The smell of rain and wet weather and wood filled the whole cabin, and Robin liked it. It was the smell of Shane, and Robin drew in a deep noseful of it. She scanned the cabin so she wouldn’t have to face him head-on.

A large, circular table filled one-third of the cabin in front of a long, kitchen counter with a sink, a fridge, and lots of cupboards. She hoped there was food in this cabin, as the sky continued to darken.

The idea of food seemed remote, though. This cabin was used for sleeping when the boys came out for a single evening, not big picnics. They probably brought their own food, sleeping bags, and other supplies.

After all, she only saw one doorway, and through that, a bathroom. Several folded cots leaned against the wall, and Robin was glad there were at least places to sit and lie down.

She finally had nowhere to look but at Shane, who still stood near the door. He’d taken his cowboy hat off and already run his wet hands through his hair. The resulting look took Robin’s breath away, and she couldn’t help staring as he moved into the kitchen and started opening cupboards.

“I’m sure we have some towels around here somewhere.” He found them in the next cabinet, and turned triumphantly. “A-ha! Here they are.” He produced a handful of dishtowels and handed her a couple before wiping his face with one towel and tousling his hair with another.

To distract herself from the gorgeous cowboy she definitely wasn’t interested in, Robin turned away and toweled her own hair. “So.” She sighed. “What do you guys do out here for fun?”

“Fun?” Shane came up beside her. “I don’t know what kind of cattle ranches you’ve been on, Robin, but we work on this one.”

“So you never have fun?” She peered up at him and began to drown in his eyes, which weren’t quite so icy at this moment.

“We know how to have fun,” he said.

She nudged him with her hip. “So, what do you guys do?”

A ruddiness crept into his neck and up into his face. “There’s probably some card games or a puzzle in one of the cupboards.” But neither one of them moved to retrieve them.

Shane settled on his back foot, putting extra distance between them. His eyes stormed with emotions she couldn’t quite decipher. “What was that?” His eyes slipped down her body to her boots before traveling back to her eyes.

“What was what?”

His jaw twitched, and Robin had no problem identifying the anger in his eyes now. “Robin—I’m not—I mean, I am, but—” He blew out a breath, glared at her, and turned away. He opened a cupboard and stared into it, though Robin could clearly see it held nothing at all.

Robin’s heart rammed into her ribcage, and she ran her hand through her hair. She took slow steps over to where Shane stood at the counter. He leaned both hands into it, his stature strong and screaming with frustration.

“Shane, I….” Robin looked at his powerful hands, and she wanted to hold one of them. She ran one fingertip along the side of his pinky. He flinched but didn’t pull away.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said.

“Maybe stop flirting with me then,” he said through clenched teeth. Thunder crashed outside the cabin, and rain and hail whipped against the glass in the windows. Robin felt the same storm in her chest.

Thoughts ran through her mind, and she was so tired. She’d been at Grape Seed Ranch for less than twenty-four hours, and she’d never survive this close to Shane if she couldn’t hold his hand, laugh with him, and learn more about him.

Help me, she prayed, and the racing thoughts quieted.

“Maybe I like flirting with you.” She tucked her arm through his and leaned into him. “Maybe you’d like to take me to dinner if we get back to the ranch tonight.”

Shane glanced down at her. She could practically see the wheels in his head spinning. “We’re getting back to the ranch tonight,” he said, his voice more growly than she’d like.

Her heartbeat wouldn’t calm down, though Shane hadn’t pulled away. “I’m interested in you,” she blurted out. “Okay? Happy now?”

Shane leaned away again, staring openly at her now. “I’m sorry. I must’ve not heard you right.”

Robin bumped him again. “You heard me.”

A slow smile curved his mouth. “Dinner would be great.”

She swallowed back her nerves, tore her eyes from Shane’s, and looked into the cupboard. “Okay.” Her voice sounded a bit squeaky. “Okay, then let’s find a game and wait out this storm.”

Shane swallowed too, and though the storm raged around them, Robin felt perfectly calm as she searched through the cabinets until she found a stack of games. She spun back to Shane, gleeful as she held up a deck of cards.

He leaned against the table, his cowboy hat back in place. He’d folded his arms and crossed his ankles, that smile still in place. “You know how to play hearts?”

