“Mistake?” Ivy’s question contained a hint of hurt and anger.

“I shouldn’t have—” Jericho lowered his voice. “I shouldn’t have kissed you, Ivy. Not here. Not like this.”

“Not like ever,” Flynn said.

Ivy squared up with her brother as though preparing to go to war. “Don’t you start tellin’ me who I can and can’t kiss.”

“No one.” Flynn’s tone was hard. “Never.”

“I’ll kiss who I want and when I want.”

“Absolutely not.”

“You did.” Ivy clutched at her bodice, but not before Jericho caught sight of the tremble in her fingers. “I saw you smooching with Helen Fairchild plenty of times in the haymow—”

“That was a mistake—”

“Was smooching with Linnea a mistake too?”

Flynn released a string of mutters.

Wyatt glanced between his siblings, his brow furrowing. “Let’s quit yammering on about Flynn and focus on the problems right here smacking us in the face.”

“From where I stand, there ain’t any problems.” Ivy lifted her chin. “I’m a grown woman and can kiss anyone I want, including Jericho.”

Protest rose within Jericho. He didn’t want Ivy kissing anyone she wanted—anyone, that is, except for him.

Before he could figure out what to say, Wyatt responded. “You wanna drag your reputation through the mud, Ivy?”

“I don’t care a lick what people think.”

“Rumors are gonna start flying about you being in here kissing Jericho, unshucked and half-naked—”

“I’m not half-naked!”

“You’ve got your top off!” Flynn’s roar silenced Ivy. “And last time you were alone with Jericho, you weren’t wearing your skirt.”

“I told you why—”

“It’s indecent,” Wyatt cut in.

Ivy heaved a sigh.

The tension in Jericho’s body tightened, his cheek hurt from where Flynn had socked him, and one of his eyes was beginning to swell up.

Jericho glanced at Ivy. Should they tell Wyatt and Flynn about her disguise as Buster Bliss? It would be the best way to explain why she hadn’t been wearing her bodice.

Her eyes silently pleaded with him not to spill the truth. The rich, dark brown sucked him back in, right where he’d been when he wanted to kiss her—powerless to resist her.

Besides, with how hard it was for her as a woman to have the same privileges as a man, she trusted that he was on her side, that he wanted to help her. And he couldn’t disappoint her.

Flynn shook his head. “Heaven help me, Ivy. I thought I raised you better than this. But looks like I failed somewhere along the way.”

Hurt flashed across Ivy’s face before anger rolled in to replace it. “This ain’t the first time you’ve told me what a failure I am. Reckon it won’t be the last.”

“Don’t get all fired up,” Wyatt interjected. “That’s not what we’re saying.”

“Then what?”