* * *

Nobody had ever threatened to fire Erin, and for a moment, she questioned her own ears. But the stern set of Wyatt’s expression and the fact that he met her gaze with unwavering resolve told her he’d spoken nothing but the unvarnished truth and would let her go if she kept screwing up.

“I know very well that I’ve accomplished just as much every day as, if not more than, the men I’m up against,” she told him.

His eyes darkened with what looked like sadness. “You’re not up against anyone. Nobody here wants you to fail. Nobody is trying to make you look bad. You’re working on a ranch now. Nobody cares how strong you are or how you go about accomplishing tasks. All anyone here cares about is that you get your share of the work done. Do you get that? I hope so, because if you’re so focused on outperforming everyone else that you walk in close behind a horse again, I’ll fire you on the spot. Even when we’re careful, this is dangerous work, and you’re not being careful. This is my first and last official warning to you. Deliberately ignore safety procedures again, and you’ll be gone.”

After delivering that ultimatum, he turned and strode away. Erin balled her hands into fists and took three steps after him. If he was going to fire her, she’d at least give him a reason. “You’re an asshole!” she screamed.

Only Wyatt didn’t hear the insult. She stood there, watching his retreating back. He was returning to the ranch proper, where he reigned as the shit-kicker king.

Deflated, she sank down on the log and stared through tears at the creek. I don’t do dumb-ass things, she assured herself. And who’s to say how much punishment my body can take? No matter how sore I was, I hit the deck every morning and put in a hard day with the men. I haven’t backed away from a single job, no matter how disgusting or difficult it was. And yet he threatened to fire me? Why? Is it because I refuse to be girly and do everything the easy way?

Erin knew she was arguing her case inside her mind, which was a normal thing for people to do. But with bone-chilling alarm, she realized it wasn’t her voice she heard. It was her father’s. What on earth was that all about? She hugged her waist, shivering as if from the cold, only it was a balmy afternoon. As she began to calm down, some of what Wyatt had said to her began to sink in, and she realized that she actually had been competing with the men. Her therapist, Jonas Sterling, would tell her to back off and regroup. He’d also push her to search within herself to answer questions she might never have thought to ask herself.

With Jonas’s help, she’d come a long way. But now she felt as if she were back at square one. Her dad’s negative input pounded inside her brain, and her competitiveness had returned, as strong as, if not stronger than, it ever was. Erin wasn’t sure how that had happened, but emotionally she felt as if she were trying to row a canoe upstream against white water.