“I…I was just trying to install the new basin. Inlaid it with your grandma’s copper bowl,” she stammered. “I’ve done this a million times, but it slipped through my fingers. It broke through the cabinet, and…”

  Trevor tried to squeeze in next to her, but she pushed him away.

  “I can fix it,” she said. “I just panicked. I—”

  “Jesus,” Trevor cursed. “Stay where you are. I’m going to turn off the water.”

  Sabrina complied, and he had the short walk to the main valve and back to master his temper and think of what to say to her.

  When he returned, he exploded.

  12

  SABRINA

  “Where the hell am I supposed to find the extra couple thousand dollars to fix this?” Trevor bellowed.

  Tears stung the corners of Sabrina’s eyes. She thought she had seen Trevor angry, but now, she could see how mistaken she had been. Even when she had done something to frustrate him in the past, he had never raised his voice to anything resembling this level. For the first time since meeting him, she saw the man that everyone else in Lockhart Bend found so formidable.

  “Calm down, Trevor. I’m…it was an accident!” she exclaimed. “This’ll be an easy fix, if you’ll just let me—”

  “You know better than this. Messing around with the plumbing without shutting off the mains? I know you’re not stupid, so how did this even—”

  “Trevor!” Sabrina’s face went hot, and she wanted to cry. She knew exactly how this had happened. She’d been on cloud nine, daydreaming of Trevor, of his gentle touches and whispers of love. She’d meant to go in and shut off the mains, but in her distraction, she hadn’t done it. And now Trevor had become someone she didn’t know, red-faced and shouting, puffed up with rage.

  “I made a mistake,” she said. “I got distracted. I—”

  “Where am I supposed to come up with the money, Sabrina?” Trevor’s voice rose and cracked. “Sell a horse? Because that’s what it’s going to take—you know that, right?”

  “I can fix it,” she said. “You won’t need a plumber. Just find the supplies, and then I can—”

  “No, you can’t. If you could, I wouldn’t be looking at this.” Trevor kicked the bathmat out of his way. “What were you thinking, trying this on your own?”

  “I’d tell you,” she said, in a dangerous whisper. “But you keep cutting me off when I try to explain. So why don’t you go ahead and tell me what I was thinking?”

  “Really, Sabrina? This isn’t a joke.” Trevor’s hands were shaking. He pointed a finger at her, right in her face. “I can’t afford to part with a horse right now. Not a single one. The bank payment on the ranch is due tomorrow. Tomorrow. There’s no money left to fix this.”

  She could fix this. She knew she could, if only he’d give her a chance. She’d panicked when the pipes burst, and that had been a mistake. But she wasn’t stupid. She knew what to do. She reached for Trevor’s hand, but he jerked it away. Anxiety radiated off him more powerfully than his anger, and she realized what her distraction and panic had just cost him.

  Trevor ran a desperate hand over his close-cropped hair and exhaled deeply through his nose. “I’m not sure how this is supposed to work.”

  He appeared to be muttering to himself, but Sabrina heard his words loud and clear. Sharp as any knife, they cut to the heart of her. She felt as if she had been unceremoniously drenched by another round of freezing cold water.

  So, this was the straw that broke the cowboy’s back. There was no coming back from this, no road back to normal. All those times she’d run into speedbumps and thought Trevor had forgiven her—thought he was on her side—she could see now that he had been building a mental checklist of her shortcomings. And maybe he’d been right. Even she had to admit, her successes at Wildhorse Ranch had been a mixed bag, at best. She’d charmed the locals, but she’d failed to entertain them. She’d made the guest cabins pretty, but she’d pissed off the Millers. They still gave her dirty looks when they saw her drive by.

  If Trevor canceled the glamping program, Sabrina would lose the contract.

  But she wasn’t concerned about her job right now. First and foremost, all Sabrina wanted to do in that instant was throw her arms around him. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was, swear she’d clean up her mess and make it okay. Instead, the two of them stood in silence watching water trickle out of the busted hole in the wall.

