AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The device reacted, opening up the screen necessary to get a message to his cousin.
“Is Becca with you? She’s not answering her phone.”
He stared at the screen, hesitating. If Becca had her phone on her, then he could be outed. What if this message destroyed their assumed relationship? Katrina was smart enough to figure out when things didn’t add up.
He shook his head then muttered, “Send.”
The phone made a ‘whoop’ sound and sent off the message.
He shoved the phone in his pocket and got back to work brushing the horse. All he could do at this point was pray that she wouldn’t get upset and it wouldn’t mess up her plans.
Ethan finished up the brushing and headed out of the stall. There were a few things he wanted to clean up first before he took the next horse out for training. While he was mucking out a stall, his uncle entered the barn. Ethan glanced up and smiled but didn’t say anything.
It wasn’t unusual for his uncle to come and go while he was working. Only this time, Eli stopped at his stall and folded his arms over the top of the door. “Hard at work. I’m impressed.”
Ethan nodded. “I told you I would work hard for you.”
“That you did. Let’s talk about your time off.”
He froze, his shovel in mid-air. “My what-now?”
His uncle smirked. “Come now. Your girlfriend is in town. You probably want to spend as much time with her as you can.”
Uh-oh.
Ethan slowly straightened and leaned the shovel against the wall. “I don’t need any time off?—”
“Don’t be ridiculous. She’s not a local. You don’t know when you’ll have this much time again being in the same city.”
“But with the wedding coming up and everyone busy with preparations, you’re going to need my help more now than ever.”
It was a weak argument. Bo wasn’t about to take any time off; it wasn’t in his nature. And the others could easily take turns when one of them was needed.
Uncle Eli must have been thinking the same thing. “We can manage. There’s plenty of us, and for the most part, the women are doing the wedding planning. Becca came all the way from Salt Lake City to be here, and I have a feeling it wasn’t just so she could spend time with Katrina. It’s a hard truth, but it is what it is.” Eli gave Ethan a pointed look. “You can’t waste your time working when you should be doing something more important.”
Ethan couldn’t think of a single argument he could make to get out of this. If there was ever a moment when he needed a prayer answered, it was this one. He could have really used someone to step in and tell Eli that Ethan was more than capable of pulling double duty. He could workandspend time with Becca—especially because Becca wasn’t going to want to spend time with him.
His phone rang and he jumped, retrieving it from his pocket. It was Katrina. He swallowed audibly, and Eli chuckled. “Looks like she wants to talk.” He couldn’t have seen the caller ID—if he had, he would have noticed it was his daughter calling and not Becca.
But after the message Ethan had sent, he knew better than to believe it was Katrina. Becca was on the other end of this phone call, and Ethan wasn’t sure he was prepared to be yelled at. Why else would she call him instead of message him?
And from Katrina’s phone, no less?
The girls were probably all surrounding her and teasing her over the message.
Shoot! He knew he shouldn’t have sent that message. Why couldn’t he have just been patient and hid in the bushes like a normal stalker?
“Well? Are you going to answer it?”
Ethan jumped, realizing that Eli was still standing on the other side of the stall door. He swiped his thumb across the screen.
“Hey, beautiful.” Turning away from his uncle, he lowered his voice. “I’m glad you called.”
“What are you doing?” Becca demanded. “What if I had been Katrina?”
“Then she would have heard me accidentally speak to her thinking I was speaking to you.”
Becca let out a frustrated huff. “Whatever. Look, things are changing at a rapid pace—one I wasn’t prepared for.”
