Shane hadn’t kissed a woman in a very long time. Too long. Still, it seemed like he remembered how to do it, and Robin enthusiastically responded to his touch. She tasted like the fizzy soda she’d packed in the cooler, and enjoyed the softness of her lips against his.

He pulled away, a chuckle rumbling through his chest. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time,” he whispered.

In response, she kissed him again. Shane became aware of his racing pulse, the sound of the river rushing nearby, the heat of summer pressing down on him. His blood pounded through his veins, and every sense became heightened.

And he wondered if that was what it felt like to be in love. He wasn’t sure, had never fallen in love before, but he let one hand slide up Robin’s back to cradle her head.

She broke the connection this time, and Shane opened his eyes to look into the stunning beauty of her face. “I don’t want to be like my father.” His voice barely left his mouth, and to Robin’s credit she didn’t seem freaked out about his topic of conversation immediately following their first kiss. Okay, second.

Robin pushed her fingers through his hair, and the touch only made Shane want to kiss her again. So he did, slower but shorter than before.

“I don’t know him,” Robin said. “But you can’t be anything like him. You fulfill all of your responsibilities around the ranch. You take care of your brothers.” She put a small smile on her face. “I think you’re wonderful.”

Shane did work hard to take care of everything, make sure the bills were paid, check in on his mother. But he thought his father had done all of those things too. “I spent the first twenty-one years of my life wanting to be just like him,” he said. “I thought he was wonderful too.”

Robin tucked herself into his arms, the crisp apple scent of her hair filling his nose. “I’m sorry, Shane.”

He was too. He’d ruined their perfect afternoon with his insecurities. Drawing in a deep breath to push away the seedlings of anger that had started to take root in his gut, he squeezed her. “Tell me why you became a farrier.”

She seemed to sense that he just needed her to talk, because once she started talking about her education at the horseshoeing school in Oklahoma, Shane simply lost himself in the pretty cadence of her voice.

“You should go,” she said.

“Hmm?” He shifted so he could look into her eyes. “To horseshoeing school?”

“Yeah, it’s an amazing place. And there’s a huge demand for farriers.”

He didn’t dismiss her outright, but he said, “I have a job. A good one.”

“Maybe Levi would hire you full time at the boarding stable if you got the training.”

The idea rolled around in Shane’s mind, but he’d heard her mention how expensive the school was. And that she’d lived on-site, another requirement. Sure, it only took a few months for the longest, most expensive course, but Shane couldn’t afford to take months off of work.

Can I? he asked the Lord. I like my job at Grape Seed, and my brothers are there, and it allows me to send money to Momma. I can’t leave that, right?

He and Robin breathed in, and then out together, and a feeling of peace descended on him. Wrapped him up in a warm blanket and told him that he had everything he needed in his life.

If she’d stay.

If she’d stay, he’d have everything he needed in his life.

Desperation to make her stay clogged his throat, and he couldn’t swallow it away. Doctor Sloan had counseled him not to bottle up so many emotions, so Shane let his fears, his frustration, his fury swirl through him and infect the atmosphere.

It felt freeing to loose the negativity instead of trying to stuff it back into a too-small box inside his mind. His phone buzzed against his hip, and he shifted Robin so he could check it. “Sometimes it’s my mom,” he told her, and sure enough, it was. “Do you mind?”

She sat up, saying, “Of course not,” and Shane swiped open the call.

“Hey, Ma. Happy Sabbath to y’all.”

“Shane.” The fondness in her voice was always there, every time she said his name. How she wasn’t angry and bitter, he didn’t know. “Whatcha y’all doin’ this afternoon?”

He sat up too, switching the phone from his right hand to his left so he could hold Robin’s hand in his. “Oh, you know. Wasting time by the river.”

A few seconds of silence came through the line, and Shane realized he’d never wasted time by the river before. When he called her on Sunday afternoons, it was a quick chat between chores, or just as he and Dylan and Austin were about to sit down to eat.

“Is Dylan there?”