  When she finally slunk off, she didn’t think he noticed. Maybe it was better that way. She kept the memory of his bowed back with her as she crossed the lawn and locked herself in the bunkhouse. She thought about the anger, the disappointment, in Trevor’s flaming black eyes, and she buried her face in her pillow and sobbed until her down feathers were drowning.

  She rose hours later to rinse her ruined makeup off her face. She put a pot of coffee on and slumped over the kitchen counter.

  Her grandfather’s star glinted over the cabin’s doorway, but even that couldn’t bring her any comfort tonight.

  Still, she would fix this. In the morning, she would make everything right.

  For Trevor.

  Sabrina hadn’t expected a long wait at the Lockhart Bend Pawn Shop. He’s doing a booming business, she thought as she studied the smiling, jovial broker behind the desk. And he’s sure taking his sweet time.

  She tweaked her sunglasses down her nose to take in her surroundings. She liked to think she was going incognito, with her dark glasses and her baseball cap, but she probably wasn’t fooling anybody who cared to look. She could already imagine the small-town gossip that might spring from this, Wildhorse’s glamping coordinator spotted at a pawn shop. Not so glam, after all. Or worse, folks would feel bad for her and offer to help. She didn’t think she could take that without bursting into tears.

  Then again, maybe she was being paranoid. No one was looking at her, as far as she could see.

  The shop was large, but seemed small, stuffed as it was with rickrack and clutter. The atmosphere was surprisingly less morose than she had expected. Her neighbors sipped their take-out coffees and chatted with one another about the weather, their children’s sporting events, and other minutiae of everyday life.

  She wondered how many of the people standing in line in front of her were there because of one massive mistake.

  It was hard to keep what had happened with Trevor in perspective. On the one hand, she had tried her hardest and only ever operated with the best of intentions. On the other, it seemed like everything she’d accomplished since arriving at the ranch had come with a side order of chaos. She was a good glamping coordinator, maybe even a great one—but that didn’t change the fact that she’d been tripping over her own feet since she got here.

  She would make it right. She’d find someone to replace her at Wildhorse Ranch—Trevor would still get his glampers, but without all her mess. As for the damage, she’d deal with that too. But once she had done that, what came next for her? She wouldn’t be able to find someone to hire her within fifty miles of Wildhorse. Sabrina knew how fast word could travel. How many clients would be willing to give her a chance after her utter failure at Wildhorse?

  And what about her budding romance with Trevor? Even with her master upcycling skills, she couldn’t imagine a world where she was able to salvage that. Maybe it was better to leave things like they were now, head back to the ranch, pack her things and go. She didn’t fit into Trevor’s carefully ordered world, and he…

  Sabrina shoved her sunglasses back up her nose. She had already cried more in the past twenty-four hours than she had when her parents’ house burned down. Tears were one detail she could hide from any lurking gossipmongers.

  The person in front of her concluded his business and moved aside. She was up. She stepped up to the desk and was reaching into her bag when the bell over the shop’s door jingled. She turned in faint curiosity to see who had come in, and blanched at what she saw. Her heart leaped into her throat in the same instant Trevor laid eyes on her and froze in the doorway.

  Once the initial shock had passed, she dropped her eyes to what he was carrying with him. His arms were loaded down with a gorgeous, chestnut-brown saddle. Not just any saddle, Sabrina realized. His father’s rodeo saddle.

  What the hell was he doing here with that?

  Their shock at seeing one another had made them conspicuous to the other customers. It was as if the entire pawn shop had stopped to hold its breath. Finally, Trevor broke the silence. “Sabrina, can I talk to you outside?”

  “Want to leave that here with me?” the pawnshop owner asked her. He gestured to the small cloth-wrapped item in her hand. “I can appraise it for you while you’re out.”

  Sabrina glanced from the owner to Trevor and back again. “Um…give me one second.” She hustled out the door after Trevor.

