Page 33 of Bad Cowboy, Tennessee

But the moment the steady clop of her hooves started to pick up, and the breeze could do more work along the ridge of my hat, everything began to settle into place.

The sky was hazy blue all around me, with thin, low clouds brushed over the atmosphere like a wash of white paint.

And I wasridingagain.

It had only been about ten days, all told, since I’d last been able to ride, but I’d needed it like a fucking cold glass of water on a burning hot day.

Finally getting a horse was the final piece I’d needed. All week, I’d been in between working on getting a bed into the house and getting all of the old shit out. The house would be alittle sparse for a while, but mostly, I just needed a place to sleep and come and fuck.

I’d also been keeping tabs on Max.

Mostly, his life was simple. He worked late at the bar, and slept fairly late, because of it. He ran a lap around his parents’ property each morning, and he looked hot while doing it.

A couple of times I’d managed to slip into the Hard Spot without him spotting me, and I sat in a booth near the back, just observing.

He loved mixing drinks. He still had a lot of friends from college.

He never seemed to catch on to the fact that I was watching. Each time, I expected him to spot me, but he had a trusting personality and didn’t know when he was being watched.

I saw him taking care of the stray white cat that lived around his property, too. He gave her little bits of food and sometimes came out with a little cat toy feather on a stick, playing around with her on his porch. He had dinner with his parents a couple of nights a week, before heading off to shifts at the bar. He got along with them. They were kind, loving, and supportive. Nothing like mine.

So.

Fucking.

Easy.

His life was also nothing like mine.

The wind started to whip past my face as I steered Ember’s reins in the direction of the breeze. As I looked out over the endless green of Tennessee, with all its trees, hills, and far-off mountains, I missed the mountain ranges north of Big Sky like I had a fucking split thorn in my heart.

It wasn’t that Tennessee wasn’t beautiful.

It was gorgeous.

But Montana was more like me. Harder. More stone, more rock. I missed my carefully pruned rose bushes, and while there were a few around my new property here, too, they would need a bit of TLC just like the whole house did.

The only advantage of Tennessee was that at least here, it was just me. No prospect of my father coming onto my land while I was riding.

Just me and the earth. And Ember, below me, slowly starting to trust me.

When I watched over Max, I felt like I was seeing what it must be like to be a normal person. Kind, sweet, and loved.

I couldn’t be envious, because I craved my old life. Or… parts of it.

But I did envy the way people seemed to love him.

He’d been out at lunch with Lily earlier this week, too, which was good because it meant he wasn’talone, but bad because the Red Fox Diner didn’t have anyone like Kane around to put up a proper fight if one of Max’s stalkers showed up.

One in particular had worried me when I checked out a few suspicious profiles online.

Rex67in particular had a criminal history that was at least slightly bad. He had priors, and a history of harassment. He liked men who looked like Max—in their early twenties, clean, athletic and boyish. His name was Reggie Sandlefield, and he wasn’t too far away, within about eight hours driving distance of exactly where Max worked and lived.

Whether Max was truly in danger or not, I was going to keep tabs on the situation.

Ember’s breaths quickened a little as I turned her reins. We rounded one edge of my property, and I urged her to go a little faster.

I needed more breeze.

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