Bella Rose and Isobel slipped through the crowd and joined the men by the chutes as the rodeo wound itself down, the dust hanging thick as cigarette smoke in the glow of the floodlights. Ryder and Wren were ringed by cowboys slapping backs, hollering congratulations, the heat of victory still rolling off them. A couple of little boys darted up, faces smudged with funnel cake sugar, and both men crouched low, trading high fives like champions with nothing to prove.

Isobel and Bella Rose smiled, ...