Page 49 of Stud Ranch

After a third try to get Shaw’s attention, he didn’t turn. She felt ready to scream in frustration when it hit her: Marigold could out-scream any person. Her shrill toddler cries had stopped Sloane cold on more than one occasion, and she’d joked with her parents that the child had a future as a horror movie actor with those lungs.

She clung to the fence and opened her mouth wide, channeling Marigold when she screamed her daddy’s name for a fourth time.

He jerked and saw her. The concern etched on his face slammed through her.

She had to get to him. Had to get to Dylan. What was going on?

Ducking under the fence rail, she barely made it out the other side before she slammed into a wall of muscled security.

“Fans gotta stay on the other side of the fence, lady.”

“Let her in.” Shaw’s command stopped the man from guiding her back through the rails. When Shaw gripped her by the arms and helped her to her feet, she wavered in his grasp.

“Is he okay?”

“Yes,” he grated out.

“Your face. I didn’t know until you laughed.” She wasn’t making any sense, but he only nodded.

His gaze was sharp as he studied her expression. “I can see it written all over your face, Sloane.”

She tried to see through the people who were surrounding Dylan, obviously checking him over. Did they have a doctor on staff? How long did it take for an ambulance to reach the remote ranch?

Shaw cupped her face, directing her attention to him.

His gaze pierced her with a significance that had dread churning in her stomach. She knew what he was about to say.

That didn’t make it any easier to hear.

“You care for Dylan.”

* * * * *

If Dylan’s back was a little stiff when he climbed on that bull, it was screaming now, but nothing a little hot water couldn’t help.

Sloane hovered on the side of the hot tub, a crease between her long brows every time she looked at him.

“I don’t know if I hate seeing you worried about me or love the attention.” He stepped into the hot tub and sank to the seat with a moan of pleasure.

Sloane and Shaw traded a look before the two of them joined him in the bubbly depths.

He slid to the side, locating the jet and aiming it at the most painful spot on his back.

Sloane and Shaw were quiet, watching him.

“If you’re waiting to collect on that bet I lost, I need a few minutes to soak.”

Shaw grunted. Sloane’s lips twisted in a smile she tried to conceal.

Then a giggle bubbled from her. “That stupid bet.”

Cocking a brow at her, he eyed Shaw. “She thinks it’s stupid now.”

His friend and lover relaxed against the back of the hot tub, stretching his arm along it so that Sloane could lean into him.

Dylan must have missed something. Even though Sloane and Shaw had been intimate and shared some good moments, the pair always had tension between them like a thick cord that neither could break through to fully reach the other. But no longer.

“What happened?” His voice carried a grit that wasn’t the result of the pain from hitting the ground on his hip and back that already gave him trouble.

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