“Who doesn’t know how to play hearts?” She closed the distance between them and slapped the cards against his chest. “And I hope you know how to lose, because I’m aces when it comes to playing hearts.”

“We’ll see.” Shane kicked a chair out from under the table and slid into it, shuffling the cards like a Vegas pro a moment later.

Robin giggled and sat a couple of seats over from Shane, though she wanted to sit right next to him and cuddle in close. He started dealing and he stuffed his hat lower over his eyes as he lifted his cards and started arranging them.

By the time the rain stopped, the clock had ticked halfway through the afternoon. Robin had been right in her assessment that the cabin was food-less, and her stomach was not happy about it.

“Do you still want to go to dinner?” Shane asked as the first outbuildings of the ranch came into view. “Kurt will just let us go.” He didn’t look at her, but kept his horse on track toward the stables.

“It’s three o’clock.”

“And I haven’t eaten since six-thirty,” he said. “I’m starving. So if you don’t want to go, it’s fine. I’ll just make something at my cabin.”

Robin glanced over at him. “What would you make at your cabin?”

“I don’t know. Scrambled eggs or something.”

“And where would Austin and Dylan be while you made scrambled eggs?”

“Working, I’m sure.” Shane finally looked at her. “You want to come to my place for dinner?”

She shrugged with one shoulder. “I have a Texas-state-shaped waffle maker. I could bring that over, and we’ll make breakfast for dinner.”

“We have chicken in the freezer, so I could make—”

“Chicken and waffles,” they said together, and Robin’s stomach practically clawed at itself. She hadn’t had the tasty treat in far too long, mostly because she avoided cooking poultry if at all possible. She always ended up with smoke, or fire, or with completely undercooked meat.

But she could make waffles, and she had maple syrup in her pantry. “So I’ll do the waffles, and you do the chicken,” she said, hoping he’d simply agree.

“All right.” He tossed her a smile. “Fried chicken is one of about four things I can make.”

“What else can you cook?” she asked.

“Eggs, obviously.” He waved at the wet grasses. “And fried chicken. And oatmeal, but I really just put that in the microwave.” He chuckled. “We make a lot of sandwiches and pour a lot of bowls of cereal.”

“What kind of cereal?”

“Austin’s favorite is cocoa crispies. I like the non-sugary cereals, like Crispix and Chex and stuff like that. Dylan wants Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cookie Crisp.”

“My favorite is Lucky Charms.”

“With the freeze-dried marshmallows?” He chuckled and shook his head. “Those are not okay to consume, just so you know.”

She tipped her head back and laughed, so glad she’d had the courage to get out of her own way and tell Shane she was interested in him.

“So do you cook more than waffles in that tiny kitchen of yours?”

“Sometimes,” she said. “My mom taught me to make pancakes, French toast, chicken noodle soup, spaghetti, that kind of stuff.”

“Well, Austin’s favorite meal on the planet is spaghetti and meatballs.” He slid her a sly look. “And his birthday’s comin’ up in only a few weeks. You’ll still be here.”

Robin almost fell off Midnight’s back. In the hours they’d spent together at the cabin, laughing and talking and playing cards, Robin had never once thought that she’d only be in Shane’s neck of the woods for five weeks.

But she’d only be in the Grape Seed Falls area for five weeks, plain and simple. She had a schedule to keep, and her next area was over by Austin, with seven ranches that had contracted her services. What would she do then? Drive over to see Shane on the weekends? She didn’t even have weekends off.

“So maybe a half an hour?” Shane leapt from Mandarin’s back while Robin realized they’d arrived back at the stable.

“There you are.” Kurt came out of the stable and reached for Midnight’s reins. “I’ll take ‘em. You guys go get something to eat.”

Robin barely had time to jump down before Kurt took both horses into the stable.

“See?” Shane grinned at her, shuffling one step forward and then falling back. “So thirty minutes? I’ll shower real quick, and get the chicken thawed.”

Robin nodded, because she didn’t want to call things off with Shane before they’d even had a chance to start. But as she walked over to her house, she couldn’t help wondering if she’d made a mistake. A mistake that would ultimately hurt Shane.

Again.