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I laughed, my heart rolling over when she grinned at me impishly. She was just so gorgeous and funny, I couldn’t get enough of her. “Please try to control yourself,” I said as I pulled into the parking lot at the ranch.
“IsaidI’d try, didn’t I? Fuck, why are there so many people here?”
“End of spring break, maybe? Last day of camp and people are coming to pick up their kids?”
“Dammit, I hope that doesn’t mean they won’t have time to meet us.”
“Noah knows I’m coming. He will have made time.”
“Phew.”
Gesturing for her to go on ahead of me, I allowed myself the indulgence of checking out her ass as she walked through the gate.
“Ahem. Eyes up, Walker.”
When she looked at me over her shoulder I shot her an innocent look, which made her grin again. We rounded the end of the ranch house, a huge stone and wooden building with enormous windows that looked out over the grounds. “I can’t see him anywhere around… I’ll just shoot him a text.”
“Okay. Wow, this is a great set up.”
I scanned the area, my mind already making plans based on what Noah had told me on the phone. There was a large open area in front of the house that currently had about thirty kids running around playing some sort of ball game. This was where they were thinking of adding the obstacle course.
Every so often, a car would pull up and the man who was supervising the game would call out a name, letting the kid know their parent or guardian had come to pick them up.
“Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod there’s Genevieve!” Ally squealed, almost bouncing with excitement.
“Where?”
“Just over there, sitting on a log near the path. Got a kid with her.”
I looked over to see a small, red-headed woman sitting on a log, with a boy of maybe seven or eight years old sitting with her. She gestured to the kids playing, saying something that made the boy shake his head. It looked to me like she was encouraging him to join in, but he didn’t want to. Poor little guy. It made me look at him a little closer, and I felt a weird tightening in my chest. He had dark, scruffy hair and was a little on the skinny side. There was nothing overly remarkable about him, nothing to explain my strange reaction. I was relieved when I saw Noah walking up from the stables and I could look away.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“No problem. This is my friend Ally. She’s helping me today.”
“I’msopleased to meet you! I watched every second of the show and was rooting for you guys the whole time.”
“Thanks. That’s very nice of you to say so. Would you like to meet Genevieve?”
“Fu— I mean, yes, thank you, that would be amazing!”
Noah caught Genevieve’s attention and, taking the boy’s hand in hers, she came over to us, smiling sweetly. “Darlin’, this here is Gabe and Ally. Ally’s a big fan of the show and wanted to say hi.”
Ally’s eyes bugged out of her head, I swear, and she gushed some more. Genevieve took it in stride, clearly used to the attention. They talked a little about the show, something about Noah carrying Genevieve from a cave when she’d had a panic attack. I don’t know, I hadn’t watched the show. But it had made Ally cry, apparently. The conversation floated around me, but I was struggling to pay attention because I couldn’t stop staring at the kid with Genevieve, with his scruffy hair and downcast eyes. He caught me staring and frowned in confusion, so I forced myself to look away, trying to tune into the conversation a little more.
More kids got picked up while we were standing there, but since no one had come yet for the kid with us, Noah suggested he tag along while we talked about the plans for the place, letting us know his name was Jesse. Jesse didn’t let go of Genevieve’s hand for one second and I could see her giving him reassuring smiles from time to time as we walked. I was finding it hard to concentrate, to express my ideas coherently. It was pretty unprofessional, but there was something about the kid that had hooked me, and I couldn’t shake it.
When Jesse was the last kid left, the guy who’d been supervising the other kids wandered over to join us.
“That’s Mack,” Ally whispered as he approached. “Noah’s best friend. They were in foster care together.”
He’d just been introduced to us and we’d all shaken hands when a car pulled up. I watched a tall, thin woman get out and start walking toward us. She had stringy, strawberry blond hair pulled back in a low ponytail, pale blue eyes, and a sharp nose. If she didn’t look so mean, she’d probably be quite pretty. Maybe she was prettier, back when I…
As she got closer, the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up and my heart started thudding. I felt an impending sense of doom that sent a shiver up my spine.
“What’s wrong? Do you know her?” Ally asked in a low voice.
“I think so, yeah.”
