I heard Patience’s words but was too busy staring at Micah to acknowledge them or peel my gaze away to see who else was with Micah. He was too damn beautiful.
No matter how much I’d enjoyed the conversation with Patience, right then I wanted nothing more than to be alone with Micah.
Chapter Sixteen
“She has some questions for you. About Tom Walker,” I told Joel as I approached him while entering the stables.
Joel pierced me with his gaze, the same way he always did. A slow grin spread across my father’s face, and I groaned inwardly.
“Cut the shit, boy. I know you didn’t bring that girl to my home because she has a few questions about her grandaddy. Questionsyoucould’ve asked and had answered already, by the way.”
Before I could respond, I heard laughter over my shoulder, and I turned to see my kid brother chuckling like our father was on stage at the Laugh Factory or some shit.
“The hell is so funny?”
“You. I’m texting Gabe to tell him Mr. I’ll Never Get Married is full of shit.” His fingers flew over the screen of his phone.
“I’ll knock both of your heads together like I did when I was a kid. Keep fucking with me,” I growled.
“Now he’s moved on to threatening?” Ace questioned, looking offended.
“Like you’re not used to it,” Joel responded.
Ace’s smile grew wider, used to my threats since he was always the one with the slick ass tongue.
“Yeah, Top Gun, you know half of those threats you deserved,” Joel responded, pointing his finger at his middle child.
I grinned as Ace’s facial expression contorted to one of anger. He hated that nickname.
“It’s Cannon. Like the—”
“We all know what a damn cannon is,” I countered. “Wejust don’t call you that shit. Let those suckers on the base call you that.”
Ace was a pilot in the Air Force and had been stationed back home in the central Texas area for a few years. Truthfully, we were all proud as shit of Ace, but we couldn’t let him know that too often. The kid already had an ego the size of Texas. It came in handy when handling pieces of military equipment that cost taxpayers millions of dollars. But he was still my kid brother. Also, he had his own relationship hangups. He disguised it by fucking with me. I knew it. Joel knew it, and so did Ace.
“How’s this one?” Robert Townsend, technically my uncle, questioned as he rounded the corner, holding the straps of a horse.
One of the stablehands had been showing him, Aaron, and Deborah around the rest of the stable.
“She’s a little rough around the edges,” Joel told him as he moved closer. He began petting the horse, purring something to her, and she bowed her head, neighing at him. “She’ll do fine.”
“I’ll take this one out,” Aaron, Robert’s eldest son, said, coming around the corner.
My eyebrows lifted as he walked up with the black horse with white spots. I glanced over at Joel, who also wore an expression of surprise.
“Hm,” he huffed curiously. “She usually doesn’t take to people. Especially new people.”
This was the first time any of our Williamsport relatives had visited the ranch. Aaron and the horse he’d chosen, Sheila, had never met before. And she wasn’t a docile filly even with those she did know.
“He’ll be fine. That one has a way with animals,” Robert added.
Aaron maintained the perma-scowl on his face, not saying much. Upon first meeting him, I felt the urge to knock whatever chip it was he had with us off his damn shoulder, but then I learned he was like that with everyone. Save for his wife. She got a different reaction out of him.
I mounted Brandi, my chestnut thoroughbred, and whistled for Hound, who’d followed us outside. As soon as he was at my side, I clicked my tongue and tapped Brandi’s sides with my feet, and we were off.
“Show off,” Ace yelled behind me.
I chuckled and double tapped Brandi again, signaling for her to pick up speed. I wasn’t nearly as much of a fan of horses as my father was, but there were few things freer than riding Brandi in the open while she was moving at her top speed. Her powerful legs and stride were unrivaled. Yet, even as I contemplated how great it was to ride Brandi, I started to wonder what it would be like to have Jodi at my side.
