Emrys wiggled her own eyebrows up and down. “Looks can be deceiving,”

“I think it’s awesome.” Her brother chimed in with a voice full of admiration and prepubescent approval. Their dad wasn’t the only one who had succumbed to my friend’s effortless charm and affability.

“What about you? Do you fish and hunt?” The question was lobbed at me with more than friendly curiosity, and despite myself, I found that I liked the girl’s grit and moxie. I wasn’t sure why she viewed me and not the other redhead at the table as a threat to her budding crush on the big, menacing man who seemed oblivious, but I admired her fight. It reminded me that I needed to find where mine had been buried under my own doubt and uncertainty.

“Nope. I used to love to ride horses when I was younger but I haven’t done that or been camping and fishing since I was a little girl. I like my memory foam mattress and I’m in a happily committed relationship with the Chinese restaurant at the end of the block down from my apartment. I’ll be clueless and helpless all week long but I’m excited to see the mountains and to spend some quality time with my bestie.” I offered the girl a lopsided grin that she didn’t return but my assurance that I was no Pioneer Woman, about to wow the men in charge of our well-being with my skills, seemed to put her at ease and some of the tension around her mouth loosened.

“You sure you aren’t running away from anything in the city, using all the fresh air and nature to escape something that went sour?” That rumbling question came from Cy and it was so unexpected it made me jump a little bit in my seat. He seemed so focused on the woman at his side, I sort of thought he forgot the rest of us were at the table still.

I tilted my chin in a defiant manner. “What would I be running from?” He couldn’t know about the lies and the self-doubt or the tight wire I was walking at work. There was no way he could read me so well after such a short amount of time. At least I hoped he couldn’t. I didn’t like the idea of being that transparent to anyone. There was nowhere to hide if he was able to see right through me.

“I don’t know what you left behind but I do know this is a long way to come when you don’t really want to be here.” He had a point.

But as I opened my mouth to argue that he didn’t know me well enough to know if I wanted to be here or not I suddenly realized I really did want to be here. The more minutes that passed, the more I did want to see how this crazy vacation that hadn’t even really started yet was going to play out. Nothing had caught my attention or held my curiosity like this man had. The distraction from everything that had been pulling me down lately was a nice reprieve. Butting heads with Cy made me feel like my old self, and I missed her.

I slid a look to Emrys and then back to him. The other redhead at his side was switching her dark gaze between the two of us, like we were opponents in a tennis match. She seemed fascinated by our banter and it made me cringe because I shouldn’t like the zing of life that verbally sparring with the darkly complicated man gave me. I was supposed to be smart enough to run from that zing.

“The idea of spending a week here is growing on me. I’m not a big fan of change so it takes me a minute to settle in, especially when it’s something I wasn’t expecting.” I lifted an eyebrow at him and gave him a smile that showed a lot of teeth.

It was Brynn who asked with wide eyes and a hushed voice, “What were you expecting?” Almost like she was scared of the answer I was going to give.

Luckily, Lane was the one who gave a good-natured reply. “She wanted real cowboys and was disappointed when she got Cy instead. He’s never wanted to be a cowboy but he didn’t get much of a choice in the matter.”

I wasn’t disappointed . . . I was stunned and off my game because I couldn’t believe how viscerally and violently I had reacted to the man who wasn’t quite the cowboy I’d been anticipating. I’d been oblivious to so much lately, it was a shock to be so fully engrossed in another human being. I wasn’t prepared for someone to be as blunt and honest with their feelings like he had been. I was too accustomed to people trying to placate and patronize. Even though he was rude and insulting, Cy’s in-your-face manner was oddly refreshing and weirdly satisfying to be around.

He said what he meant. There weren’t any lies or deceptions because they would carry.

The stunning redhead made a distressed sound in her throat and rose from her place next to the man in question. She looked down at him, then over at me, and her lips quirked like she suddenly had a secret she was dying to tell someone.

“Oh, dear . . . well, I guess when you ride out tomorrow you can see for yourself that a cowboy hat and a big belt buckle isn’t what makes a real cowboy.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me as she started to clear the plates off the table. “Though you should see him in a Stetson. I told him he needs to put that picture on the front of the brochure. We would be booked year round with single women trying to lasso their very own rancher.”

I blinked at her in confusion. She didn’t sound jealous or bothered by the fact that other women would indeed show up to chase the attractive, brooding man around if they knew he was hiding up here in no man’s land. I couldn’t figure it out. I couldn’t figure them out.

I met his unflinching and probing gaze with one of my own. “It’s going to be an interesting week to say the least.” I gave him a saccharin smile and turned to look at Brynn, who was still watching us with eagle-eyed attention. “And who knows, maybe if we get lucky, he’ll do us all a favor and bust out the cowboy hat.”