He looked at Robin, wondering if she could hear the conversation. Her eyes beamed like blue starlight, and he lifted his eyebrows as if to ask her permission to tell his mother about their relationship. He couldn’t tell if Robin understood the meaning of the gesture or not, so he said, “No, Ma, Dylan’s not here. I’m spending the afternoon with my girlfriend.”

That made Robin suck in a breath, and Shane saw the pure terror as it streamed through her eyes. She looked away, and he wondered if he’d changed things too fast between them.

His mother squealed, and Shane yanked the phone away from his ear so he wouldn’t go deaf. “You’re dating someone?” Her voice could clearly be heard, and he met Robin’s eyes again.

“So maybe I don’t date that often either,” he said with a wide smile.

Thankfully, she returned it, and Shane told his mom about the beautiful blonde sitting next to him.

“I didn’t think you’d ever date, after what your father did,” his mother said.

“I know, Ma. Me either.” And he still wasn’t sure what he was doing.

His last conversation with his father had been more of a screaming match, and in the end, his dad had simply deflated. Said, “At some point, Shane, I just fell out of love with her. Someday you’ll understand.”

I’ll never understand. That was what Shane had said. And he still didn’t. Loving someone was a choice. Something he knew would require constant effort and perpetual forgiveness. He knew, because he’d chosen not to do those things with his dad.

And that had been the last thing he’d ever said to his father.

I’ll never understand.

Shane still didn’t. He ended his conversation with his mom and tossed his phone onto the blanket beside him. After watching the river flow past for several long seconds, he asked, “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, did I?” He swung his attention toward Robin, who likewise gazed at the river. “About me and you, I mean.”

She shook her head. “I suppose not.”

“So it’s okay if I call you my girlfriend?” Insane hope filled his chest, and he reminded himself that she would only be in his neck of the woods for twenty-six more days. Still, he’d already decided he’d rather have her for only twenty-six days than not at all.

Her eyes met his, and she moved toward him at the same time he inched toward her. Her slender, cool fingers traced along his jaw, making a shiver slide down his shoulders. “Yeah,” she breathed into his mouth. “It’s okay if you call me your girlfriend.”

She kissed him, and Shane thought day nine with Robin couldn’t get any better.

On day ten, Shane had to go back to his regular job at Grape Seed Ranch. He couldn’t afford to follow Robin around to all of her ranches, and they agreed to meet up later to ride together.

When he’d first become the co-foreman, it was so Kurt could work mornings and have afternoons and evenings off to spend with May, who worked a demanding schedule at her family’s restaurant. But now that they were married, the schedule was more relaxed. And Shane wanted afternoons and evenings to be with Robin.

So he knocked on Kurt’s door before seven AM, unsurprised to find May just on the other side of it, already pink-cheeked and ready for the day. “He’s comin’ out now,” she said with a smile.

“Thank you, ma’am.” Shane started toward the chairs on the front porch. He’d observed Kurt’s daily ritual of drinking his coffee there, Patches, his border collie, at his feet. The dog’s claws clicked on the wood floor as the old animal came forward, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

Shane bent down to scratch Patches as May said, “So where’d you and Miss Robin disappear to yesterday? We missed you at lunch.”

“I had to work,” he said, sidestepping the question about Robin. “Sorry I missed lunch.”

“But then you left with Robin, right?” she pressed.

Shane straightened and looked at May. She’d always been so nice to him, and the usual anger he’d feel at her prying into his personal life simply wasn’t there. Grateful for that small miracle, he smiled. “Yes, ma’am. Then I left with Robin.”

“Don’t interrogate the man,” Kurt said, nudging his wife aside with a fond look on his face. “He can go out with Robin if he wants to.” He cut Shane a harder look and nodded toward the chairs, a small table between them. He handed Shane a cup of coffee, and though it was already seventy degrees, he took a sip of the boiling hot liquid.

“You make great coffee,” he said as he sat.

“Mm.” Kurt never said much during their time on the front porch. That had always been okay with Shane, today included.

