Erin grappled with an urge to grumble with dismay. Did everyone on the ranch know she had been crushing on Wyatt? Kennedy had certainly picked up on it. Apparently Vickie had as well. It disturbed Erin to think she had been so transparent. Embarrassment made her cheeks burn as she walked along the paddock fence through spring field grass that was already ankle deep. As she entered the forest, the carpet of green thinned out to reveal earth gone spongy from countless layers of ponderosa pine needles that had composted over the years into rich organic humus.

She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. Speaking to Wyatt needed to go smoothly so their future encounters wouldn’t be uncomfortable. She should keep the conversation simple and to the point without alluding in any way to her talk with Kennedy.

She found Wyatt sitting on the same log that she and Kennedy had sat on to talk. Approaching from behind allowed her to study him. He’d doffed his Stetson to let the light breeze ruffle his golden hair, which drifted over his muscular shoulders like strands of silk. Sunlight filtered through the pine boughs above him, dappling the cloth of his blue work shirt to make it look tie-dyed. He had leaned forward to brace his arms on his knees. Head slightly bent, he studied the movement of the creek with its eddying currents dotted with white froth. Erin wished there were some way to alert him to her presence and thought about lobbing a pebble at his back, but the way her luck seemed to run with him, she’d probably hit him on the head.

As she circled the craggy end of the fallen log, he jumped with a start and his laser-blue gaze cut into her like a sharp blade. “You are the only person on God’s green earth who can sneak up on me like that.”

Erin wondered how that could be true. He couldn’t hear footsteps approaching him from behind, and she surely couldn’t be the only person who ever startled him. Keeping her distance, she sank onto the log. Her brain kicked into overdrive, composing sentences and then discarding them just as quickly.

She couldn’t think how to start this conversation and was starting to panic when Wyatt saved her the trouble by saying, “Erin, please don’t take this personally, but you need to back off. I’m really not interested. I’ve tried to be polite about it, but you don’t seem to be getting the message.”

Erin nodded. “I know. That you aren’t interested, I mean. And I’m really sorry for putting you in such an uncomfortable position. I grew up in the city. I understand that all of us don’t march to the same drumbeat. It just never occurred to me that you’re—well, you know. I followed you down here to set your mind at ease. I won’t be bothering you again with my misguided notion that we could be anything more than friends.” Embarrassment made her chest feel hot and tingly. “I just didn’t pick up on the signals, I guess. Nothing about you suggested to me that you might be playing for the other team.”