“No. It’s not about school.” Kennedy glanced over his shoulder. “It’s—um—well, kind of personal. Do you have time to walk down to the creek? Nobody will overhear us there.”

Erin liked Kennedy, but they weren’t what she would call close friends. If he wasn’t having issues with his studies, what on earth did he want to talk to her about? “A walk to the creek sounds great.”

* * *

Kennedy led Erin to a quiet spot down by Mystic Creek, which flowed from the mountains to traverse the entire length of the Wilder Ranch. She guessed the young man came here often. A fallen tree, long since debarked and limbed by winter storms, provided a place for them to sit. She joined him on the log, keeping her distance but sitting close enough for them to converse over the babble of the stream.

“Oh, this is lovely,” she said, gazing up through the canopy of pine boughs above them to glimpse patches of powder-blue sky. “It’s like a grotto, designed by Mother Nature.”

Kennedy nodded. “When it’s warm in the afternoon, I like to brace my back against this log and crack the books. It’s a great place to study. At the bunkhouse, I get interrupted a lot.”

Erin took a breath of the air. Deep in a wooded area, the moldy scent of a forest floor lent the light breeze a scent of timelessness. “It centers you, I bet. I think it would me.”

“Yeah.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. He tugged at the limp collar of his plaid work shirt. “When I’m stressed-out about something, this place reminds me that the day-to-day shit in our lives doesn’t really matter in the end.”

Erin couldn’t help but smile. “As you just heard in the kitchen, guys don’t have a corner on angst. Now that I know about this place, I might come here to unwind myself.”

Kennedy pushed a hand through his straight, blond hair. Unlike Wyatt, he wore his short, but he was no less handsome. At thirty-two, Erin felt no physical attraction to him, but she imagined females a decade her junior probably had heart palpitations when he grinned at them. “I, um—” He broke off and tugged at his collar again. “Speaking of what I overhead at the house, there’s something I feel obligated to tell you, and there’s no way to say it except straight out.”

Curiosity welled within her. “I’m listening.”

Kennedy straightened his legs and studied the toes of his upturned riding boots. “I know you’ve got the hots for my brother.”

Erin’s first reaction was to cringe with humiliation. Had she been that obvious? The thought that everyone on the ranch might have noted her interest in Wyatt was embarrassing. For an instant, she considered denying the charge, but that was silly. Kennedy’s brother was a very good-looking man, and there was no question in her mind that a lot of local women had the hots for him.

“I realize now that the feeling isn’t mutual,” she settled for saying. “If you brought me down here to ask me to back off, it’s unnecessary.”