AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kaeden made a face. “I’m not riding. I’m just going to get everyone started and then hang out at the barn and wait to drive them home when they get back.”
“Oh that’s crap. Get yourself a horse and go with them. You’re supposed to be on this retreat, too. Not just running everything. Besides,” she couldn’t help poking at him, “can you really leave everyone alone that long? Who will micromanage them?”
Now he was scowling at her again and she could only laugh.
Yeah, this felt entirely too good. And damn if that wasn’t just another reminder that it was all about to end for her. That she was about to be on the move again.
The interns, Bethany and Callie, chose that moment to interrupt. Bethany held a clipboard but it was Callie who spoke.
“Mr. O’Shea, if we’re going to give people a chance to run back to their rooms and change or grab anything they might need for the trail ride, we’re going to need to get them back in the vans in ten minutes.”
Kaeden raised his head and called out to the group around them. “Ten-minute warning.”
Now Bethany took her turn speaking. “We also talked to the stable in charge of the trail ride. They have a horse drawn wagon they do hayrides in during the winter season. They said if some of the younger kids want to go on a ride in that while the bigger kids and the adults do the trail ride, they’re happy to pull that out for us.”
Kaeden looked impressed. He called over to Sam who was wrangling a toddler. “Sam, do you and Joey want to go in a horse drawn wagon instead of going on the trail ride?”
The toddler put his fists on his hips, then stuck one thumb in his mouth before popping it out to put back on his hip. He looked like he couldn’t decide which gesture to go with and Joy found herself suppressing a laugh again. No matter which gesture he went with, she was sure he wouldn’t appreciate being laughed at.
Syllables came out of his mouth but Joy wasn’t sure what they meant.
Sam apparently did, because she knelt down and spoke to him. “I know Maddy and Ella aren’t going in the wagon but JJ will probably go with you. And mommy and aunt Kelly can come.”
He pounded his fists on his hips again. “No waggy.”
Sam turned to Kaeden. “I guess that’s a no. Can he ride on my horse with me and JJ can go on with Jack or Kelly?”
Kaeden turned to the interns and they were both nodding their heads. Bethany consulted her clipboard. “I’ll call the stable and let them know we’re going to have two riding double.” She looked over to where the other kids were sitting and finishing their crepes. Or rather, finishing the parts of their crepes that weren’t smeared across their cheeks and mouths. “Do you know if the older kids will want their own horses? The stable said the older kids can have their own to ride but the wranglers will pony them, which I’m told means they hold a rope and the ponies would trail behind them.”
Sam went to confer with Kelly and Jennie, the mothers of the two girls who looked to be about five or six. She nodded at Bethany after a minute and gave her a thumbs up.
“I’ll go call the stable and let them know,” Bethany said.
Callie looked at Kaeden. “Time to get everyone on the van.”
Joy wasn’t surprised when he tipped his head back and called out, “Load up!”
She also wasn’t surprised when everyone around him listened to him. He seemed to be the kind of guy people listened to. Uptight and controlling, yes. But people listened.
And she was starting to realize his kind of controlling wasn’t the type she’d thought it was. It wasn’t like Turner who had needed to control everything about the woman in his life, from clothes, to opinions, to friends. This was different.
It was almost like Kaeden was using this control freak thing to keep himself from letting anyone in.
Or maybe she was reading more into it than there was and he was just a jerk.
Still, she felt a hell of a lot more than she wanted to when Kaeden’s arm brushed her as they stood and she took a step back, avoiding his eyes. She didn’t need this right now. Didn’t need it at all.
She felt his eyes on her and she chanced a look his way. That was stupid. Because she saw heat in his eyes and it made her stomach flip and her heart get that kind of hopeful feeling you get when you realize a guy you like might like you back.
She took another step backward. Hope was another thing she didn’t need. There wasn’t room for sexy men or hope or anything like that in her world. That time was over.
She turned and tossed the trash from her breakfast in a nearby can and then moved to the vans. Away from Kaeden and the temptation to hope for something normal in her world.
Chapter 7
Evan Willows looked at Turner Carson over the man’s oversized desk. Steel gray hair and eyes that were almost black on a face that had probably once been called chiseled. It was softening now with age, but the man was still tall and formidable.
Where Turner was over six feet, Evan was just grazing five feet eleven inches on a good day. He had never been athletic either, always staying a hair over what was considered a healthy weight. Turner looked like maybe he could have played sports once upon a time. And where Evan could have used a hat on his head to cover his bald spot, he knew Turner wasn’t covering one with his cowboy hat. He’d seen plenty of pictures of the man at big events mugging it up for the camera with a thick head of hair. It might be gray now, but it was all there.
