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“What happened?” James asked from the kitchen door.
“Gonna need you to take this little man, James,” Gage answered. “Let me spend some time talkin’ with Rowan.”
The bodyguard frowned. “Are you alright?”
She shook her head but couldn’t speak. Gage explained, “I think she’s sufferin’ from postpartum depression and her guilt is givin’ her nightmares that Bennett put his soul in their child when he died.”
“What…?” James crouched beside the chair and said gently, “Benji just senses your sadness. This is Bennett’sson, not Bennett. Just like his father, the happiness of others is critical to him.”
“I’m so confused. Sotired.”
“Why didn’t you tell us you were struggling?” Holding out his hands, James took Benji from Gage and stood. “We have breast milk in the fridge. Go with Gage, Rowan.”
“I-I can’t…”
“You can. You haven’t taken a break since he was born but we thought you were just being a typical new mom. Give yourself the day with Gage. Talk, cry, sleep, whatever. We can handle anything Benji needs. The team will keep an eye on you from a distance. You need a minute, Rowan.” He walked inside and said over his shoulder, “Taking him with me now so you have no choice.”
The door closed and she stared at it in confusion.
Gage got to his feet and lifted Rowan to hers. Rowan took in his shaggy hair, hazel eyes, and lean body in jeans and a button-down shirt. He wore worn cowboy boots on his feet.
There were few things in the world as beautiful as Gage Chambers just being the man he’d always been.
Taking her hand, he led her to Teddy and she was stiff as he lifted her into the saddle. After he mounted behind her, she leaned against him as he slipped his forearm around her waist.
“All you gotta do is breathe, Rowan. I’ll keep you safe.”
Clucking to the horse, Gage rode out of the yard. He walked Teddy slowly along the shoulder of the road. She heard the ATVs her men used to check the boundaries and appreciated that they kept their distance.
At her ear, he said, “All my brothers started businesses of their own years before we lost Dad. When he passed, I was still out in the apartment over the barn.”
She listened but didn’t speak. The early summer morning was beautiful and Rowan realized she hadn’t enjoyed such a thing in weeks.
“I moved into the main house after Mama moved out. I’m the only one workin’ the cattle ranch anymore. Dad left it to me since he knew the others didn’t want it.”
Gage rode through the smaller gate into the main yard of the Chambers’ house. It was still as pretty as she remembered it: a huge two-story plantation-style with lots of windows and a porch that wrapped all the way around it.
Swinging down from the saddle, he reached up and she put her hands on his shoulders to be lifted down. When she was on her feet, he took her hand and led her up the porch steps.
He opened one of the double doors and tugged her into the foyer. Her first impression was one of warm woods and bright sunlight.
“You renovated…” she said softly.
“I wanted to brighten up the wood, the paint. Make it feel different from when I was a kid without losin’ the history.”
“It’s beautiful, Gage.”
He raked his long fingers through his hair. “Time for a tour.” Room by room, he pointed out things he thought she’d find interesting.
The place was more than a hundred years old and huge. A library, formal dining room, enormous kitchen, two living rooms, two small bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a large laundry area made up the first floor.
“Mama had a housekeeper and a cook who lived in these two rooms downstairs. Dad added extra bathrooms when I was a boy. The man who took care of the grounds and drove us sometimes lived above the barn in the other apartment my folks made. Now they live at her new place with Teller.”
He stepped through a set of French doors in the dining room and the wide porch extended to a huge deck that led down into a fenced back yard.
On one side was a pool and on the other was a children’s play area, complete with an enormous fort and tire swings. “My brothers and I played out here for hours. Mama watched us from her office in the library.”
Back inside, they went upstairs where there were six bedrooms. “This suite was where our nanny slept. It has its own bathroom and that door connects to the nursery. Each of us slept in the nursery until we were two. Then we got our own rooms.”
