I move Radio into a trot, an uncomfortable gait when you’re riding bareback, but we’ll work our way up. Sir Devil stops on the other side of the arena when he sees us pick up speed, looking at us with curiosity and caution. But as we round the corner and start heading toward him, he throws his head, snorts, and takes off again.
We trot the perimeter twice, Radio never once being bothered by Sir Devil’s behavior, and move into a lope. A lope is much smoother, and much easier on rider and horse when bareback. A smile curls on my lips as my hair fans out behind me. If we were doing this outside on a trail, this would be bliss.
Sir Devil spooks when we pick up speed and he sprints fast and hard. As he rounds back toward us, he comes to an abrupt stop and spins in a circle, as if he isn’t sure what direction he should be going in.
Radio, reliable as ever, keeps running along the fence, as if there isn’t another horse in here acting psychotic.
Sir Devil stands in the middle of the arena, watching us, rotating every once in a while. And eventually, he starts walking, making small circles as we run the perimeter.
On our seventh round at a run, Sir Devil starts trotting, keeping his distance, but pacing himself with us. On the eighth, he picks it up to lope. When he breaks out into a sprint, looking ready for a challenging race, I slow Radio to a trot. Sir Devil immediately slows, keeping pace. He snorts loudly, but he does slow.
Seeing that I’ve made a break with him, I slow Radio to a walk, and so does Sir Devil. I point Radio’s nose in the direction of the barn and we walk in, Sir Devil right behind us. I hop off, quickly scoop some grain into Sir Devil’s feeder, and close the gate behind him as he willfully walks into his stall.
A proud smile curls on my face as I take Radio to his own stall.
Small victories like this are what makes me love my job. Even on the crappy days.
It’s well after lunch when I walk out of the barn, my stomach a snarling monster of hunger. Just as I exit the door, I hear a hammering.
I take a few steps back, shielding my eyes from the sun that has finally broken through the clouds. Lake is up on the roof, hammering in new shingles.
“Did Mom go with you into town?” I call up to him.
He looks up at me, his hammer pausing mid swing. “Yeah,” he calls. “She’s inside.”
I nod. “How’s the hunt for that second job going?”
He sets his hammer down. “I’ve got an interview with the hardware store in two days. Checked in with them today about my application, set up the appointment.”
I nod my head, not quite sure how I feel about that. “Kent is a good guy. He’s the owner.”
Lake nods. “Seems like it.”
“I’m going to go eat something,” I say, unsure how to dismiss myself. “I’ll talk to you later.”
Lake simply nods and picks his hammer back up.
Mom is still finishing putting everything away when I walk in.
“How was town?” I ask as I grab some bread and the package of ham she’s about to put away.
“Fine,” she says without looking at me. “Though I think I bored poor Lake to death with all the shopping.”
I chuckle as I lay some pickles over my sandwich.
“Aw, that’s a pretty necklace,” Mom suddenly says. “Where’d you get it?”
My blood runs chill and my hands cease in the creation of my lunch. My eyes shift over to her. It’s a small mercy that she isn’t looking at me. She continues to put everything away.
“Just…” I struggle to form words. My mind is racing and my heart is pounding. “Just found it.”
Because I know damn well it wasn’t Lake that left it in my room for me. Not when I was sleeping on him all night.
Travis is back.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Honey, wake up.” Mom’s voice calls to me through the dark blanket of sleep. I blink my eyes open, the world foggy and murky and not quite solid.
“Mom?” I groggily ask. I roll over and look at the clock. It’s eight-thirty. I should have woken up over an hour ago.
“Sorry, I wanted to let you sleep in, since you never do, but I need you to take me to the airport.”
“What?” I ask, sitting up and pushing my hair out of my face. “Why?”
“Aunt Lynda had a heart attack the middle of the night,” Mom says. My eyes clear and I see the worry and dread on her face. “I’m flying out in a few hours to go help take care of her.”
“What?” I ask, alert and awake now. “Aunt Lynda? How?”
“I know,” Mom says as I stand and start looking for clothes to wear. “No one would have guessed. She eats so well and she seemed fit as a fiddle.”
And my Mom’s sister is only three years older than her.
“Who found her? I mean, she lives alone.” I turn my back to my mom, pull my tank top off, slip a bra on and pull a sweater over my head. Next I slip on some jeans.
“She called a friend because she said her chest hurt. Thankfully, her friend knew the warning signs and told Lynda to call 911 right away,” Mom follows me down the stairs. I pull on some boots and grab my keys from the drawer.
“So, is she okay?” I ask. Just as we walk outside, I see Lake coming out of the barn. “Hey, are you going to be around for a while? Jesse should be here any second.”
“He came an hour ago,” Lake responds, his hands on his hips. “Said everything looks good.”
“’K,” I say with a nod, still slowly walking toward the barn. “I’ll be back in about an hour. Keep an eye on Trooper for me.”
“Alright,” he says with a little nod of his head.
I haul Mom’s suitcase into the back of the truck, surprised at its weight. “How long are you going to be gone for?”
We slip into the cab and I back out of the garage.
