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He only grunted, following her through the door.
“My parents will be there. Something about them all getting together to meet for some reason. My mom thought it would be fun. I’m sure they’d love to meet you.”
Still not answering her, she stopped outside the office building, looking up at him awkwardly. “No games. I would really like it if you slept over with me on my last night. I sleep better with you. If I promise to be good?”
He didn’t look at her, only scanned their surroundings as he led her back to the training area where she’d parked. “You couldn’t be good if your life depended on it.”
She mocked shock and outrage. “Sir. People may not like the things that come out of my mouth, but I can regulate my actions most of the time.”
He turned to look at her, his eyes sweeping her up and down. “This was regulating?”
“Absolutely. I am in complete control. I want what I want, and I go for it. My happiness is important to me.”
There was an awkward silence as he walked away, and still, she almost didn’t hear him.“And mine?”
She grabbed his arm roughly, pulling him to a stop so she could face him. “You may not believe it, but yes. I do think about your happiness. I’m thinking long term. A lifetime with me is not something that will make you happy. I promise. We are too different. We want opposite things in life. It would be a regret a few years down the road.”
“Your regret or mine?”
“Does it matter?”
“I should get a choice in it.”
His words echoed her mother’s, and she felt the guilt fill her again. But she ignored it.
“So should I.”
Then she walked away, through the back pasture where most of the horses had been let out for exercise. Ursula came trotting up, excited to see both of them. She nuzzled at Nassau, then bumped Bailey’s face, lightly chewing on her hair, a habit that she’d formed when she wanted Bailey’s attention.
“If you’re going back to the office, I am going to run Ursula through some training exercises one more time.”
“Exercises or treats and petting?”
Shaking off the overwhelming sadness that had swept through her, she grinned up at him. “Whatever she wants, right? You guys think there’s only one way to interact with horses. That she needs to follow some organized structure and respond correctly to your every command. Maybe she’s not made for that. Maybe she wants more.”
“She’s a horse. They’re not complicated.”
“That’s your problem. You have tunnel vision.”
“And what expertise of yours tells you that? Your innate ability to learn quickly?”
He was annoyed with her. She could tell because he never spoke to her like that, never spoke to anyone like that. But she kept her tone light.
“There’s no freedom, no power, like the knowledge you’re being underestimated. Keep that in mind, Nas.”
He frowned but didn’t respond.
Without a glance back, she pushed away from the fence and moved around the corner towards the training pen, checking on her Jeep and leaving him behind. It had been at least an hour. It shouldn’t have taken that long to put on her top. But she could hear yelling and swearing as she approached.Braulio and Zhair were clearly struggling, and when she was close enough, she could see they had it backwards.
“Have you never done this before?”
Zhair jerked up from where he was hunched down and smiled sheepishly. “No. I don’t know anyone with a Jeep.”
She rolled her eyes. “You left off the brackets here. And you have the top backwards. That’s why it’s not sliding the way you want. And this…” Once they flipped it, she moved the lock into position. “This needs to be in the lock position, so it won’t fall on you.”
She perched on the picnic table nearby, checking her phone and calling out instructions as they went. Quickly, she clicked through the notifications on her phone, her stomach dropping when the familiar email popped up. She knew it.
Last night’s email was just a simple sentence, just an allusion to Goddess knows what, and she scrolled past that one to the next.
