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“I’m so sorry, Eli.” But her sniffing didn’t matter. The corners of both her eyes started to leak. “I shouldn’t have asked. I was out of line.” She was hugging her own torso now, so out of her depth with what she felt for this man, with how she ached for his loss, one she realized was the only reason she was standing here with him now.
“Hey,” he said softly, striding toward her. “You didn’t let me finish.”
He cupped her face in his hands, and she couldn’t help but marvel at how capable and strong he was, not only for the way he took care of his animals and their humans but for being vulnerable with her like this. No one had ever… She had never…
“Okay,” she sniffled. “Finish.”
“I’ve seen my brother ride Cirrus around that arena hundreds of times. And I’ve made peace with it. But when I saw you out there on Midnight—”
“You were pissed off?” she mumbled, eyes darting away from his.
He laughed, and she couldn’t help but meet his gaze. She’d crossed a line, invaded his boundaries, and he was laughing.
“Yeah,” he admitted, but his thumbs gently swiped at the damp corners of her eyes. “I was pissed. And scared. And really fucking impressed. But also something else I couldn’t name until now.” He kissed her forehead, then looked at her with an unexpected smile. “In the few seconds before you saw me, you looked so damned happy out there. And I hated that Midnight got to share that with you and I couldn’t.”
“What are you saying?” she asked. Beth felt like she was going over the edge of the steepest roller coaster she could imagine, her stomach ready to drop out beneath her.
“I’m saying…” Eli squeezed his eyes shut and blew out a long breath. “I’m saying let’s ride.”
Eli paced in front of Cirrus’s stall, surprised at how easy it had been to tack him up and get him ready to ride.
“It’s all about looking him in the eye and letting him know who’s boss,” Boone told him. “Now point the phone toward Cirrus so I can give my boy a quick lecture about how he’s supposed to treat his uncle Eli.”
Eli rolled his eyes, not because he was ungrateful for his brother’s help with the horse but because he had to ask for it at all. Eli, Boone, and the youngest Murphy brother, Ash, used to know the property as nothing other than a horse ranch. The boys could ride before they could walk. At least that was what their father liked to say.
“Eli’s something special, though,” he’d tell anyone who asked as well as those who didn’t. “There’s not a horse he can’t whisper…not a one that won’t accept him as a rider.”
Until an accident cut his father’s ranching and riding days short. Sure, he survived, but the Murphy boys became the Murphy men overnight. And that horse whispering Eli could do? It changed overnight as well. He just hadn’t known it yet.
“Cirrus?” Boone’s voice called gently from the phone screen. “Eli’s one of the good ones. You know that, right? He’d never hurt you or let anything happen to you. I trust you’ll do the same for him.”
Cirrus whinnied and nudged his long nose against the phone.
Boone laughed. “That’s right, boy. You love on my big brother just like you’re slobbering up his phone right now. Deal?”
Cirrus responded with a snort…also on Eli’s screen.
Eli wiped the screen on his jeans and turned his brother back to face him.
“I know you think he’s not ready for other riders,” Boone said. “And maybe I’m partly to blame for that. I’ve been a little overprotective since he came to us, but it’s been more than a year. He sees you every day. He trusts you. And hell, you might have a little bit of salt and pepper going on in that overgrown mop of yours, but you’re almost good-looking enough that he might even think you’re me.”
Boone winked.
Eli groaned. “Goodbye, Boone,” he said flatly.
His brother’s shit-eating grin softened. “I’m proud of you, big bro. This is a big step. Stop by Midtown tonight for a pint on the house.” He paused and raised his brows, then added, “You really like her, huh?”
Eli’s mouth fell open. Was his brother talking about the mare? Of course he was talking about the mare…right? But before he could respond, Boone winked again and then ended the call.
Eli stood there for several seconds staring at his phone’s lock screen, which was still a candid photo of Tess on Fury, because who could just delete a photo of their late wife from their lock screen?
We’re still on your camera roll, her voice echoed in his mind. Or was that Eli’s own voice he recognized? He couldn’t tell. It had been weeks since she’d talked to him at all. Why was she chiming in now?
“What if I’m starting to forget?” he asked aloud.
You don’t have to remember everything.
“I do,” he countered. “I have to remember what went wrong so it doesn’t happen again.”
