Page 129 of Bad Cowboy, Tennessee

“They seem like they’ve been under good care,” Max said.

“Money doesn’t fix everything, but it does mean I have the best care for them if I ever need to be gone,” I told him. “I still hate being away from them, but they are always safe.”

Veil’s black coat shone under the morning light as I took her out of the stables, walking her out onto one of the dirt paths alongside Max and Jasper.

I helped him saddle up Jasper and get prepped to ride, and then I spent some time with Veil, who seemed to miss me as much as I’d missed her.

It was a deep ache I couldn’t get rid of.

Everything felt a little softer, after last night, but it still didn’t sit right with me that all ofthiswas mine—the land, the horses, the house—but I never felt like I could enjoy any of it without the looming spectre of my family hovering through the air in Montana.

I felt safe, because so far my father didn’t know I was back and I wasn’t in immediate danger.

But it was almost as if my own land didn’t quite feel like mine anymore.

It wasLyonsland.

I thought of my little plot of earth in Tennessee. How small it had seemed, and how small it still was, in comparison to this.

But I realized, with a growing disbelief, that it was the most independent I’d ever felt in my life.

“You ready?” I asked Max.

He nodded, going for the stirrup.

I reached out, stopping him, grasping one of his belt loops.

And I pulled him close, catching his mouth in a kiss.

The breeze blew past us as the heat of my lips touched his. This still felt so forbidden that something in my stomach went molten.

Kissing him, here, on this land. In this air that smelled like granite and wet earth.

“Let’s ride,” he said.

Knew he was my fucking favorite.

As soon as we’d gotten on the horses, it was obvious to me that Veil was even better than I’d remembered her.

I knew her well, and she happily went into a slow trot as Max started to get a feel for riding Jasper.

“Doing okay?” I asked him.

“I think so,” he said. “Not as natural of a rider as you are. But Jasper is forgiving.”

“Keep it slow. He shouldn’t give you any issues.”

I led us out down the long, curving path across the land. From here, it looked like we were riding toward the endless mountains, but that we could never reach them. Their height framed the land, but we never seemed to get any closer.

It was a part of the trail I’d always loved. It made the property seem almost infinitely vast.

Always approaching the mountain, but never reaching it.

Almost ready to tell him everything, but not quite yet.

The path was lined with spruce, hemlock, and juniper. The air smelled more like pine the further down you went, and before long we couldn’t see the house anymore.

As if we were explorers, out here all on our own. It could have been any year, any time.

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