“Don’t you give it a thought,” my mother said, shaking her head. “We love you. We’ve missed you, Wren.”
“We sure have,” my father said, winking at her.
“And I couldn’t be happier that we have a new member in our book club.” Henley reached for a dinner roll and dropped it on her plate.
“I think the book club is an excuse just to get together and drink wine,” Easton said.
“It is,” Lulu said. “And to talk about hot book boyfriends while drinking said wine.”
Everyone laughed once again, and we ate dessert before saying our goodbyes.
Wren and I climbed on Wrax and Honey, then took the path to head back to my ranch.
The sky was dark and lit only by the stars. But we’d been riding out here since we were kids. We trotted side by side as the sound of crickets singing and grass cracking beneath the hooves of our horses filled the air around us.
“I still can’t believe you were at Worlds,” she said, her voice breaking our silence.
“And I still can’t believe that you’re surprised by it.”
“Well, we hadn’t talked in a very long time.” She glanced over at me, and I could make out her long blonde hair bouncing on her shoulders.
“Doesn’t change the fact that I wanted to be there to see you do it.”
“Well, you know what I was doing during the time we weren’t speaking. So tell me, what have you been doing for the last two years, Cowboy? Aside from sneaking to see me compete, of course,” she teased. “Clearly we have a lot to catch up on.”
“I’ve been building my business.”
“That’s vague, but okay.”
“How about you? What have you been doing, outside of dominating the horse world?”
“You know how competing goes, it’s all-consuming. So there isn’t much else to report. I’ve been training and traveling and entering every competition I could. It was my two-year plan, remember?”
I nodded as we slowed our horses to a walk, letting them cool before we approached the barn. We put them in their stalls and made our way outside the barn.
“Of course I remember. It was the plan. And then you were going to see if you wanted to chase a spot on the Olympic team, or be done and start living your life,” I said, shoving my hands in the pockets of my jeans. “And now you’ve got your horse back, so I guess the decision is yours.”
She shook her head and laughed, but it felt forced. “Trying to get rid of me already?”
“No. I’m just curious what your plan is. You haven’t said much, outside of heading back in July.”
“That’s because I don’t fully know what my plan is.” She shrugged. “Coach Sharky wants me to ride a different horse and continue competing. I haven’t told him or my father that I have Wrax back yet. Either way, I’ll start training here when I can so I’m prepared to jump back into competing in July.”
There was something in her voice that I couldn’t quite read. A hesitation.
“Why do you sound so unsure?”
She blew out a breath as she tilted her head back to look up at the sky. “I don’t know, Axel. I just need some time to figure it all out.”
I studied her. This wasn’t like her at all.
She had always been someone who knew what she wanted.
“Take all the time you need.” I watched her before she slowly turned her head so she was looking at me.
“Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yep. See you tomorrow.”
