“That sounds great. I’ve never been.”
“I’m glad you chose Thanksgiving because Melody will have a few days off of school,” Archer said.
“Sounds like a good plan,” I said before leaning down and whispering in Wren’s ear. “And I like the idea of you and me in Paris.”
“Moi aussi, mon amour,” she said as she tipped her head back to look at me. Wren had taken years of French in high school and college, and she spoke it fluently.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means, ‘Me too, my love,’” Bridger said, and everyone gaped at him. “What? I speak French, dickheads.”
The table erupted in laughter, and I wrapped my arms around her a little tighter.
It was a good day.
A really good day.
twenty-seven
. . .
Wren
“You spoil us, Wren,”Jonah said when I set the salad and sandwiches down in the center of the table.
“You work hard, and I like cooking,” I said.
My schedule had changed drastically over the last few weeks. The books were all in order, so now it was just down to paying the bills once a month, which took very little time, and I was able to order supplies and set appointments in between my workouts. Axel wanted me to interview someone for my position, but I just wasn’t ready to do that. I was leaving in two weeks, and I was still fighting it. I could pay his bills from wherever I was, and I didn’t want to hire someone else.
It made things feel final in some weird way.
I loved working with the guys, even just for a few hours a day when I’d pop in. I was training hard now, but it was nice that I was doing it all right here.
Axel and his father and his uncle Keaton had set up a full show jumping course in the arena for me and Wrax to practice. They’d built jumps that rivaled professional jumps.
And the cross-country training here was the best, because I had acres for Wrax and me to run through while also buildingskills for my other events. This morning we’d done a bunch of dressage training with lateral hill exercises before returning to the ring to work on pirouettes, piaffes, and half passes.
Wrax and I would never be outworked.
You couldn’t control everything during a competition, but I could control the work that I put in. So I always put in the work. Wrax and I had both healed from our injuries, and I felt stronger than ever.
“Axel was telling me that you’re a world champion. That’s impressive,” Carl said. He and Donny were the two new guys Axel had brought on. I knew he was hiring help so that he’d have a little more freedom to travel, but it would still be a challenge. His business was successful because of him. He did all the designing, and he was the artist behind every trailer that he built. He could delegate some of the work, but he still needed to be here.
“Were you bragging again, Cowboy?” I asked, glancing over at him as he leaned back in the chair, his legs crossed at his ankles.
“I’m always bragging about you.” He winked.
There was something about the way that Axel looked at me that always did something to me. It was this look of pure adoration. Like he just got me. It would happen in the middle of the day when I was doing nothing. Sometimes it would be when I was pausing for some water in the middle of a workout. Other times it was when I was getting ready for my day in the morning, and I’d catch him watching me in the mirror.
He looked at me like he was looking at his reason for existing.
I felt it in every inch of my body.
Everyone deserved to be loved by a man like Axel Chadwick. To experience this kind of love at least once in their lifetime.
“Damn!” Coby whistled. “Someone call the fire department, because these two are on fire.”
Axel balled up his napkin and chucked it at him while everyone else was hooting and hollering about it.
