“Ease up,” Cypress is telling her now. “Unlock your elbows a fraction, put both hands securely on the grip. Let the weapon be an extension of you, not something to fear.”
I feel a spike of frustration as I keep my place near the wagon, wondering why I hadn’t seen it sooner, or recognized the signs after so many years of knowing exactly what they look like. Of course, Cypress hadn’t missed it.
“Here, little bird,” he’d said as he stepped in, taking the old pistol in her trembling hands and neatly exchanging it for one of the gleaming twin Colts he keeps at his waist. “Try this one instead. You might like the feel of it better.”
She eyed him warily, the recoil of her agitation with me catching Cypress, too. “Why?”
“It’s lighter,” he said easily, even knowing as well as I do that the gun he’d placed in her hands was larger than her own. “Can I show you?”
She hesitated, her breaths coming in shallow doses as she looked at him, and only then did I notice she was trying not to cry.Dammit.
“Cora…” I started to say, but she was already turning on her heel to return to the line I’d drawn in the sand. Cypress clapped a consolatory hand on my shoulder and squeezed before following.
“All right, now keep both your eyes open and fixed on your target, understand?” Cypress is saying. “Wily bastard could take off on you at any moment.”
She laughs, soft and still a little unsure, and it soothes the ache in my chest when I hear her say back, “I don’t think the can hasplans for escape.”
“That’s what he wants you to think. Remember, both eyes open,” Cypress murmurs, the tip of his boot gently nudging the inside of her foot. “Spread your legs a bit wider. That’s it.” She shifts, accidentally leaning back into him in the process, and when she stays like that rather than pulling away, Cypress’s eyes close for a moment before he regains his composure. “Good. That’s good, Cora.”
Christ, I think, feeling a spike of something else now pooling low in my gut as I watch them and try not to let my mind race back to that morning at the stream.
Unless you would like to stand there and watch…If she only knew how much that single sentence has taunted me, if she had any idea how it had turned something already simmering in the back of my head into a snarling inferno with sharpened teeth.
I wish I could even explain why. I shouldn’t want her. She’s too naive, too damn innocent to even realize the effect she has. On either of us.
I keep watching as she tries to follow Cypress’s instruction, and when she tips her head back to glance up at him, I can see the growing adoration in his eyes while he reaches forward to gently correct her hold.
“Use your thumb to pull back the hammer. Hover your finger beside the trigger until you’re ready to fire. Thensqueeze.” His finger presses into the back of her hand in an imitation of the movement. “Do not pull. Some make the mistake of thinking you need a lot of pressure but you do not. You only need the right technique.”
She nods, and Cypress’s hand drops from hers. She takes one more deep breath. I do the same.
Why do I want her? Whyher? Cypress has his reasons, and regardless of whether or not I believe in them, I envy the resoluteness of his conviction. Always have.
Without any more hesitation, Cora squeezes the trigger, both eyes open to see the way the can goes flying into the air on impact. I grin as she practically leaps out of her skin in celebration, turning and throwing her arms around Cypress in her excitement, laughing as he spins her in a big circle with her long hair and her skirts flying out behind her.
By the time he sets her back down, she’s winded, but she’s still beaming. Still so achingly beautiful with those sharp green eyes creasing in the corners, those freckles across her nose scrunching, that hair windswept around her face… I can’t make myself look away, not when I can see that light shining out of her, only a flicker at first but growing brighter by the day. And here I am, drawn to it, as if me getting closer isn’t the very thing that could extinguish it.
With a whispered thank you, she holds the pistol out for Cypress to take back but he only shakes his head. “You hold onto that one for a while, little bird. To practice with.”
“But…” I can see her working herself up to protest, already thinking through all the reasons why she shouldn’t accept it, and I know that feeling well. When you’ve lost as much as she has, you don’t trust anyone to give you something. You only trust them to take.
“Just for a while,” he assures her, then nods at the can where it landed. “Better hit him again. Looks to still have some life in him.”
She smiles hesitantly, but sure enough, she walks back to the line, this time without Cypress and with less time passing before she fires. The can goes airborne with a loud metallicding, and she dances a bit in her place before she does it all over again.
I chuckle, still observing her as Cypress comes to stand beside me. “That was good instinct,” I tell him quietly. “Switching out the guns.”
“I figured that since it had already failed her twice…” he saysback. “Some things start to carry a weight all their own.”
I frown, disturbing the dirt with the toe of my boot as I drop my gaze. “Yeah, suppose they do.”
“I know it’s important to you that she learn these things, wolf, but if it’s too hard for you to—”
“I’m fine,” I tell him, straightening back up in time to see her hit the target again. “I’llbefine. I should’ve realized with the gun. I should’ve been…” I lift my hat and drag a hand through my hair. “I’m fine,” I say once more. “Won’t happen again.”
“I alreadyknowhow to ride.”
Aiden looks at me from under his hat, the wide brim tilting up enough that I can see both the warmth in his brown eyes and the contradictory set of his mouth. “Then you won’t mind a demonstration.”