One by one, everyone finished eating, took their dishes to the sink, and left to do whatever it was they would occupy their morning with.
When Emery got up, he squeezed my shoulder in a way that lingered as he stopped to finish his conversation with Jenn while standing next to me. Bodhi, who was still nursing his coffee, clocked it and his jaw ticked. Mike, in turn, noticed that and followed Bodhi’s eyeline to Emery’s hand on my shoulder.
It might’ve been read as a friendly gesture, but then Emery’s thumb started to rub circles on my collarbone. Pretty certain that he wasn’t conscious of doing it, I cleared my throat and his attention snapped to me.
“Yes?” he asked, then realized what he was doing, and huffed with amusement. His expression turned into a theatrical “oops” face.
I laughed and shook my head fondly. He went to take his plate to the sink.
As I watched him get ready to leave for work, I decided to bite the bullet. I turned to Bodhi.
“I heard that you’re starting a new business on the northwest side of the property. I didn’t have that information before, so would you mind if I came with you so I can see what you’re working with and where your security needs might be?”
He seemed a bit surprised for a split second, but then his face turned into a mask of indifference again. He cleared his throat. “Sure.”
“Great.”
“I might come with you, if you don’t mind. I haven’t been to the site in a couple of weeks,” Mike said in his calm, even tone.
“I don’t mind,” I replied and Bodhi echoed my sentiment.
The site was far enough from the main part of the property that it felt like a wholly separate one. If you looked toward it from the ranch’s side, there were acres upon acres of land before you ever came to what would become The Yellow Ribbon.
I knew what it meant, the name, of course. Mike told me a bit about what Bodhi planned on doing there while he drove meover in his truck. Bodhi had taken his own just moments ahead of us.
“He’s… protective of his brother,” Mike murmured.
“I understand that.”
He hummed thoughtfully. “I get thatthat’shis reason for his attitude toward you, but what’s with yours to him?”
Well, I hadn’t expected the Harrington patriarch to be this direct, yet here we were.
I didn’t want to lie to the man, so I simply replied, “Wren.”
“Ah.” There was understanding in his tone.
I wasn’t sure if he just didn’t feel the need to talk more about the issue, or if we just got to Bodhi’s patch of land too fast, but Mike parked next to Bodhi’s truck. I grabbed my tablet and got out, then walked to where Bodhi was standing, ignoring us as he surveyed the building site.
Mike headed to inspect something, while I got the map out and tilted the tablet toward Bodhi.
“Can you show on the map where your property lines are and where everything goes?”
He took the tablet and examined the map. “Is this a picture of the map I can draw on?”
“Yeah. Let me….” I grabbed a stylus pen from my pocket and handed it over. “There you go.”
He quickly scribbled things on the map, while explaining to me where each of the buildings would be.
Some of it, like the main one where the inn part would be, was already in a pretty good shape. The horse barn was also framed on top of a sturdy looking concrete slab.
“Your dad told me what you’re doing here,” I said almost-conversationally. Then I had to go and ruin it. “I don’t understand why you couldn’t tell Wren.”
Bodhi scowled. “He’s busy enough. He needs to concentrate on his career.”
Well okay, then. There was something more going on here, but I wasn’t sure what and didn’t want to speculate. Because I sure as hell didn’t need to tell Bodhi Harrington that Wren, a person who wore his heart on his sleeve, would have wanted to know.
That’s what made me be an asshole. “I’m sure he’d be proud as fuck if he knew about this.”
