Page 68 of My Cowboy Trouble
"For twenty more days."
"Then we make them count," Trent says, moving into the bathroom too. It's getting crowded, but somehow I don't mind. "Fuck what everyone thinks. Fuck the gossip. We know the truth."
"Which is?"
"You belong here," he says simply. "With us. For however long we have."
I look at them—my three cowboys, all different, all complicated, all mine for now—and make a decision.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay, we make it count. All twenty days."
"Starting now?" Gavin asks hopefully, his eyes tracking a water droplet as it slides down my neck.
I drop the towel.
"Starting now."
The bathroom gets very crowded very quickly, and for once, I don't care what anyone thinks. Let them talk. Let them gossip. Let them place their bets and whisper their theories.
For the next twenty days, I'm going to live like I belong here.
Because maybe, just maybe, I do.
10
ASHER
Five-thirty in themorning is my favorite time at the ranch. It's the only hour where I don't have to be anyone's version of me—not the charmer, not the negotiator, not the guy with the easy smile who makes everything into a joke. Before Gavin starts his daily shirtless parade, before Trent begins his lists and schedules and controlled chaos, before the world demands we all play our assigned roles. It's just me, the sunrise, and the quiet possibility of a new day.
Except this morning, it's not just me.
I hear her before I see her—soft humming drifting from the barn, a melody I don't recognize but that sounds like contentment mixed with something else. Longing, maybe. Or resignation. When I peer inside,Kenzie's standing with Pepper, the mare who's usually skittish around everyone except Trent. But here she is, letting Kenzie brush her coat with long, careful strokes while humming what might be Taylor Swift or might be Beethoven. With Kenzie, you never know. She's full of surprises, layers I keep discovering like peeling an onion, each making me want her more.
She's wearing yesterday's jeans—the ones with the rip in the knee from when she caught them on a fence nail—and one of Gavin's flannel shirts that drowns her frame. The sleeves are rolled up to her elbows, revealing forearms that are no longer pale city-girl white but sun-kissed and marked with the small scars and bruises of ranch work. Her hair's in a messy bun that's more mess than bun, strands escaping to frame her face, and there's already dirt on her boots even though the sun's barely up.
She looks nothing like the city girl who showed up here ten-plus days ago in designer heels and a dress that cost more than most people's rent. That woman was all sharp edges and defensive walls, ready to fight anyone who suggested she didn't belong.
This woman... this woman looks like she's already home. And that terrifies me more than I want to admit.
"You're up early," I say, careful not to startle Pepper. The mare has a tendency to kick first and ask questions later.
Kenzie doesn't jump, just glances over with a smallsmile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Couldn't sleep. Figured I might as well be useful."
"Insomnia or overthinking?"
"Both. Plus, Gavin snores like a freight train when he's on his back." She focuses on a particularly tangled section of Pepper's mane, working through it with patient fingers. "And Trent was pacing his room half the night. I could hear him through the walls, wearing a path in those old floorboards."
"He was in your room?"
"Gavin was. Just sleeping." She pauses, a slight blush coloring her cheeks. "After yesterday's town adventure, I didn't want to be alone. So Gavin stayed. Fully clothed. Hands to himself. Well, mostly to himself. There may have been some light spooning."
"That must have killed him."
"He complained for twenty minutes about blue balls before I threatened to actually give him blue balls with my knee." She smiles at the memory. "Then he just held me. All night. Like I was something precious that might break. It was... nice."