“I honestly don’t know, but it might be a while. A few weeks?” She gives me this sheepish look. “I got all the bills and everything taken care of the day before yesterday, so you shouldn’t have to worry about any of that. Think you can manage everything else on your own for a while? You’ve got Lake.”
I nod, thinking over everything. I already take care of most everything. Mom just does the office stuff these days. Still, everything I do has been keeping me busy enough. The additional work means less sleep.
But this is family.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
Mom barely says goodbye when I drop her off at SeaTac airport, she’s so distracted. She keeps jumping on the phone every few minutes, talking to her uncle who lives about an hour away from where Lynda lives in Virginia. Mom gives me a little wave as she darts off with her suitcase, cell phone pressed firmly to her ear.
I stop for some supplies Mom missed before heading back home. When I get back, I find Lake once again on the roof. It’s lunchtime and I haven’t eaten yet, so my stomach growls ravenously.
“You need some help with all that?” Lake calls to me from on the roof. I glance up to him. There’s traces of sweat on his brow. He’s indicating the bags in the back of my truck.
“I got it, thanks,” I call. “You eaten lunch yet?”
He shakes his head.
“I’ll be up in a few.”
I didn’t get a ton of supplies, so it only takes me two trips back and forth to get it all inside. Once it’s put away, I make up two turkey and avocado sandwiches and grab the bag of grapes I just bought. The air feels humid and heavy when I walk outside, the rain being evaporated into the air. It intensifies the smell of the ranch tenfold.
I string the bag of food over one wrist and scale the ladder from Lake’s deck up to the roof. Walking carefully, I cross to the side he’s working on and sit on the hot shingles.
“You didn’t have to make me lunch,” he says as he takes his tool belt off and sets the hammer down. “But thank you.”
“Not a problem,” I respond as he sits by me, a safe distance away, but not far enough to act like he’s avoiding me. Only now do I realize that it’s just goin
g to be Lake and me here at the ranch for a few weeks. Just the two of us.
“Everything okay?” he asks around a bite of his sandwich. He’s got man manners when he’s not around Mom, just like me.
“My aunt had a heart attack,” I say around a mouthful of my own food. “Mom’s flying out to take care of her since Lynda lives alone. No husband, no kids.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he says. “How long’s Raelynn gone for?”
I shrug and pop a grape into my mouth. “Couple weeks, probably.”
A breeze picks up, swaying the trees next to the house. My eyes flick up to them, and a knot forms in my throat once again.
“You didn’t hear anything the other night, when we were in the barn, did you?” I ask. I try to sound casual about it. But my voice catches slightly.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Lake says, looking over at me. “Though I admit I fell asleep for about an hour or so. Why?”
“No reason,” I say, swallowing hard.
I threw the necklace in the garbage after I managed to break it in half. All the while I fought back angry, pissed off tears that burned the back of my eyes.
Lake takes another bite of his sandwich and chews it for a moment, looking over at me. “You okay with everything on your own? You’re already working nearly twelve hour days, six days a week.”
I appreciate him changing the topic. It means I don’t have to do it awkwardly.
Once more, I shrug.
It’ll probably be fine. But I do feel slightly panicked. Mom’s the one who’s kept me sane these past six months of hell. I guess it was time for me to start being a big girl again sometime.
I feel Lake’s eyes leave me. I take another huge bite of my sandwich, pushing down the shame I feel welling up inside of me.
I’m twenty-six years old. I still live at home with my mother. There were plans to look for my own place a few years back. And then Dad died. And it felt like I was abandoning my mom. So I stayed.
But where does that leave me in finding my own life?
And what the hell do I do now that Travis is back?
“Can you cancel that interview with Kent?” I ask. The request surprises me, cause it slips out my mouth the same time it comes to my head.
“Yeah,” he says. “I’ll call him in a little bit.”
I wipe the corner of my mouth with the back of my sleeve. “I’m sorry, it’s just—”
“It’s not a problem,” he says, shaking his head, his eyes intense. Intense with what, I don’t know, but intense none the less. “You need help, and I’m already here.”
I nod, hating that I feel prideful and resentful that I have to ask for anything. “And I’m going to start paying you. I don’t care what you say, you need something to survive, and since you won’t have time to get that other job now, you can’t say no.”
I look over at him and he looks at me. He takes his time swallowing his bite and even when he does, it’s still a while till he responds.
I try to tell myself that I didn’t ask him to cancel the interview because I’m scared of Travis. Because I’m scared of being here at the ranch alone, knowing he’s back out there. But there is something about Lake that makes me feel safe.
As I look into his eyes, I know it isn’t just his huge size and military training that makes me feel safe and secure. It’s his loyalty. His quiet strength. It’s the fact that he’s never let me down and works harder than anyone I know.
It’s all there inside of him. Lake McCain is so much more than he tries to seem.
“Okay,” he says.
And then he looks away and finishes eating.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Lake and I work well together.
We don’t say a whole lot. Conversation is always minimal when it comes to Lake. But we work great as a team. He keeps the animals fed, the stalls clean. He gets saddles and bridles when I need them between working with the animals. I water Mom’s garden, and he weeds it. He checks the fences, and I order hay and other supplies that have to be delivered. The both of us stack it when it is delivered.