  His pickup was parked at the curb. He tossed the saddle down into the open bed, took a deep breath, and turned back to her. “What are you doing here?” he finally asked. He folded his arms expectantly when she didn’t answer him. “I saw you left early this morning. I guess I just assumed…”

  He trailed off, and they both stood in uncomfortable silence. Sabrina realized he thought exactly what she had been planning half a second ago: that she had left the ranch for good without a word of goodbye.

  She steeled herself to speak before raising her chin defiantly. With her shades fixed over her eyes, there was no way he could see what she was really thinking in that moment. “I’m here to get the money I owe you. The money for repairs to the bunkhouse bathroom.” She was proud of the way her voice didn’t shake in the slightest.

  “With what?” he asked her pointedly. His eyes fell to the palm-sized, folded cloth in her hand. She would have liked to have kept him guessing, but his eyebrows shot up instantly, and he snatched her hand in his. “Are you crazy? Absolutely not! There is no way you’re selling your grandfather’s star. Besides, it’s not worth—”

  “Listen!” Sabrina jerked her hand back quickly. “I know what I’m doing, Trevor. I know it’s my grandfather’s star, but I don’t need that broker to appraise it for me. I had it appraised a long time ago. I always thought it was a lot heavier than it looked.” She paused, drew a deep breath, and continued. “It’s made out of gold. My grandfather just painted it over with silver so it would look more like an Old West sheriff’s star when I was a kid. It’s worth more than it looks at first glance.”

  “That star is priceless to you,” Trevor whispered.

  Sabrina’s lip quivered. Why was he being so nice to her? Didn’t he see she was trying to do the right thing by him? “It’s a trinket,” she said. “Having it with me has gotten me through a lot, but maybe I don’t need it like I thought I did. Even though I…I know I have to leave Wildhorse.” She drew in another quick breath. “I know that. But I guess a part of me wished that…if I brought you the money and begged your forgiveness…you’d let me stay.” She waved the ornament in the air. “And I wouldn’t have to keep hanging this damn star over every new door of every new place that I lived. It’s worth it, Trevor. Even if you don’t want me to stay, let me do this.”

  “Sabrina, I want you to stay,” he said firmly.

  Sabrina blinked. She stared hard into his grim face, wondering if he was taking this last opportunity to mess with her. But he’d always been straight with her, and she didn’t sense anything different now.

  “I…” She broke off and wheeled to wave both hands at the back of his truck. “What are you doing down here, anyway? What is this? Why do you have your father’s saddle with you? You weren’t thinking of pawning it to cover the damage I did?”

  Trevor rubbed the stubble on his jaw. He shifted uncomfortably in front of her, and appeared to be weighing his words. Finally, he spoke:

  “I’m not gonna deny that your being here touches me,” he said. “What you tried to do, that’s special. It’s kind. And what you just said rings true, about moving on. Letting go of the past. I feel the exact same way you do, Sabrina.” He gestured to the saddle. “I want to make a change. And maybe that change comes with letting go of something I’ve held onto all these years.”

  “Trevor—”

  “Please. Let me finish.” His voice was soft, but Sabrina stilled to listen. “The truth is, Wildhorse is changing. You’re helping change it, and I guess I just… There’s new furniture everywhere, boxes of flowers, horses smelling like candy—it’s a lot all at once. I felt like the home I grew up in was gone. That’s why I blew up at you, not the damage, the change. I couldn’t face it, and I jumped on any excuse to be angry with you.” He cleared his throat and straightened up to his full height. “But when I got up today and I thought you were gone, it hit me like a tractor how stupid I’ve been. The future—a future with you—is more precious than any relic from my past.”

  Sabrina felt a tear slide down her cheek. So much for hiding. Trevor’s grimace softened, and he reached out gently to remove her sunglasses.

  “Let me do this,” he whispered. “Let me be the hero who lets you keep your grandfather’s star. Let me be the man who admits that maybe, all this time, he’s been doing things wrong.” He smoothed the pad of his thumb across her cheek and banished the tears. “Please don’t let me be the man who loses the one thing that matters most to him.”

