“Maybe. But you have to admit, the bronco’s harder than you thought.”

“It’s tough.”

“To my mind,” Gabe said. “Bareback, saddle bronc, bull... On some you lean backward, on another you lean forward. It’s all just a different kind of back pain.”

Wyatt laughed. “I guess that’s how you know you’re getting old.”

“I don’t mind it,” Gabe said, looking around again at the crowd that was meager by the standards he and Wyatt were used to. And then back at Jamie, who was grinning like a fool. “Yeah,” he said. “I don’t mind it.”

* * *

JAMIE HAD POSTED a record time for herself. One that was definitely competitive in professional circles. One that meant she was ready. As soon as she could go, she was ready. She didn’t have to wait a year or two, as long as she could get the money together.

And for some reason, her heart was pounding into overdrive having just watched Gabe complete that ride. It was the sexiest damn thing she’d ever seen in her life.

She suddenly understood why women flung themselves at cowboys.

But she only wanted to fling herself at one cowboy. And she honestly wanted to do it so badly she was concerned for her health.

Right now the only ride she wanted to complete was a ride of Gabe Dalton. Naked. In his bed.

Hey, against a wall would work.

She wasn’t picky.

She clenched her thighs together.

It was so strange, now that she had her ticket out. And part of her felt like she had never wanted to stay so badly.

“Good job,” Kate said, clapping Jamie on the back.

“You, too.”

Sierra gave her a hug. The woman managed to smell like perfume, even after a run like that. “Great job,” she said.

Then the two women went off to their families, and Jamie was struck somewhat dumb by the sight of it.

They had families. They raced. She knew that Kate still did it professionally when she got the itch. Sierra never really had, but Jamie had always had the impression that Sierra had been more involved in amateur events, and had never had a real aspiration toward professional riding.

But they had it all. They had it all in a way Jamie hadn’t ever let herself imagine a woman could.

Sierra even had it all with glitter.

Suddenly, McKenna and Beatrix bounded over to Jamie and pulled her in for a hug.

“You did great!” they both said, overlapping each other.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’m surprised.”

“I’m not,” Bea said, smiling.

“Gabe was pretty amazing,” McKenna said.

“Yeah,” Jamie said. “So were Grant and Dane.”

She inadvertently realized that she had compared Gabe to McKenna’s and Bea’s fiancés. As if it was the same thing.

McKenna smiled. “You really like him.”

“I don’t know,” Jamie said.

Except she did know. She didn’t really like him. She liked him in every way a woman could like a man. She liked him clothed and talking, and eating toast, and naked and not talking and eating her.