Ironically, I’d forgotten all about the black eyes and head butt with everything that’d happened over the weekend. Like with every morning since, it wasn’t until I’d seen my reflection in the mirror as I was shaving or brushing my teeth this morning that I’d remembered the bruising under my eyes, which was now turning a fetching shade of purple. At least the swelling was better, that was at least something.
“Something like that,” I muttered, watching as the guys brought out the boxes of Tana’s stuff we’d packed up.
The kicker was, for them to go into the property now, they had to wear hard hats, but Tana had been living in it without any sort of protection. Hell, Toby had been in there with her.
The possible consequences and the thought of anything happening to either of them made me feel sick. My parental anxiety might have begun to lessen, but it’d also transferred to Tana in a big way now. Instead of being worried about one person, I did it about two. Aces!
“Aw, look at the big guy, baby,” Addy cooed. “I think he lov—” She was cut off by my best friend putting his hand over her mouth.
Gus’s arrival saved me from the situation, but not Marcus, because Addy spun around and started poking him in the chest.
“Okay, so, we’ll put the boxes in your garage. I’ve written on them in marker so you know what’s in each one, and Santana doesn’t have to dig through them.”
Taking the hard hat off, he stared back at the small property. “Man, I wish I’d known sooner. She never told any of us the roof was leaking or that there were any problems with it. Do you think she was scared to?”
“No,” I sighed, pushing my sweaty hair away from my forehead, the hot Branford sun kicking my ass again. Having grown up in Florida, you’d have thought we’d be used to it, but when the temperature was around nuclear levels, that just wasn’t possible. “I just think she didn’t want to be a nuisance. Santana’s nothing if resilient, so this was her way of being just that.”
“Well, resilient almost got her resil-squished. You might want to point that out to her.”
Checking my watch and noting it was almost four o’clock, I smacked him on the shoulder, grimacing hypocritically at how damp his t-shirt was.
“I’m going to get going so I can feed Toby. Now that Tana’s staying there, she’s decided to start adding more things into his food, and it’s funny as fuck watching him discover new tastes and textures.”
“Do those jars have a lot of flavor in them?” he asked as the four of us walked over to our vehicles. “I always figured they’d be bland and have a texture like puke.”
“Dunno.”
I got into my truck and turned the engine on, putting the air on high to get rid of the suffocating humidity in the cab. I had a private SUV that I’d bought for Toby, but I used a work truck when I was on my own and doing work stuff. It was just easier, and I didn’t have to worry about putting my son in a dirty vehicle.
“Tana’s made all of his food since he moved away from baby rice.”
No one said anything, and when I looked up, Marcus, Addy, and Gus were staring at me.
I expected Addy to say what was on her mind, but instead, she just shook her head and looked at Marcus beseechingly. I didn't know what she wanted from him, but with a small grin playing on his lips, he clapped his hands together loudly, making her and Gus jump.
“Hey, so Luanda had her foal yesterday. Isn’t that exciting?”
She had indeed. We’d spent as much of the day as we could with her together, but once Tobe had woken up, we’d taken turns watching over her with the guys to make sure she was okay. In the end, her tiny butterscotch-colored filly had made its way into the world, looking stunned and slightly traumatized until she’d nuzzled it onto its feet.
“Santana called her Sunflower,” I told them. “After she saw her color, she said she knew it had to be something bright and smiley.” I did air quotes around the last word, making them laugh. “Just as Toby was finishing his bottle, she decided on the name, and that was it because he apparently approved of it.”
“It suits her,” Addy said, looking behind me at the field where some of the horses were running around, burning off some energy. “Hey, how’s she getting work done at your place?”
I tilted my head to the side at the weird question. “What do you mean? She’s usually with Toby, but she insists on doing some things around the ranch on top of it.”
“No, I meant—” she stopped talking quickly, then swatted at something in the air in front of her face. “Oh, a bee.”