“I told you I’d be bad at this father thing, but I was forgetting something.”
“What I said about you taking care of Jordan?”
“Not that. I forgot that next summer, Liberty arrives on the scene.”
She got it, now. “You can practice being a dad.”
“Damn straight. Jordie and Luis will show me how it’s done.”
“Great idea.” Not what she wanted to talk about, but still a positive.
“Isn’t it? I’ve watched my sister work with clients who don’t know a hackamore from their hind quarters. They’re harder to train than the horse. If she can handle them, she can train me.”
He’d sidetracked her and turned her insides to mush with this new subject. “It won’t take long. I was never worried about the baby issue.”
“Well, I was. But Jordie won’t let me fail. She knows babies scare the hell out of me. She’s the only one I’ve ever held, and I was terrified I’d do something wrong.”
Clearly he wasn’t kidding. The fear in his voice was real, and it gave her another clue to his past. At four, his terror probably had been justified. If he had done something wrong, he likely would’ve been severely punished.
But he didn’t want her to know about that, or why he had scars on his back, or how they were related to his Christmas phobia. He’d given her some information but not the critical piece.
His gaze searched hers. Then his chest heaved. “I interrupted you a while ago. Twice.”
“You did.” Whoa. This was new.
“I have a hunch you were trying to bring up a different subject.”
Amazing. Unexpected. “Is that why you interrupted me?”
“Yep.” He brought her hands to his lips and kissed her fingers. “I’ve decided to man up to it.” Lifting his head, he looked into her eyes, a crease of worry between his brows. “Forgive me?”
Her heart swelled. “Always.”
“It’s a bad habit.” He tucked her hands behind his neck, slid his arms around her waist and drew her closer. “I don’t want to do that with you. I want you to call me on it.”
“All right.” She took a breath. Might as well seize the moment. “Are you afraid if you tell me I’ll tell the others? Because I won’t ”
“I know.” He hesitated, glanced away. When he faced her again, the haunted look was back in his eyes. “Have you ever watched a movie and then wished you hadn’t?”
“I think we’ve all done that.”
“You don’t want to see this movie. Nobody should.”
She stared at him, confused by nobody should. “But Jordan knows.”
His grip on her hands tightened imperceptibly. “She doesn’t.”
“How’s that possible?”
“I’m not the type to go around shirtless.”
So he’d protected his little sister from the movie he didn’t want her to see. He’d protected everyone, now that she thought about it. Her brothers loved pulling off their shirts and pouring water over their heads when it was hot. She’d never seen Cole do that.
“Then why did you let me wash your back?”
“I shouldn’t have. I had this stupid idea that since you’d glimpsed it a few times and hadn’t asked, you couldn’t see them. I haven’t checked in ages.”
“I also felt them. At least a couple.”
