“Here, I made you a plate,” Gemma came over with a covered plate.
She’d taken one look at me and Crew and read into… whatever. The way Jenn looked proud of her daughter in that moment made me miss my own mom like crazy.
“Thanks,” I told Gemma and took the plate.
“I’ll see everyone in the morning.”
“No you won’t,” Hawk said firmly. “It’s your day off.”
“Oh sh—crap, so it is.” I had completely forgotten. “Well, I’ll guess I’ll see y’all at some point tomorrow.”
After a lot of goodbyes and hugs—the latter from Pay to half of the family—I shouldered Pay’s bag and we started the walk to our cabins.
“What kind of a horse did you get, Daddy?” he asked, swinging Mr. Raven with the hand that wasn’t clutching mine.
“Crew bought a colt.”
“Oh, a boy horse!”
“Yes, a young stallion.”
“That means he can have babies. Ooh, can he have babies with Jaina?”
I chuckled. “No, bud. He’s going to be gelded as soon as he’s feeling a bit better.”
Pay nodded seriously. “That’s when you do the snip-snip so they can’t have babies anymore, because there are enough horses already.”
“That’s right. Unless there’s a breeding program like Crew has in his barn.”
“Okay!” We’d gotten close enough to the cabins that he could run the rest of the way.
I watched him go and smiled. My life was the most organized mess right now, but two things were for sure: I had the best kid and didn’t own a new horse.
Not-Bob was all Crew’s. Dammit.
Chapter 14
Crew
Icouldn’t wrap my brain around exactly what happened. I understood Mal’s anger, sort of, but he hadn’t given me a chance to explain. And then that kiss, that toe-curling, mind-numbing kiss, had scrambled my brain. I’d wanted it. I wanted more of it. I wantedeverything.
But I certainly hadn’t been able to get my thoughts sorted out enough, while Mal was making accusations, to explain myself. I knew I’d said all the wrong things, but I’d been reacting, instead of conversing. And I needed to fix that.
It was probably a good idea to give Mal a chance to cool down a bit first though.
Dinner was, as always when the family was together, a loud affair. My siblings made some pointed comments that I just as pointedly ignored. Instead, I focused on the new colt, the realreason I’d bought him—which was only forty percent because of Mal—and what my hope was for his future.
“I thought he’d been a good project for you and Mal to work on together,” I said to Hawk, who nodded. Hawk could work with any horse, but Mal had the experience with draft crosses.
Dad didn’t say much. At least not out loud. He was having plenty of silent discussion with Mom over my head. It was amazing to me how, with only using facial expressions and their eyes, they could have entire conversations. They’d been together for thirty-five years though so I expected it was only natural they knew each other that well.
I escaped as soon as I saw the opportunity, but I’d barely made it onto the porch before my dad followed me out. I could’ve played dumb. Or acted like I didn’t hear him and just kept walking. But I respected him too much to do that, so I stopped and waited.
“Something we need to talk about?” Dad asked, his voice sure and calm.
“Nope.” I sighed. “It’s a non-issue. I swear.”
“Mhmm,” Dad murmured as though he didn’t believe me, which, to be fair, he shouldn’t. I let my head drop.