“I know we split the workload so we’re both not working eighty hours a week,” he said. “But I was wonderin’ if I could take the bulk of my chores in the mornings now.”

“So you can see Robin in the evenings.”

Shane couldn’t deny it, and didn’t even want to. “Yes, sir.”

Kurt finally looked fully at him. “And she’s reciprocating this time?”

Shane thought of all the kisses they’d shared yesterday. His face heated, and he lifted his coffee mug to his mouth to hide his smile. “I think so.”

“And what will you do when she leaves?”

“I don’t know,” Shane admitted. In the back of his mind, he’d been toying with the idea of asking her to stay. But it felt impossible, as he had nowhere to provide for her to stay, and she’d already said her ex-boyfriend had wanted her to give up her job and she couldn’t do it. He wanted her to stay in Texas, so that wasn’t a problem.

But simply wanting her to stay was.

“I’m getting help for my anger issues,” he said next.

“That’s good.”

They sat in silence until cowboys started coming out of the other cabins, until the coffee was gone. Kurt put his mug on the table between them and stood. “I’ll take afternoons and evenings.” He looked at Shane. “Be careful with yourself, okay?”

Shane stood too, glad for this powerful friendship between him and Kurt. “I really like her.”

“I know that. I may be an old man, but I’ve seen you around her for three years now.” He clapped his hand on Shane’s shoulder. “I just don’t want you to give her too much of yourself and then be devastated when she leaves. Because, Shane. She will leave.”

Shane nodded, his jaw tightening as Kurt’s hand fell away and as he gave Shane a sympathetic look before walking down the steps and on over to the ranch outbuildings.

Shane stayed on the porch for a few more minutes, Kurt’s promise rotating through his mind. She will leave. She will leave.

And he knew the other foreman was right. Robin’s whole existence could be packed up and erased from a place in a matter of hours. And he was a fool to think she’d find a way to make room for him in that tiny house of hers.

“Hey,” Dylan called from the porch next door. “There you are. I didn’t hear you come in last night.”

Shane set his mug on the table next to Kurt’s and went down the steps in tandem with his brother next door. “Sorry. I didn’t want to wake you guys.” So he’d stayed out late with Robin. They’d come back to her house, and she’d opened the skylights in her loft. They’d lain on their backs—him on the floor and her on the bed—and watched the stars wink to life as darkness surrounded them.

“So,” his brother said. ‘Everyone’s sayin’ you and Miss Robin—”

“Yeah,” Shane said. “I was going to tell you.”

“Oh, please.” Dylan laughed and adjusted his cowboy hat. “I’ve known you’ve had a crush on her forever.”

“Don’t make a big deal out of this.” They started walking across the grass and past the flagpole, their feet finally meeting a gravel path that led out of the Cowboy Commons and toward the barns, arenas, and stables of the ranch.

“Why not? Do you know how hard it is to meet a woman when you work on this ranch?” Dylan looked at him with wide eyes. “We’re all jealous you’ve snatched up the only one we’ve seen in a month.”

Shane laughed, the sound somewhat foreign as it left his mouth and filled the sky. “In that case, make sure you tell all the boys she’s taken.” And while Shane knew no one could ever own Robin, that she would never be caged like that, he also didn’t want any of the other men on the ranch to think she was available.

“Besides, you dating someone is a big deal,” Dylan said. “Do you know how many times you’ve told me you’d never get married?”

“I’ve never said that.”

“Have to. About a thousand times,” Dylan insisted. “And trust me, I get it. What Dad did was cruel. I guess—I guess I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

“Don’t be,” Shane said, a measure of negativity returning to his gut. He paused outside the hay barn, where he’d be working that day. “I’m not gonna marry Robin.”

“No?”

Shane shook his head, the truth of it sinking deep deep deep into his soul. “No, Dylan. She’s not the marrying type.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means she doesn’t ever want to get married.” He pulled open the door with more force than he intended, but it was somewhat satisfying to hear the loud clunk it made when it connected with the wall.

He strode inside, leaving his brother behind so he wouldn’t say anything else he might regret later.