Page 59 of Where She Belongs

Those words hit harder than Tate let on. He already agreed with that sentiment, but he was working on it. No one was going to make him feel inferior. Especially not this fool. Tate lifted his chin, not breaking eye contact. “I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”

“I suppose so,” Alexander muttered with narrowed eyes. “May the better man win.”

Tate didn’t bother responding to that statement. Alexander wasn’t worth his breath. He had to continue to tell himself that as he went about the rest of his afternoon but apparently, he wasn’t very good at convincing himself because Jason caught on that something was off.

Or maybe he just wanted to distract Tate enough that he wouldn’t interrogate him about going MIA earlier today. Tate couldn’t help but think it was the latter because Jason never initiated conversations about feelings unless it was affecting him directly.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Tate cut his brother a sharp look. “What?”

Jason gestured in his general direction. “Something’s bothering you.”

Tate turned away from the stove where he’d been stirring the sauce for spaghetti. “Not really.”

“Maybe you should.”

Tate narrowed his eyes at his brother, half ready to make him spill, but then thought better of it. “This whole thing with Rylee is getting to me.”

“Are you talking about Alexander?”

His eyes narrowed further. “How do you know about him?”

Jason shrugged. “I heard Brent talking to his brother about him. He’s some guy in Rylee’s life, right? They have a history?”

“Hardly,” Tate snapped but Jason didn’t react. “He thinks he has some claim on her, but she doesn’t want anything to do with him.” Wincing, Tate hated that he didn’t sound as convinced as he wanted to be.

“Sounds like you have a decision to make.”

Tate stilled and glanced at his brother. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that you have to decide if this whole thing is important.”

“Of course it is. I—” He stopped to find the right words. When the only right words were the truth, he said it out loud. “I love her, Jason.”

His twin raised an eyebrow and nodded. “Running a business. Falling in love. It’s hard to juggle it all.”

Frowning, Tate continued to stare at his brother. He was a man of few words, but he’d never been this cryptic before. “Is there something you want to talk about?” He fully expected Jason to brush him off and tell him everything was status quo. But then Jason had never been very good at telling lies.

“Would, um…” He started over. “Would it be difficult on you if I stepped back?”

“You want to quit?” Tate couldn’t stop the shock that showed on his face.

Jason raised his hand. “Wait a minute⁠—”

“That’s what this is about? You don’t want to keep working with me?” Tate’s anger was getting the best of him.

“No,” Jason insisted. “That’s not it. I would still be working with you, but I was thinking…” He shook his head. “I was thinking it might be… you know how much I like working with the difficult horses.”

“Yeah, I know,” Tate drawled, waiting for his brother to get his thoughts out in the open.

“Don’t you think I’d be good with training them?”

Tate opened his mouth but at that moment Lydia wandered into the kitchen, Wren behind her with her hair still wet from the shower. “Something smells good.” She made a beeline straight for the stove. “Mmm. Tate’s spaghetti. Can’t wait.” She seemed to notice the current tension in the room and glanced from Tate to Jason. “Did I walk in on something?”

“Yeah, actually⁠—”

“We can talk about it later,” Jason said. “Can I do anything to help with supper? I’m pretty hungry. Need to get this show on the road.”