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“Why is that funny?”
“It isn’t. Ignore him.” Anne leaned against her arms on the top of the stall door. “Is there something going on between you and Beth?”
“No,” Grayson said. Conviction heated his face. “Yes. Probably. I don’t know.” He added ointment to the Telfa and replaced the pad, then used his teeth to pull up the leading edge of the bandage wrap.
“I knew it,” Noah said. He gave his wife a nod. “You know, when Anne and I first worked together at Wilderness Challenge, I wanted her to join me in Minneapolis—but that was the one place she wouldn’t go.”
“True story—I was adamant about it.”
“What happened?”
Noah turned to Anne, who met him with a tender smile. “You want to tell him?”
“We’d both been touched by tragedies and traumas. For me, I wasn’t sure where God was in the darkest moments of life.”
Grayson stilled. Yep. He knew that question well. He’d been chewing on the answer ever since the sermon on James.
“A lot of things happened that summer. I learned God is good. His grace is sufficient. If I trust Him, He carries me through any and every hard thing life brings.”
Tally stomped a front foot.
Anne’s words couldn’t placate Grayson. He scooped up the wrappers and old bandages. “I don’t know.” He hated admitting his disbelief.
Noah passed off the lead rope so Grayson could remove the halter. “She’s worked really hard to get this position. It would be asking a lot for her to leave her dad and this job.”
“Are you trying to make it worse?” Anne asked.
“I don’t mean he shouldn’t.” Noah opened the stall door while Grayson stepped through, then slid it closed behind him. “I meant that it is exactly the kind of big thing to give over to God. To trust His plan.”
Anne nodded. “Ah. Instead of making his own.”
“Exactly.”
Grayson liked being in control. He shook his head. “I have to leave for Oregon at some point, don’t I?” Not that he’d figured out how he was going to extract himself.
“We know. Trust God has a plan,” Noah said. He walked toward the door. Stopped. “We’re heading to church. “Want to join us?”
Grayson shook his head. “I still have chores to finish before I go. Thanks for the offer.”
“Sure.”
After morning chores, he needed to round up lumber to repair the bench while he figured out what to do about Madam Librarian and her Amazing Book of Adventures. If he got lucky, it would keep him busy long enough, and he’d be able to dodge Dylan for the day.
Because there was no possible way the man wouldn’t know. Grayson was a big brother too. He understood these things—and he definitely understood the code he’d violated.
Fifteen minutes later, Grayson parked the empty hay cart in the barn, grabbed Remington, and led him to the hitching post. “How about some exercise for you?” He rubbed the gelding’s face.
He dropped a bucket of grooming supplies next to the hitching post. By the time he returned to the tack room to grab the saddle, all he could think about was Beth in his arms. The way she’d turned to kiss him when he’d stopped himself. How perfect and right it’d felt to share the darkest pieces of himself with her. And her wholehearted acceptance of him.
Not an escape like he’d sought in the past, but a true salve for his soul. The thrill of that realization sparked in his heart, spreading like wildfire through his body.
And the second kiss. Oh boy. An inferno that’d decimated the charred remains of his resolve.
Yeah, Dylan might kill him.
But it might be worth dying for.
A car door slammed, and Beth came running through the barn, her breath clipped in huffs.
