The slenderest nip of waist was visible through her baggy shirt, the rays of the sun beating through old, thin fabric. A wisp of black hair fell forward from beneath her hat. He dropped his duffel and leaned his arms on the fence to watch. Maybe one of the rails creaked, maybe the air just shifted, but she turned to look at him. Even from across the arena, he could see her entire posture brighten as she recognized him.

“LJ!”

He grinned and everything got lighter: the worry, the ache in his shoulder from sleeping on concrete, and the ticktock of the charity clock, counting down the time until he had to get back. “Hey, hey, Rodeo Queen. Long time no see. Looking good out there.”

But then her smile cracked and ebbed away, her hands tightening on the reins until the horse began to back up. She let go of the reins and dismounted, not looking at him.

Something dark shook LJ’s gut, and he grabbed the top rail, vaulting over with a yank and pull that did nothing to dissipate the energy coursing through his whole body. He’d come all this way, and she looked the same as the last time he saw her: like it was going to make her cry, but she was going to leave him anyway.

“I should have asked,” he said. “When you left New Orleans, I should have realized someone must have said something stupid to you between when I went to work and when I came home. Was it Reggie?”

She tied the horse’s reins up short, letting it loose to wander in the arena.

“Mona?”

Andra pulled her back straight and walked to meet him. “It doesn’t matter, LJ. Nobody could say anything to change the fact that there’s no way for us to be together. Not without you sacrificing everything that means anything to you. Not without me becoming a different person.”

He took it like a punch, trying not to flinch. When she’d told him all that the first time, she’d been in tears, and she hadn’t sounded so certain. He’d planned an apology and a long speech refuting every possible point that might have motivated her to break up with him. In person, she was so steady and beautiful that everything he’d meant to say fell away into one bare plea.

“Tell me you don’t love me,” he said.

She wrapped her arms around herself. “Don’t,” she said raggedly. “LJ, we can’t.”

He swallowed. “There’s only one reason for me to leave here,” he said. “One reason for us not to build a herd of horses and a life together. And that’s if you don’t love me. Because I love you so much I’m crazy with it.”