Page 24 of July’s Cowboy Dallas

“Sadie—”

She looked at me then, and every word I'd been holding since dawn crowded my throat.

I wanted to tell her last night wasn't nothing. That I'd spent the whole morning replaying every sound she'd made against my mouth. That I'd stopped myself from touching her a dozen times since sunrise because I didn't trust myself to stop at once. That I was terrified I'd already ruined this.

Instead, I said, “I'll check the south pens before they arrive.”

“Right,” she said. “Good idea.”

She climbed out of the truck before I could find better words.

Coward. That was the word for a man who could rope a running steer in front of a full grandstand but couldn't tell one woman what she meant to him.

Addison must have beat us back to the grounds. She stood near the junior queen contestants, looking perfect in boots and a royal blue vest with enough rhinestones to blind someone at fifty yards. She waved at Sadie, all practiced grace and ease.

Sadie waved back.

I caught movement near the main arena. Waverly walked her barrel horse along the rail while Tanner stood nearby, watching the horse’s movement with a trainer’s eye.

Slade Kincaid leaned against the bleachers, watching his cousin with the kind of quiet pride that came from being part of a family with strong ties. Morgan was next to him like always, her clipboard in hand, looking like she was mentally redesigning the entire rodeo layout.

Jace Walker hauled a toolbox toward the announcer's booth, pausing to nod at Orville before heading up the ladder. Bella crouched near the chutes, her camera raised, capturing a shot of volunteers setting up the bucking stock gates.

The whole town was here building something together. And Sadie stood in the middle of it, carrying her family's name while everyone whispered about the stock she'd pulled.

I watched her square her shoulders and walk into it anyway and wanting her hit me all over again. It wasn’t the hot, desperate need I’d felt in the alley kind of wanting. It was the kind where a man watches a woman be braver than everyone around her and realizes she’s the one. Sadie was the one… the only woman I wanted for the rest of my life.

Instead of grabbing her hand and telling her exactly how I felt, I unloaded supplies from the truck bed and followed her toward the barn.

Cody intercepted us near the holding pens, sweat soaking through his shirt, dirt streaked across his forearms.

“Are the replacements confirmed?” he asked.

“Four by morning,” I said. “Two more by noon.”

“Good. We're cutting this close.”

Sadie adjusted her hold on the bag she was carrying. “Has there been any movement on the pulled stock?”

“Holt's people hauled the brindle out this morning. The rest are getting picked up tonight.” Cody wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “One of the intake sheets says they overnighted out at the Miller lease pasture before they came in. Is that right?”

I froze.

The bag slipped from Sadie's arms. She caught it, but her eyes cut to me.

“The Miller pasture?” I asked.

“Yeah. Lease land, right? Out past the eastern fence line?” Cody pulled a crumpled paper from his back pocket and squinted at it. “Says here temporary holding, one night, before delivery. Figured you'd know.”

I didn't know.

The Miller lease pasture was land my family managed for overflow stock and equipment storage. It wasn't locked down tight. It had never needed to be. People knew it. Trusted it. That trust was exactly what made it useful for someone trying to move animals in secret.

They’d used my name… my land. And I hadn't known a fucking thing about it.

“Dallas?” Sadie's voice pulled at me, quiet and careful.

“Yeah,” I said. “Lease land.”