‘Goin’!’ The cattle moo exasperatedly when I herd them into the corral. The enormous pack of gentle giants are a combination of Tía’s and ours. While the ranch undergoes major reconstruction, my aunt is letting us keep the animals at her farm in Tulsa where she has a ton of extra barn space. The condition? I have to keep doing my chores – an hour-fifteen drive away. I adjust my hat, swivelling towards Tía and guiding Rocky out of the corral before my aunt comes over to close the gate. I dismount my horse, taking his reins so we can lead him back to the field. ‘Where’d you put Colt?’

‘Oh, the boyfriend? Got him to work on my four-by-four,’ she replies. My aunt’s rickety red truck breaks down at least once a week. Poor Colt is probably trying to turn water into wine back at the house.

‘You’re good at making college kids do the chores,’ I tease her, nudging her side so she jumps, nearly losing her sweet tea to gravity.

‘My back can’t do these things any more!’ Tía Juana says in defence. This much is true. Tía, like my Papa, used to be an adrenaline junkie, barrel racing and doing some crazy stunts in show that screwed her back up for good. I’m honestly shocked it’s her who walked away with the permanent bodily injury and not my bull-riding father.

Her back issues, coupled with the fact that she lives alone, happily single since she divorced her deadbeat husband at twenty-eight, make for a ton of work to be done on her farm, all the time, even with well-qualified ranch hands.

I lean over and take a sip of her tea. The freezing liquid buffered by big ice cubes cools my entire body immediately. We take the short walk to the field where my aunt likes to let her horses run.

A loud sputtering sound emerges from the other side of the stables. ‘The truck?’ Tía says around her tea.

‘Better go make sure Colt didn’t blow that thing up,’ I reply, and we hustle on over to the back of the barn.

I’m not sure what I expected to see as I idly dust the dirt off my Wranglers and tank top, but it certainly isn’t what we encounter.

When the overachiever had offered to help me with my chores in Tulsa for the day, I couldn’t say no – I mean, I didn’t mind having someone speed up the dreaded process. And deep down, I didn’t mind spending the drive with Colt, either. Beside the point. Either way, I couldn’t have foreseen him looking this comfortable out on the farm. Extremely comfortable. And extremely … good.