He nodded and turned his attention to me. I raised a brow. “Isn’t it like, ten o’clock there?”
“Movie snacks,” he explained. “Jer makes the best fully loaded nachos you’ve ever had. You can ask her to make some when we come out this summer.”
I slouched down in my recliner and popped the footrest up. “Oh, good. You’re definitely coming home then?”
Isley nodded and leaned closer. “Yeah, I arranged an internship with Dr. Matigan. But you didn’t call to talk about that. What’s going on?”
He was right. Isley was the most analytical of us all, gave the best advice, and really thought things through. Not that he couldn’t make split second decisions, especially if someone or something’s life was on the line. But he never went off half-cocked and he was good about looking at things from all sides.
“Just start at the beginning,” he prodded gently.
So I did. All the way back from Mom going behind my back to set up the interview to meeting Mal and his kid up to everything that had transpired today. I talked for a solid ten minutes and just info dumped all over him. When I was finally done, I took a breath.
“Okay, first of all, stop buying the man horses.”
I groaned. “I didn’t! The first one washishorse. I just went and picked her up. And the second one, okay, yeah, I would have probably never seen the colt if it wasn’t for Mal. I might have even left him. But the fact that Mal saw something in him,thatwas why I got him. Not, like, as a gift or anything.”
“But that’s not what you said,” he reminded me gently.
“Christ,” I muttered. “He’s got me all up in my head. I don’t even know anymore.”
Isley laughed, but it was gentle and not directed at me, just the phrasing. Or maybe the situation.
“I don’t know why you called me, Crew. You know what you need to do. Talk to him, explain your thought process and yourgoals, and make it clear. After that, whether he listens and accepts it, that’s up to him and you have no control over it.”
Yeah, true. But still. I was going to do all that as soon as I got the chance. It was the rest of it that had me twisted up.
“What about the other thing?”
Isley hummed. “You like him?”
I sure as fuck did. “Yeah.”
“Well, that’s entirely at his discretion. You know that. You can’t force it and you can’t push it. There are ways to get around it, take the power dynamic out of play. But it’s up to Malachi and not you.”
I scowled. “Thanks for being logical.”
Isley snorted. “That’s why you called me. You got your head on straight?”
I smirked. “As straight as I ever am.”
“I love you,” he said, shaking his head. “Jer is waiting on me. Keep me in the loop.”
“If you’re lucky. Love you too, kiddo.”
We hung up and I stared into the darkness. Between my dad, Isley, and my own thoughts, I was pretty sure I had a plan. Now I just needed to get Mal to sit still long enough to hear me out.
It had been a few days since Shooter had really gotten to work, and I was feeling restless, so the next morning, I saddled him up and took him out to the back acreage. I let him run to get some of his pent-up energy out and then we took a break by the pond. After he’d drunk his fill, he wandered a few feet away to munch on the grass. Dad, Russ, and Lovett had moved the cattle out this way yesterday, but they hadn’t wandered over this far yet.They would. They loved this spot and would spend most of the summer here.
Shooter picked his head up, ears forward, and a moment later, I heard it too. The unmistakable sound of a measured canter. A minute went by and then Jaina rounded the bend past a copse of blue spruce. Only one person could be riding her, and I was stuck between mounting up and leaving Mal to his peace or standing my ground and waiting to see what he would do.
A second later, the choice was taken out of my hands because it was not just one person, but two.
“Crew!” Pay called, waving his little arm from where he was riding in front of his dad.
Mal slowed Jaina to a walk and she moseyed closer. It wasn’t long before I heard the familiar creak of leather. Shooter had gone back to eating so I waited for the pair of horsemen to get close enough that I didn’t have to yell.
“Hey, little man. Having fun?”
