It was funny to be around all these masculine items, which were so familiar to her but felt so different when they belonged to Gabe.

Seeing them, seeing the brand of soap that he used, the kind of razor that he shaved his face with, the scent that he probably saved for only special occasions... It seemed intimate.

Somehow, these very familiar things became foreign, strange and wondrous.

She took a deep breath and moved away from the sink, leaving all of his things behind, and then she went back into the bedroom.

He was sitting up, the lamp on the nightstand turned on. And suddenly, she felt a little bit more embarrassed about her decision to roll out of bed naked.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning,” she responded.

“Don’t get all shy on me now.”

“I’m not,” she mumbled, edging toward where her clothes were.

“Yes, you are.”

She held her hands out wide. “Well, I’m naked. Go ahead and look.”

“I am,” he said.

“What time do you want to head over to the ranch?” she asked.

“Sometime after breakfast. And coffee. And maybe...”

“Oh, surely not in the morning, too.”

He demonstrated then, very thoroughly, that yes, he did mean in the morning. They were so occupied with that, in fact, that they barely had time for coffee, much less breakfast, before heading over to the Dalton ranch to start the day.

He treated her to one last, lingering kiss before they got out of the truck and went their separate ways.

Jamie finished up with all of her assigned work pretty quickly, and decided to move on to running the barrel racing course a few times with Gem. Though she knew she was going to have to text Gabe and see if he wanted to come and evaluate the situation before she did. Considering she hadn’t been on the horse since she fell. Her bruise was looking okay. A mottled purple that wasn’t her most attractive feature, particularly since she was now intimate enough with a man to have him see it, but whatever.

It was funny, because a couple of days ago—it was impossible to believe it had only been a couple of days—she would have kept fighting Gabe on the whole him checking everything out thing.

She didn’t want to fight him. Mostly because she just didn’t want to have a fight.

Why?

He could come and watch her and he would feel better, and he wouldn’t be upset. Then they wouldn’t have to waste angry words when they could be exchanging something far more pleasant. And just like that, she felt like she understood a concept she never had before. It was a strange thing. But it seemed like a minor mystery of the universe had just clicked into place for her. Sometimes you didn’t fight, because it didn’t matter if you were right. Because there was something bigger than right. A relationship between you and another person that you wanted to keep on steady ground.