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Boone clapped his brother on the shoulder and let out a long breath.
“Let me guess. You told her to stay the hell away from the property while you try to be Dirty Harry? This isn’t the Wild West, big bro.”
Eli huffed out an incredulous laugh. “That’s exactly what she said. Are you two conspiring against me now?”
Boone shook his head ruefully. “Actually, this is what it looks like when people are on your side. They show you that they care. Did you even call the sheriff’s office?”
“Of course I did. But I’ve got nothing other than a broken chicken coop lock and a hunch. Pretty sure you need a lot more to warrant a stakeout.”
Boone lowered his hand and crossed his arms. His expression softened to something more like somber. “You’re right…about questioning your role in this family. When I was a messed-up kid, it was easy to let you take over for Dad because you had your shit together. You were brother, father, ranch manager, husband, doctor—all of it, and I never for a second questioned your ability to do it. But I also never questioned whether you wanted all that responsibility. And for that, big brother, the slightly less messed-up version of me is sorry.”
Eli glanced back and forth from the barn to the clinic, his chest aching even as a weight felt like it was lifting from his shoulders. He’d never had the time or the chance to consider what he actually wanted. He just dove right in all those years ago, barely an adult himself, and made it work.
“I want it,” he finally uttered, his throat tight. “I want this place to be what it was when we were kids. I want to keep the practice but maybe scale back to only three days a week in the clinic. And I want to catch the sons of bitches who made me believe for more than three years that I was happier and safer without a whole part of my life that made me me.”
Boone’s grin returned. “Well then, let’s catch us some horse poachers.” He threw an arm over his older brother’s shoulder, and together they strode toward the clinic and Eli’s home just beyond. “And what about the girl?” Boone asked as they dropped down at Eli’s kitchen table to formulate a plan.
Eli cleared his throat. “What about her?” he asked, a loaded question. He’d sabotaged the hell out of whatever he and Beth had become. Was it for her own safety? Of course it was. Could he have gone about the situation in a better way? Maybe, but hindsight didn’t change anything. What was done was done, and the most important thing was that Beth stayed safe, that she made it back to New York where she clearly belonged, and that when she came back someday to visit her sister, she might stop by for a ride with her favorite mare. Because of course Midnight was hers. And whether or not he was truly ready to be a ranch owner again, he’d do it for Midnight, for Beth, and for the chance she might forgive him someday.
Boone leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. “You know, I seem to remember someone giving me some really good advice before I almost married a really great woman who just happened to be the wrong woman for me. It went a little something like this… Whoever you choose as your partner through all of it—especially if you’re a lucky enough son of a bitch for her to choose you right back—make sure it’s someone who not only loves you at your best but can also still find that hidden ray of light when you’re at your worst. That’s when you know, you know?”
Eli’s eyes grew wide. “Did you memorize that?”
His brother beamed. “Stuff gets a little jumbled in here sometimes…” Boone tapped his temple with his index finger. “But that really hit me, you know? It stuck like goddamn crazy glue. I hear it every time I look at Casey and still can’t believe we found our way back…or when I hold my daughter. Some of us are only lucky once, Eli. But you’ve got another shot, and I don’t want to see you piss it away.”
Eli glanced toward the open door of his bedroom, to the place where he knew the scent of Beth’s shampoo still lingered on her pillow. He knew now that his heart had the capacity for not one but two great loves of his life and that if Beth chose him like he’d already chosen her, he was the luckiest son of a bitch there was.
“I’ll tell her,” Eli promised. “I’ll tell her how I feel after we make it through tonight.” Because somehow he knew it would all be over by morning.
For the guy who’d always been Mr. Rational, he was betting everything on this hunch.
Boone slapped his palms on the table. “All right then! First order of business… You look like absolute shit. Get yourself in the shower and regroup. If anything is going to happen, it won’t be until after nightfall.”
Eli laughed. When had his little brother grown so wise? Or maybe it was that Eli had grown so weary. Maybe, finally, they were ready to tread on common ground.
“Noted,” Eli said, then nodded behind him. “The monitors are on the kitchen counter. Make sure the cameras both have night vision turned on and that they’re still pointed at the right angles.”
Except as he glanced toward the monitors, he caught sight of something stuck to the refrigerator door with a magnet, and even from the other side of the counter, he could read what it said.
Boone, none the wiser, offered his brother a two-fingered salute. “You got it, boss. Now go.” And he shooed Eli off toward the shower. And Eli decided to pretend it wasn’t there, plain as day, that before he’d even gone to Delaney and Sam’s that afternoon to make sure they kept Beth safe, she’d already had one foot out the door and on a plane to the other side of the country.
Eli checked his watch: 9:32 p.m. It felt like it had taken forever for the sun to set, but it was finally dark, and pitch-dark at that, save for the star-speckled sky which—while pretty to look at—did nothing to illuminate a property that had purposely left all artificial lighting off.
“This is good,” Boone told him as they settled onto the breakfast barstools of the guesthouse, their eyes adjusting to every light inside being turned off. “It’ll hopefully give our friends more confidence.”
Eli nodded. He’d insisted they wait out their confrontation in the guesthouse because it was closer to the barn. Whether or not Boone knew the truth—that Eli wanted to make sure Beth hadn’t somehow snuck back in while he’d been showering and regrouping—he didn’t question his older brother’s plans.
Each Murphy brother held a baby monitor in his hand, the cameras pointed at the stretch of ground Eli had been pacing before Boone had shown up, the screens dark unless triggered by motion in the barn.
“Reminds me of the time we camped in the clearing,” Boone said softly.
“When Ash insisted we bring walkie-talkies so Mom wouldn’t be so nervous about us being gone?” Eli asked.
He was pretty sure he detected a nod from Boone in the dark. “He was so scared.” He chuckled.
“In his defense,” Eli began, “he was only seven.”
A beat of silence stretched between them.