This is surprisingly easy.
I don’t cook for him every night, but every once in a while, I get ambitious. He always says thank you when I do something for him. He’s a bit gruff, but he is a gentleman.
And I start teaching him how to ride. There isn’t a ton of time for it, with everything else we have to manage, but here and there we steal twenty, thirty minutes. He’s awkward and clumsy at first. But he’s slowly getting it. And I can’t help but smile as I watch him on a horse.
Thursday night, I head into town to look for a dress. I can’t afford much of anything, so I end up at the thrift shop. From the sound of it, Lake’s sister will turn her nose up at anything I buy, but I could care less.
I find a black dress that has silver glitter in an ombre effect on the back, which has a deep V that stretches down nearly the length of my spine. It’s long, long enough I’ll have to wear heels for it to not drag on the floor. I find some black heels to wear with it.
Saturday we work fast and furious to get everything taken care of before the big night. By one o’clock, I’m out of breath and exhausted, but I head for the shower and wash up. I’m not an expert with hair, but I dry it and twist it up into the best version I can manage of an updo.
My dress leaves no room for a bra, so I slip on a pair of black panties and pull my dress over my form. The moment my feet slip into the heels, they scream in protest. It’s been a long while since I’ve worn heels.
There is a full length mirror on the inside of my closet door, and I check myself in it.
And stare in shock at the woman who looks back at me.
I don’t ever dress up. Ever. I wear cotton skirts and a plain V-neck T-shirts to church. I wear jeans and plaid and simple, beat up clothes ninety-eight percent of the time.
So the woman who stares back at me seems like a stranger.
The makeup I applied to my eyes makes me look fierce, enhanced by my fiery hair and the little bit of color on my cheeks. The dress hugs my curves perfectly. I look like a woman, in all the right ways.
“Riley?” Lake’s voice calls up the stairs. “You ready to go?”
There’s something that catches in my chest when he says my name. Something heavy and shiny. Something that I completely don’t understand.
“Coming,” I call, grabbing my clutch from the desk. Suddenly my stomach is full of gnats and moths.
I can see the tips of Lake’s polished shoes as I stand at the top of the stairs. As I walk down them, my view of him grows.
He’s wearing a tux that looks like it must have been tailored to fit him exactly. Black pants hug his hips in just the right way. His jacket embraces every muscle in his toned body. A black, silk tie enhances the size of his neck.
He’s shaved, making his face look younger.
And for one of the first times, I see something in his eyes.
He’s taking me in—all of me. There’s something there that I’d call curiosity but that doesn’t seem to quite encompass all of it. Lake said he’s a simple man, but his eyes are far from that.
“You look—” his voice cuts out for a second and he clears his throat quickly. “You look really nice.”
I can feel my face flush, and I’m not completely embarrassed by it. “Thank you. So do you.”
He gives a little smile and opens the door for me. I step out. He’s pulled his truck around front and it’s waiting there with my door already open.
“’K, you really are going to have to help me walk tonight,” I say as I miraculously get down the stairs without landing flat on my face. “I am not used to wearing shoes like this. And I’d rather not land flat on my face tonight. Countless times.”
Lake chuckles and offers me his arm. My heels sink into the soft dirt as we cross to the truck. He steadies me as I climb in and I tuck my dress back as he closes the door.
As soon as he climbs inside and starts down the drivew
ay, I feel incredibly nervous.
I’m honest in my opinions. I don’t take crap from people. From everything Lake has told me about his sister, I’m pretty positive we aren’t going to get along. But I don’t want to offend Lake by duking it out with his only sister. Perhaps avoidance is the best tactic.
And for some reason I’m scared to meet the rest of Lake’s family. They’re big and it sounds like they’re close. What are they going to think about me, showing up with him like I’m his date, and yet I know hardly anything about him?
“You’re really going to like Kaylee,” Lake says as we head down the highway, almost like he can read my thoughts. “My sister-in-law. It’s pretty much impossible to not like her. She’s about the nicest person you’ll ever meet.”
This means something, Lake offering up conversation to put me at ease, when he doesn’t have to say anything. This is a gesture. One I appreciate.
“She’s also tiny, so she looks way younger than she is.” He says this with a little lopsided smile.
“What’s so funny about that?” I ask. There’s a smile pulling at one corner of my lips too. Simply because Lake is nearly smiling.
Lake’s grows slightly and he shakes his head. “It’s kind of embarrassing.”
“Come on,” I egg. “You can’t lead me into something like that and then not share.”
Lake chuckles, his eyes still on the road. “’K, fine. So the first day, my senior year of high school, my first class of the day, I walk in and there’s this really pretty girl I’ve never seen before. I offered to show her around the school. I was pretty smooth back then.”
“And?”
“And that pretty girl I’d never seen before was Kaylee,” he says with a little laugh. “She was my teacher.”
“Wow,” I say. “I bet she loved that.”
Lake shrugs. “We got over it. We’re close.”
“She sounds nice,” I say as I look back out the window.
I fiddle with my clutch as we get closer and closer to Bellevue. It’s only a thirty minute drive, which doesn’t feel long enough.