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Boone held out both of his index fingers in his daughter’s line of sight, and she grabbed each in time for her daddy to dance them around the blue-and-white-checked area rug that lay between the couch and the oversize chair.
Eli crossed his arms. “Time off from fixing cars, sure, but not from the Fury doppelgänger you dropped in my barn.” It wasn’t a question.
Boone and Kara’s dancing stopped, but Eli’s brother continued to absently sway side to side as he spoke.
“Come on, Eli. Black horses are a dime a dozen.”
Eli shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “Not Friesians with a white star between their eyes. You could have said something.”
Boone sighed and finally stopped swaying. “You didn’t want to meet her when I was there. Figured when you were ready, I’d tell you more about her. Thought you’d be busy enough with your guest today that it could wait till morning. Sorry if seeing her was harder than I anticipated. That’s on me.”
It sure as hell was on him. Except maybe his brother had things on his mind other than when would be the best time to tell Eli that the new horse they were rehabbing looked exactly like the horse he couldn’t save three years ago.
Kara fussed, and Boone began swaying again. The fussing stopped.
“Shit, you’re good at this, aren’t you?” Eli gave his brother a single nod of approval.
“I know, right?” Boone responded, smiling proudly.
Eli collapsed onto the large overstuffed chair, then flinched as he raised his ass and pulled a pair of knitting needles connected by a few short rows of yarn from beneath him.
“I thought you babyproofed the place,” Eli grumbled, holding the death traps out for his brother.
Boone laughed. “Babyproofed, sure. Guess I forgot to brother proof, though. You want to give it a try? It’s pretty goddamn soothing, and you look like you need to be soothed.”
Eli opened his mouth to respond, but his phone chirped in his pocket with a sound he didn’t recognize.
“What the hell is this?” he asked, pulling the phone out and furrowing his brow at the notification on the screen.
Boone and Kara sidled up next to him, and his brother glanced at the screen over his shoulder.
“Shit,” Boone whispered, then covered Kara’s ears. “That’s the stall alarm we hooked up when we refinished the barn. Someone opened Midnight’s door.”
Chapter 6
Eli lived barely two miles outside town, but the drive from Boone’s place to the Murphy property felt interminable.
A frightened horse in unfamiliar territory was one thing. A frightened horse on the loose where he’d all but abandoned Beth to her own devices was something else entirely.
An all too familiar scene played out in his head—a late-night storm, Fury’s gate opened by folks who’d hoped to steal her, and Tess chasing after her beloved mare in the middle of it all.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” he hissed as he put the pedal to the metal. He didn’t even turn the truck off when he skidded to a stop just outside the barn, just threw it in park and ran.
He saw her feet first—a sneaker and an air cast—jutting out from the opened stall door. He didn’t have time to process, only to keep running until he hit a wall or he was trampled by a spooked mare.
The wall came first, and he was barely able to stop before barreling into it. And then there she was. No. There they were. Midnight lay resting on the ground while Beth reclined on a blanket she must have found in the tack room, her head propped on Midnight’s side.
“What’s up, Doc?” Beth asked with a soft laugh.
She had the nerve to laugh when he was likely having a heart attack?
Somewhere in his head, Eli knew it was panic and not a vital organ, but he was far beyond searching the recesses of his brain for the logical answer. He doubled over and pressed his hands to his knees, only now realizing he needed air. Lots of air. He gulped as much oxygen as his lungs could handle until he no longer felt like he might black out.
When he finally lifted his head, the two females hadn’t so much as moved. Beth even had the nerve to look groggy, as if she’d just woken up from a nap.
“Were you sleeping?” he asked, incredulous.
Beth blinked and stretched her arms.