  Despite his efforts to skim her tears away, his words opened the floodgates. Sabrina gasped in relief and threw her arms around him. He caught her and steadied her, like she knew he would. Cupping the back of her head, she felt his chest shake in a relieved chuckle.

  “Sabrina, I love that you would give up something so precious for me,” he whispered. His lips drifted along her hairline, and he pressed a kiss to her temple. “But what I love more is you and seeing you happy.”

  “I love you too,” she managed to choke out. Of all the places she had dreamed of confessing the depths of her feelings for Trevor Wild, she had never imagined it would be in front of a pawn shop—but in that moment, she couldn’t bring herself to care about the location. The home—the man—she had longed for, were hers.

  She clung to him as long as he allowed. When he eventually gave a polite cough, she drew back and wiped her eyes roughly on her sleeve. Trevor’s handsome face flexed in a smile, and his dark gaze fixed her with such affection that it left Sabrina feeling winded. She sat down in the open bed of the truck beside the saddle. In the next instant, she was reaching to stall Trevor as he wrapped his arms around the saddle, but he shrugged her off gently and hauled it up against his chest.

  “Let me do this, Sabrina,” he murmured. “Then let me take you down the street and buy you a coffee.”

  “All right,” she conceded. She watched him disappear inside the pawn shop. Moments later, he came back out with a substantial wad of cash. He stowed it in his wallet and presented her with the gravest thumbs-up she had ever seen. Sabrina gave a short laugh despite herself and wiped her eyes again for good measure. She let her rescue rider lift her down off the back of the truck and kiss her like he never wanted the moment to end.

  “Can I ask one thing from you?” he inquired as he pulled away. She nodded. Anything, she thought as she gazed up at him in adoration. “I want to hang that star of yours off the rearview mirror of the pickup,” he said. He walked around to the passenger side of his truck and pulled open the door for her. “Think that’s something we can agree on?”

  “Agreed,” she said as she climbed in.

  “How’d you get down here, anyway?” Trevor asked as he folded himself behind the wheel. “Pete’s truck was still in the driveway when I left.”

  “Uber,” Sabrina said. His dark brows drew together, and she held up her smartphone. “Lockhart Bend has all of one driver in operation. Guess I got lucky.”

  “I don’t know what the hell that is,” Trevor replied. Sabrina glanced at him sharply to see if he was joking, but his stone-faced demeanor betrayed nothing.

  “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” she replied. “Otherwise I might have to rethink falling for such a stubborn, backwoods, averse-to-change hunk in a—”

  But the very cowboy hat that she had been about to deride came off that very same instant, and Trevor swooped in to capture her smart mouth in his. Sabrina gave a half-muffled laugh of delight and grabbed hold of his square, rough face to keep him from retreating. Not even the laughter of a passerby could stop his surprising show of affection, and Sabrina thanked her lucky star that she had finally found a home to call her own.

  13

  TREVOR

  Trevor stared across the ring, watching the glampers as they watched Pete. Pete was working with Tex, and the guests seemed enthralled, peppering him with questions and hanging on his replies. Pete had always been a slow talker, but now he was milking it, reveling in their attention.

  “Now, don’t you mind Tex here none, he can be downright frisky if you give him too much rein….”

  Trevor shook his head and turned to head off, only to find himself face-to-face with Trent. He adjusted his hat as he greeted his brother.

  “Hey, Trent. What’s happening?”

  “Not a whole lot,” said Trent. He leaned up on the fence, watching Pete and the glampers. “You really made it work, huh?”

  “Sure did,” said Trevor. “Though, Sabrina’s the one who deserves all the credit. She put all this together, got it running smooth. It’s all Sabrina. Without her, I—”

  “I meant her, you idiot.” Trent thumped his arm. “I meant, you two seem happy.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Trevor nodded anyway. “We are,” he said.