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The girl answered with a frustrated grunt and then she put on a pair of headphones.
“What happened while I was gone?” Tess whispered.
“Silas tried to talk to Morgan,” Willow informed her. “It didn’t go well.”
“Yeah. Sorry.” He shoved his phone back into his pocket. “I did my best but apparently I know nothing.”
Tess laughed. “Welcome to parenting.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Silas steered his truck down the ranch’s winding driveway and continued past the Cowboy Construction office, past Tess’s house, and all the way to the large corral at the edge of the woods.
The early morning sun beat down, warm enough to heat the air, bringing clouds of steam effervescing off the frost-laden grasses. Beyond the trees, the mountains rose up with their sharp angles and snow-encrusted crevasses, appearing almost purple in the pastel hues of the morning light.
Even after he cut the engine, he sat there for a few minutes, sipping his coffee from a travel mug, taking the time to really see the vista he’d come to take for granted. He wouldn’t get views like this every morning if he went back to the Middle East. That was for sure. There he would see dust and sand and the white-hot sun. Instead of teeming with color like the Wind River Range, the mountains over there were barren and brown. Desolate.
But what did views matter when he’d be doing something important with his life? The views had never bothered him before, and he wouldn’t get all sentimental now. Silas climbed out of his truck and pulled on a sweatshirt.
Inside the corral a few feet away, Legacy paced restlessly along the perimeter of the fence that ran closest to the woods. So close to what she wanted—freedom and the companionship of her herd—yet she was stuck. He could relate to seeing what you wanted—what you craved—right in front of you and not being able to do a damn thing about it.
After grabbing the bag of carrots off the front seat, he slammed the door shut and approached the gate, giving the horse a few extra seconds to size him up before he went into the pen. “Hey, Legacy.” He kept his distance, giving her space but held a few of the carrots out flat on his palm. “You hungry?” Tess had texted him last night to tell him that the painkillers seemed to be working because the horse had managed to eat some hay, even with the wound in her nose. “I bet you’d like a carrot.”
From the other side of the pen, the horse stared at him, those glassy, wise dark eyes astute and all-seeing.
“I won’t hurt you.” He tried to speak the way he’d seen Tess talk to the horses—with quiet, calming murmurs. “The more you can eat, the better off you’ll be. The faster you’ll heal.” He took one step in Legacy’s direction, holding out his hand even farther.
The horse raised her head, her nose lifting higher into the air as though she was trying to sniff out his offering.
“They’re organic carrots,” he informed her. “The best I could find at the grocery store this morning.” He took another step.
Legacy turned and trotted in the opposite direction, moving around the perimeter of the pen to get closer to him without approaching him directly. He supposed she wasn’t too used to people bringing her treats, seeing as how she was a wild animal and everything. Like Tess had said, when he’d led Legacy down the mountain the concussion had probably subdued the horse, but today she seemed to have a different, wary energy.
“That’s okay. I can leave them here.” He set the carrots on the ground and then backed away, letting himself out of the gate. “So you can try them if you want.Whenyou want.”
Now that he had removed himself, Legacy ambled to where the carrots sat and sniffed them before gobbling them up.
“See? I told you they were the good stuff.” He folded his arms over the fence, watching the horse search the ground for more. She really was a beautiful animal—light brown with a silverish tail and mane. He’d never had a horse of his own. He’d never even ridden until he’d met Jace in the service and had visited the ranch those few times they’d all had leave.
He and Aiden and Thatch would find a rental in the area and spend some time with Jace and his family at the ranch—in between hitting the nightlife scene in Jackson and fishing and climbing mountains, of course. During those brief reprieves from fighting, they searched out ways to feel human again. For Jace that had meant spending every moment he could with Tess and his girls. They had been Jace’s entire world, his motivation, his joy. And Silas had envied him; that was the painful truth.
Though his friend had always welcomed Silas into his home, he now felt like an intruder at the ranch. He’d slept with Tess. And, worse than that, he felt something for her. Something real and deep. Something that was not just going to go away by pretending.
With her search for more carrots proving fruitless, Legacy trotted along the fence again until she made it to where he stood at the gate. She pushed her muzzle into his shoulder, nearly knocking him over.
Despite the weight sitting in his gut, Silas laughed. “Liked those carrots, did you?” He pulled three more out of the bag and held them flat on his palm.
The horse took them, leaving behind a mess of slobber.
“Thanks for that.” Silas wiped his hand on his jeans and then took a chance petting the horse’s forehead. “See? I’m not so scary.”
Legacy stood there for another minute, letting him pet her but then she tossed her head and went back to her fruitless pacing along the inside of the fence.
“Looks like she made a friend,” Tess said behind him.
As usual, the woman’s voice brought two powerful emotions clashing inside of him. Want and guilt. “Hey.” He watched her walk to the fence. How long had she been standing there? “I thought I’d check up on the patient before I head to the jobsite today.” Amazing they actually had some real work to do. Their next project was only building a new barn for Kyra—which she insisted on paying for even though her fiancé was part owner of the company—but at least the project would distract him and keep him busy.
“She seems pretty happy to see you.” Tess slipped inside the gate. “It took me an hour last night to get close to her so I could administer her meds. But she came right up to you.”
