Page 91 of Dusty Spur Ranch Cowboys

“I was just thinking.”

“Dangerous hobby.”

“I’ve been told.”

He reaches across the mattress and brushes a strand of hair away from my face. The gesture is so easy, so familiar, that my chest tightens before I can stop it.

This…

This is the dangerous part.

Anybody can spend one reckless night wrapped up in somebody else’s sheets. Waking up beside them and smiling over terrible hair feels like the beginning of a habit.

I climb out of bed before that thought grows roots. “I should get dressed before Sadie wakes up.”

Emmett pushes himself upright and watches me pull yesterday’s shirt over my head. “You don’t have to sneak out.”

“I’ve got plenty of experience disappearing.”

His smile fades. “I figured.”

Neither of us reaches for the conversation waiting underneath them because footsteps race down the hallway before either of us gets the chance.

Emmett’s eyes lift toward the bedroom door. “That’s Sadie.”

“I guessed when the ceiling started shaking.”

He huffs out a laugh, then looks around the room as though trying to solve a puzzle with no good answer. “You could…”

His sentence trails off while his gaze flicks from me to the wardrobe and back again.

I fold my arms. “You were about to suggest I hide in the closet, weren’t you?”

“I was considering all available options.”

“Bold strategy.”

A knock rattles the bedroom door before either of us can come up with a better plan. “Daddy?”

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

“I made breakfast.”

Emmett smiles. “That’s real⁠—”

“And it’s making lots of smoke.”

His smile disappears.

He yanks the bedroom door open and sprints down the hallway wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, leaving me to grab my boots and follow at a much less heroic pace.

Smoke curls lazily above the stove when I reach the kitchen.

Sadie stands balanced on a chair with a spatula clutched proudly in one hand while a pancake has transformed into a charcoal disc inside the frying pan.

“I wanted a surprise,” she says.

“It definitely is,” Emmett replies as he rescues the pan before breakfast burns a hole through it.