There was a thrill to it. Meeting someone he’d never been with before and wondering what might happen next. Knowing that whatever it was, it wouldn’t be permanent.

Wouldn’t have any lasting consequences or emotional entanglements.

It was bungee jumping. A little thrill, but you knew you wouldn’t fall straight to the ground.

Relationships were jumping off a cliff. And he had no earthly interest in that.

He liked the thrill without the risk. Without the promise.

Without the chance of failure.

Hooking up was tough to do in Gold Valley, mostly because he knew a lot of the women, and was sure to see them again after an encounter, which was not his favorite thing.

That was all.

He was just being a basic bro. She was a woman, and so his body was searching out whether or not she was possible. She wasn’t, and that was the end of that story.

Basic or not, he had roast beef sandwiches and Diet Cokes, and he figured that was a decent enough offering. By the time he got back out to the barn with his pack full of food, Jamie was standing outside the barn with the horses prepared.

She had redone her braid, which had been escaping in great chunks after the fight she’d had with the motor. She was wearing a black cowboy hat, with no adornment whatsoever, and holding the reins for both horses, one in each hand, her hip cocked to the side.

Usually, she looked pretty straight up and down, given the shape of everything she wore, but now that tank top she was wearing was clinging to her curves, sticky with sweat from earlier, and putting him in the mind of all the ways a woman might work up a sweat.

“You ready?” she asked.

If she could read his mind right now she’d shove the reins down his throat.

“Hell, yeah,” he said, moving away from his moment of admiration. A moment was fine. Anything else was pushing it.

“I’m letting you have Gus,” she said, her expression very serious. “But be aware that I’m going to give your ass a hard time if you don’t handle him well this go-round.”

“My ass feels duly notified,” he said dryly.

She nodded once. “Good.”

She dropped the reins, and Gus stood steady. Gabe approached slowly, putting his hand on the horse’s neck, a strange, familiar sensation overtaking him as he did.

The truth was, riding bucking broncos was similar to this in a lot of ways. He always took that moment. That breath. When he was on the back of the animal straining underneath him, and the gate was still closed.

To try to get a sense for his rhythm. Of his mood. To really feel the connection.

A lot of riders missed that. And to his mind, it was the thing that separated out the champions. His brothers, great though they were, didn’t have the patience for it. They couldn’t do stillness. And while he didn’t like it in abundance, he always took that moment. Where he let the crowd fade into the background, the clanging of the gates and the noise around him, the horses kicking against the fences, all that. He let it fall away.