtub holding the phone.

A beat of silence filled the bathroom, the house, her soul. Then she flew into action, standing in one swift motion and sending water flowing over the edge of the tub and onto the floor. She nearly went down when she stepped onto the wet tile, but she gripped the vanity and managed to keep herself upright.

Her hair dripped down her back, and she needed a lot more than a few minutes to be ready, especially if she was going to go anywhere with a man. Let alone Dylan, who was a man among men.

Thinking fast, she wrapped herself in a towel and used the only thing she had to buy herself some time: her phone.

She’d wanted to text Dylan every night after work since their date on Tuesday. She’d turned the device off to keep herself from staying up all night, texting and giggling like a teenager.

She texted him now, though. I need thirty minutes to be ready.

And even that was a stretch with the current state of her hair—and her house. Should she invite him to come in? Make him wait in his truck? It did have leather seats….

Maybe I can meet you somewhere?

Fact or false: you’re blowing me off.

False. I just need more time to be ready. I’ll meet you anywhere you want.

Downtown park. We can walk around the duck pond. I’ll bring you something.

Her stomach fell at what he’d bring. A dog? A sandwich? Something could be anything, but Cami couldn’t dwell on that right now. She had an outfit to choose and hair to dry and the exact right pair of shoes to find for walking around the duck pond.

Fact: She needed more than thirty minutes.

But she couldn’t be late, so she flung open her closet door and reached for the clothes closest to her.

She left her house forty minutes later, which meant she was already late to meet Dylan at the downtown pond. Didn’t matter. Ten minutes later, she found him sitting on a bench on the edge of the park, a leashed yellow lab panting at his feet.

“Hey,” she rushed forward, glad she’d gone with the more sensible footwear of her white leather sandals. She’d paired them with a pair of white shorts and a navy blue blouse. She’d managed to pull her hair into a low, slicked ponytail so it didn’t matter that some of it was still damp.

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” He stood and moved toward her, taking her right into his arms. He dipped his head and inhaled. “Mm, you smell like my favorite kind of soap.”

She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her lips. “What kind of soap is that?”

“Whatever kind you use.” He pulled back and grinned at her, taking her hand in one of his and picking up the dog’s leash with the other.

“One of Boone’s?” she asked.

“This is Lord Vader, and yeah, he belongs to Boone. He lets me take him when I’m—” He cut off suddenly, and Cami looked at him to find him gazing across the grass. “He lets me take him sometimes.” Dylan ducked his head, a vulnerability about him that made Cami see a side of him she hadn’t before.

She’d seen it on Tuesday too. It was the vulnerability, the softness of him, that had prompted her to maintain her distance. She could see herself falling for him way too fast, and that simply couldn’t happen.

At least she didn’t think it could, but as they strolled in the setting sun, finally reaching the duck pond on the far end of the park. With the water glinting on their left, and the soft panting sound of a dog beside them, she wondered why she couldn’t be with him.

They didn’t work together. She wouldn’t lose her job if they broke up.

Maybe it’s time to think about dating again, she thought. She’d been so closed off to the idea, it took a long time for the door to open, and even when it did, a loud, creaking sound reverberated through her mind.

“It cost me six-ninety-five to rent that excavator,” she said, breaking the silence between them. “Well, not me, but the Rogers’s. And they don’t have seven hundred dollars to spare. I was…angry. Frustrated. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.” She peered up at him, hoping he’d forgive her. Understand that sometimes she just had a very short fuse, and she never knew what was going to light it.

“I know,” he said simply, his fingers tightening for half a heartbeat. “I’m just glad there was no jukebox involved this time.”

Her heart froze as if someone had doused it in liquid nitrogen. “I—”

Dylan laughed, the joyful sound lifting into the sky and making Cami smile despite herself. He let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulders, tucking her into his side.

“You’re full of fire,” he said, leaning closer. His lips skimmed her earlobe when he said, “Don’t worry. I’m not afraid of getting burned.”

Fireworks popped through her whole body, and she had no idea what to say.

Didn’t matter. Dylan seemed stuffed full of words tonight where he’d been quiet on Tuesday, let her lead the conversation where she wanted it to go.

And she had been rude to him when she’d first got to town. He’d tried to approach her at the jukebox in the diner, and she remembered vaguely speaking to him in Spanish, a lot of glaring, and then marching away.

He’d had no idea she’d just gotten off the phone with her ex, nor that she’d just decided she wouldn’t be going back to Amarillo—ever.

