“Yeah, yeah.” Jensen shuddered hard. “Just… don’t. Not yet. I’m not all there, and I really don’t want to hurt you.” Then Jensen was walking forward and pulling Darby into his arms.
My baby brother wasn’t so much of a baby anymore.
He was a big, full-blown, never-going-to-need-me-again adult. He was well on his way to no longer needing his big brother, and it was a shot to the heart to realize that.
But it was also nice to have him there, being good, and not out terrorizing cops for fun.
That, or breaking into the school and decimating the computer lab, or lighting parked cars on fire.
Yeah, I didn’t miss the old Darby all that much now that I thought about it.
“What the fuck is that horse doing here?” Darby suddenly asked.
I looked to see Codie’s horse still standing there, watching over the fence that Codie had disappeared through about twenty minutes before.
“Codie came over to see us about… something,” I said. “And she got bucked off her horse and nearly got trampled by the bronco I was trying to tame.”
Darby’s mouth quirked as his eyebrows lifted. “Did you plan on taking the horse back?”
“No.” I sighed. “Yes. I just have to finish this conversation first.”
Callum sighed. “I really wouldn’t have minded the horse. She’s a pretty little thing.”
I looked at the horse more closely. “Pretty little thing or not, she does have an attitude.”
Callum snorted.
“What woman worth her muster doesn’t?” he shot back.
That was the truth. Not that I was looking for a woman. I didn’t have time for a woman.
Not only was I trying to bring the ranch we were occupying back into the black, but I also had night classes that I taught at the local college.
I was a basic first aid instructor at the local university and taught advanced level classes only at night.
During the day, I worked on the ranch and tried to make ends meet.
“You better get it over there before she jumps the fence,” Callum suggested. “She looks a little heartbroken that she was left.”
If a horse could, hers did.
“Whatever.”
After opening the fence to the Spears property, the horse took off.
“Be back,” I muttered, hurrying after the horse.Chapter 4Livin’ the dream, one entry fee at a time.
-Rodeo Life
Codie
I was lying practically naked on the bed, the breeze from the open window wafting over me as I tried to decide what to do.
My grandfather insisted that he was okay and that I no longer needed to ‘babysit.’ Leaving me with a decision to make. Did I go find a job and hope that it left me time to get other things done around the ranch, or did I ignore my grandfather, live off my savings, and hope that Scooby worked out as I hoped he would?
I just wasn’t sure what to do at this point. There were so many options lying in front of me, and I was honestly worried that if I did go to work, that Granddad would need me and I wouldn’t be there.
A whinny had me jolting upright on the bed and staring at my open window… which now had a horse’s head sticking through it.
I narrowed my eyes at the devil and hissed, “Go away!”
“I’m fairly sure that talking to a horse won’t get you anywhere,” came from the darkness.
I narrowed my eyes as the shadows shifted beside Poppy’s left shoulder, and then Ace Valentine appeared.
I squeaked and reached for the towel that I’d just flung off the top of my head, and crossed it over my body as I said, “I’m naked!”
“You’re not naked. You’re dressed in a sports bra and underwear. That’s more than the typical bikini covers,” Ace pointed out, pushing Poppy even farther aside to lean against the window frame.
“True,” I reluctantly agreed. “But that doesn’t make you being at my window late at night appropriate.”
“It’s eight o’clock,” he pointed out. “And you were over at my house not even twenty-five minutes ago.”
He had a point.
“And you brought that with you,” I continued.
Ace looked up at the horse, then back at me. “I actually followed that.”
I scoffed. “I swear, sometimes I feel her creeping me out all the way from the barn. You really would do me a favor by keeping her.”
“I’m not keeping the horse,” he said, then his eyes narrowed. “What is that?”
I looked over my shoulder at my cat, Moxie.
“That’s my cat,” I answered.
He curled a lip up at me.
“That’s one ugly cat,” he said. “And it’s not something that I’ve ever seen before. Honestly, if I’d seen it in the woods by my house, I might’ve shot it out of principle.”
I stood up with my towel and turned my back on the man and the horse, walked to my closet and disappeared inside. When I came back out, I had a onesie on and was fully covered from head to toe.