The expression he gives me is dry—sarcastic somehow. No one is more uncomfortable with his fame than Jasper.

“Lighten up. You know this is one of my favorite events of the year. Really is nice to have you out here.”

“Did you just tell me to lighten up?” Shock bleeds into his tone.

That’s when a chorus of hoots breaks out along the fence line behind me. Everyone is here. Willa, Summer, Rhett, and other friends from town.

I turn and catch two matching flashes of blonde hair waltzing down to the pen and my dad with an expression that looks like he just saw Elvis Presley come back from the dead.

“Violet! You’re gonna give me a heart attack, girl!” My dad wraps his arms around our little sister, and she’s so petite that she almost disappears in his embrace.

“Surprise, Dad!”

He holds her back and takes her in. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” He turns to our cousin. “You too, Sloane. Who knew the little barn brats would grow up to be such beautiful young women?”

God, Harvey is fucking gushing. Sloane comes around now and then since becoming some sort of prima ballerina, but Violet has become something of a sensation herself—a world famous racehorse jockey out on the coast, with a whole damn family—so she’s not back nearly as often.

I can’t help but grin again. Seem to do a lot of that lately.

I ride over with Jasper following.

“Baby sister,” I say.

“Big brother.” She beams up at me. “Almost didn’t recognize you with that smile on your face.”

I hop off and frown at her dramatically before folding her into a hug. “Where’s Cole?”

“Oh, your man crush?” she quips because yeah, I like the guy. She married a good one. “He’s wrangling the tiny humans so I can wrangle some cows.”

“Yeah?” I pull back and eye her skeptically.

“Hell yeah.” She claps her hands and brushes them together like she’s ready for the challenge. “Bet I can still throw a rope better than you.”

I just shake my head before turning to Sloane. She’s standing beside Violet but has her full attention on Jasper, like she has since she was a kid.

And he’s fucking clueless, like he has been since he was a kid.

He says they’re “good friends.” And maybe they are, maybe I’m reading into something that isn’t there.

All I know is that in those early days, everyone looked at Jasper like he might come apart at any moment. But Sloane looked at him like he hung the moon.

“Good to see you, Sloane. It’s been a while. Keeping busy with the dancing?” That probably sounds dumb, but I don’t know how to put it. Not a big ballet guy myself.