She should probably explain all of that, but he didn’t seem to need it.

“Fact or false,” he said. “You haven’t dated since you moved to Three Rivers.”

She wondered who he’d been talking to. Boone Carver wouldn’t know. Cami didn’t have any pets, and she had no reason to go into the animal clinic.

“Fact,” she said, drawing out the word. Maybe his sisters had told him. He had three of them, and they could mobilize the gossip circles and find out anything they wanted to know in minutes.

“Why’s that?” he asked.

“I had a bad experience with my last boyfriend,” she said, going for the truth. They rounded the pond on the far end, and the scent of freshly moved grass and sunshine filled the air.

“Tell me about it,” he said, almost a question but not quite.

Cami contemplated her options. She’d been carrying the weight of what had gone down with Wade for a long time. Too long.

“His name was Wade,” she started. “He was my boss’s son. He was…abusive.”

Dylan’s next step took him away from her, and he looked fully at her, his eyes wide and round. “Physically?”

She nodded, the evening sun suddenly too cold. “I—I didn’t have the fire then that I do now.”

“Cami.” His voice carried more emotion than Cami had heard in a long time. She realized in that moment how lonely she’d become, how isolated. Sure, she was strong but it sure would be nice to be weak sometimes. Have someone support her when she didn’t feel like she could make it through another day.

“That’s not okay,” he said. “How long did that go on?”

“Too long,” she said. “Months. I was afraid of him, and I knew I’d lose my job, so….”

“What was the turning point?”

“He was careful about not leaving a mark, until he wasn’t. I couldn’t go visit my parents, couldn’t go to church, couldn’t go to work.” Cami took a deep breath, remembering the moment she’d decided to leave Wade, leave Amarillo, leave that old life behind. It was as clear as glass, right there in her memory to be thought of at any time.

“I…snapped or something. I don’t know. But I didn’t hide out in my apartment the way I usually did. I went to my parents’ house. And church. And work. And anyone who asked what had happened, I told them the truth.” She shook her head. “I quit that morning, and I left Amarillo that evening. I don’t go back very often.” Except to take him to her favorite pizza joint. Cami realized the significance of that date, and there was no doubt in her mind now that she liked this man standing in front of her.

Dylan took several steps, the information clearly needing some time to sink in. Finally, he said, “It doesn’t seem fair that you had to leave.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So you don’t see your family often?”

“Not that often, no.” She thought of the simple hour-long drive—the house right next door where her former boss lived. No, she didn’t go home very often.

“And you’re still game for my family barbecue?” he asked. “Because they can be a handful.”

“Did you ask your sisters about my dating history?”

“Did you ask your girlfriends about mine?”

She gave him a genuine smile. “So Kacey wasn’t right about everything.”

“So my sisters were.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter to me.”

“Nothing seems to,” she said.

That made him pause, and he stepped in front of her. “What does that mean?”

“It means, Mister, that you’re so calm and cool about everything.” She swatted his chest. “It’s unnerving.”

He dodged away from her next swipe, latching onto her wrist with his strong, capable hands. “Unnerving, huh?” He switched his gaze from her fingers to her face. “You unnerve me too, Cami.”

Before she could comprehend what he’d said or what he was doing, he bent toward her, her wrist still deliciously encircled by his fingers.

Her eyes drifted closed in anticipation of getting kissed, but his lips bypassed hers and landed on her cheek, near her eye. “I was wondering,” he said softly, his next kiss closer to her ear. “Do you happen to know how to ride a horse?”

Cami’s eyes jerked open, and she startled away from him. “Really?”

“I love going out to Three Rivers Ranch,” he said, an insane amount of hope in his eyes. “I volunteer with the veterans at Courage Reins a couple of times a week, but I was thinking maybe me and you…I mean, you and I, we could go riding together or something.”

“Are you kidding me right now?” Cami felt like she’d just arrived at the best surprise party in the world.

He sighed. “I guess we’ll just keep searching for the one thing we have in common.”

She stepped with him, making him wait just a little bit longer. “Oh, I don’t think we’ll need to do that,” she finally said. “Because if there’s one thing I like better than chocolate cake, it’s horseback riding.”

“Really?” Dylan asked.

“Really.” She laughed, and he swung her around as he chuckled too.

“Well, that’s just great, sweetheart,” he said. “Want to go out to the ranch tomorrow?”

Cami’s joy faded as quickly as it had lifted, but she didn’t want to push him away anymore, so she said, “I do. I really do.”