Page 90 of Chaos

“Bowie?” he jokes, deadpan, and the Palomino knickers loudly from a couple stalls over.

I roll my eyes. “Theotherhot blonde.”

“You think,” Finn clarifies slowly, still looking at me all wide-eyed and baffled, “that I was flirting with Carmen?”

“Well, I don’t think you were flirting with me.”

That makes him laugh. Like, really laugh. Head dropping backward, shoulders shaking, free hand going to his gut kind of laughing. He pauses long enough to smile, soft and dopey and implying that I’ve done something so unfathomably dumb. Something hilarious that makes him laugh some more as he socks me gently on the shoulder before cupping the nape of my neck, fingers applying gentle pressure that make the knotted muscles beneath them moan. “I was not flirting withCarmen.”

He says her name weirdly. Putting emphasis on it. Like hewasflirting, just not with her, but how the fuck does that make sense?

And why does his hand feel so damn nice?

I’m almost—no, Iam—disappointed when it disappears.

“Saddle up,” he orders, halfway out the barn before my brain catches up with the command, before I realizeI’mcupping the back of my neck now, savoring the warm, tingling imprint he left behind. “I’m gonna go get some snacks for our ride.”

Quickly recovering from my malfunction, I holler after him, “I didn’t say you could come.”

Finn pivots to walk backwards, his mouth stretched wide. “I’m not asking permission, baby.”

A late fall breeze rustles my hair, my body gently rocking as Daphne plods along an endless stretch of green. Beside me, Finn sits astride Gaia, and I absently wonder if it’s something of a relief for her, accommodating a rider that’s about four inches shorter and a hundred pounds lighter than her true owner.

“Y’know, I met Hunter.”

Lifting my gaze from Gaia, I find Finn staring at me—reading my mind, apparently. “Really?”

He hums. “Worked on his ranch for a while.”

“Huh.” Talk about a small world. Kind of freaky, really. “How’d you end up in Georgia?”

“Same way I ended up here,” Finn says with a shrug. “Dumb luck. That’s where I met your sister. She was visiting, we got to talking. She offered me a job, I took it.”

Yeah, that sounds about right. Soundssimple. Lux has never been one to beat around the bush. She saw Finn, she liked something about him, she kept him—easy. “Why’d you take the job?”

He counters, “Why’d you come back?”

I consider lying. Settle on being vague instead. “Didn’t have a choice.”

“Yeah, kinda felt that way for me too.”

“And now?”

“Nowhere else I’d rather be.”

As my eyes scan the horizon, I can understand that. More than he knows, more than anyone probably knows. When I was younger—shit, when I was not-that-younger too—I never wanted to leave this place. I felt safe here in a way I just didn’t anywhere else. But that’s mostly because it was my home, myfirsthome. Something Finn already has. “Not even your family’s place?”

“The Akello ranch is nothing like Serenity.”

“What’s it like?”

“Busier. Dustier. Only green if we’re lucky.”

“You don’t like it?”

“Oh, I love it. It’s just not like here.” He pauses briefly, then adds, “We’re just not like you.”

“Me?”

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