“He looks cuddly.”
“Oh he is, just not with anyone but me, my mom, and Mal’s kid, Payton.” I patted the donkey and tugged at his ears the way he liked, then quickly stepped away and through the fence before he could kidnap me. “He will grab clothing if he wants you to stay,” I explained needlessly.
“Ah, explains the dash.” Carter smiled.
The walkie-talkie crackled again.
“Mal to HH. Over.”
“Hawk here. Over.”
“Check with Cahill if midday tomorrow is good. I have time then. Over.”
I raised a brow at the man in question.
Carter nodded. “I can do midday.”
I pressed the button. “He says midday is fine. Over.”
“Good man. Talk to you later. Over.”
I returned the radio to my belt and gestured at the house. “Now that you’re here, want to meet some more family?”
Carter seemed surprised, then he glanced down at his clothing and frowned at his sleeve. “I have blood on my sleeve. From the mom,” he clarified at my confused expression.
“My parents have raised ten kids. They have four grandkids. They’re not easily scared by mess.”
“Well, okay then.”
I could tell he wasn’t fully comfortable going to meet the parents—not the fuck like that, holy shit—in his dusty-from-the-walk barn clothing.
We walked around Juanpablo’s paddock in silence that didn’t feel uncomfortable. I didn’t know what it was about this man that made me blow up and calm down like this. I didn’t blow up. Never had, really.
Even as a kid when my siblings had been unfair in the ways kids were, I’d rarely gotten angry. Meanwhile, especially my brothers, both older and younger, had fought each other with fists on occasion. There’d been parental consequences to violence, of course, but still.
I’d never wanted to punch anyone as much as I did Carter. No. That was a lie. There’d been one person. And maybe, just maybeI was projecting a little and needed to figure myself out before I ruined this job with my newly found temper.
Chapter 10
Carter
Ididn’t know why I was going inside the house to meet said family. I should have just gotten back into my Jeep and gone home when Hawk said I couldn’t ride today. Which, honestly, kind of pissed me off. He was ascribing feelings and emotions to me that I didn’t necessarily have. But he was the boss, at least when it came to horses, and I knew there was no point arguing with him.
Besides watching him with the donkey had been fucking endearing.
I followed him up the steps, scraped my boots after he did, and walked into the house behind him. There seemed to be a lot going on, judging by the noise, and several people were talking at once. All the noise stopped when Hawk and I appeared.
A woman with a blond ponytail who was hardly older than me gasped when she saw us.
“Oh, Hawk, honey. Lucinda just called. Miranda and the baby were in an accident! She’s going to go to be with them at the hospital, but she’s stopping here to drop off Robbie and Sammy. Then their mom is going to come get them from here once she’s out of work, but Jannelle is in Colorado Springs today so it’s going to be at least an hour.”
Hawk tilted his head, looking up at me. “Woman you helped today? Brown hair and a nose ring?”
I blinked. “Well, I didn’t notice a nose ring but she had brown hair.”
“Hawk?” The woman said.
“Mom, this is Carter Cahill. Carter, meet Jenn.” Hawk pointed to the other people in turn. “My dad, Mike. Brother-in-law, mostly, Luke, and his daughter, Aria. Where are Demi and the twins?”
