Her gelding flicked an ear, and LJ looked up to see Jason. Andra’s brother stood alongside a buckskin mare, his brow furrowed as his eyes bounced back and forth between LJ’s bare chest and Andra.

LJ took a step back, clearing his throat as he began to button his shirt. Yeah, if this little scene got back to Bill, he’d be on the curb by morning, his bags hitting the pavement beside him. Especially if Jason caught a glimpse of that bruise.

“Uh, what are you guys doing?” Jason asked.

“Buttoned my shirt wrong this morning.” LJ smiled tightly. “Andra was kind enough to point it out.”

Andra’s head jerked toward him, but she didn’t call him on the lie.

“Okay,” Jason said, his brow creasing deeper. He didn’t move.

LJ raised his eyebrows, taking a step forward. “You need some help with that mare? She sure was giving you hell earlier.”

Jason set his jaw. “She’s fine.”

“Well, I’d better get to work. More than enough colts around here to keep me busy.” LJ popped the quick releases on Snap’s crossties, dropping the ropes so the clips banged against the stall doors on either side of the aisle.

It took every bit of self-control he had not to knock Jason’s shoulder out of his way when he stalked by. He didn’t look at the other man, because he hated that fucking expression. He’d seen it last week, too, when he got pulled over taking one of the ranch trucks to get an oil change. The local sheriff didn’t happen to think anybody who looked like him could afford something that shiny. It only got worse when the man approached the truck, his hand drifting to the butt of his service pistol as he took LJ’s measure.

He’d spent his whole life trying to be a person who didn’t trigger that suspicion.

Seeing it in Jason’s green eyes, so like his sister’s, was nearly unbearable.

Fifteen

Andra was blowing on a molten-hot bite of Salisbury steak when her cell phone rang. She flinched, the cardboard tray holding her dinner folded, and the meat slithered out onto the tile with a wet plop. “Ugh!” She dropped the tray on her kitchen island, sucked the fork clean before tossing it into the sink, and picked up her phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey there, Rodeo Queen.” LJ’s deep voice rumbled through the phone. “You up for dinner tonight?”

Her breath hitched in her throat. “Um, yes?”