The woman literally blew my mind. She paid attention to the head, sucked at the right moments, sucked even harder at the perfect moments, used her hand on the parts she couldn’t reach with her mouth and drove me out of my mind before driving me over the edge.
I’d been about to return the favor, but Devon had called to tell me one of the horses, Valkyrie, a Dutch warmblood, had cut his leg through the night, so I’d had to get up and help out.
Instead of being pissed at me, she’d bounced out of bed and into the shower, talking about how she was working on the musical part of her song today. She was practically vibrating with excitement about what lay ahead for her, and I felt at peace listening to her.
We had very different interests and careers, but like she was with the horses, and when I was talking about the ranch, I hung on every word and got caught up in her happiness. This was her dream, like the ranch was mine, and we were lucky to be living them in real life.
The part that sucked was saying goodbye to her, knowing I wouldn’t see her for the rest of the day, and that’s what I was struggling with right now. I’d become that much of a loser when it came to Addy that I didn’t want to let go of her.
It wasn’t until another ranch hand, Brody, yelled out that our British Shire Horse, Hayes, had also thrown a shoe that I dropped my arms from around her.
“Duty calls,” she whispered, rolling up onto her toes to kiss me goodbye. “Have a good day.”
Winking at her, I said smugly, “Write music about me.”
Fuck yeah, that detail from last night was lodged in my mind. I inspired her through a photograph of a sky the same color as my eyes when she was composing and writing. If anyone was given that gift and didn’t see the beauty and power behind it, they were fucking out of their minds.
Instead of getting pissed or scowling at me, Adrienne smiled brightly. “Always.”
I hated seeing her go, but the sooner I got to work, the sooner it’d be nighttime, and she’d be back again.
So, that’s what I did. I went and helped out with Valkyrie and Hayes. I even mucked out the stalls and put new hay down for them all. I also worked on the fence for the extension we were making for the horses. It was hell in the sun, but we’d only set up half of the land the ranch owned for them so far, and as we grew, we needed to expand.
By the time I got home that night and had a shower, I was tired to the bone, but you bet your ass I woke back up again when Adrienne came in and joined me.
Five weeks later…
“You’re coming to visit,” I repeated slowly, pulling the phone away from my ear and checking the screen to make sure I was talking to my brother Elijah. “Like, really coming to visit?”
His sigh made me smile because I could picture him scowling perfectly.
“Yeah. Sadie wants Bronte to see the horses, and she says she misses you for some reason, so we’re going to spend a week with you.”
There was no “is that okay” or “can we spend a week with you?” Not that I’d ever say no, but it amused me all the same.
My brother loved his wife implicitly. When she moved, he moved. When she wanted something, he made sure she got it. When she even sneezed, he was there with a tissue. It wasn’t that he was a pussy, not even close, it was that he’d found the center of his universe in her and their daughter, and he saw that for what it was—the best gift in the world.
“Cool. I’ll let Addy know.”
There was a moment’s silence. “Jackson told me about her. He says you’re happy.”
The freaking narc. He just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
“That’s true.” I filled him on how we’d met and seeing her again for the first time, then rolled my eyes and waited for him to stop laughing.
“Her dad’s an anger management therapist?” he wheezed. “That’s the funniest shit ever.”
“Laugh it up, buttercup. How about I tell Ned about the time you poked his daughter in the eye with your dick while you were teaching her how to give you a blow job.”
The laughter coming from the phone cut off, but a chorus of roars filled the space behind me, telling me I wasn’t alone like I’d been when he’d first called. I wouldn’t dare say to the governor of Texas my brother had poked Sadie in the eye with his penis. Unlike Jackson, I wasn’t a narc, and I also couldn’t even imagine a situation where I’d even want to utter those words to Governor Dahl.