“I wasn’t expecting so much excitement when I first got here, you know,” Jake said, trying to keep his voice light. “It was so quiet I thought I’d go mad from boredom. You all had me fooled.”
Liz snorted a laugh and squeezed him. “You okay?” she asked.
“I will be after this,” he murmured, and kissed her gently. She lifted herself up to him, returning the kiss, then stepped away from him just as quickly, biting her lip.
“Work first, City Boy, then play,” she teased, waving her index finger at him, chastising him.
“All right, all right.” He laughed and turned back to his desk, waving her away. He jumped as a hand dug into his back jeans pocket and pinched his butt, and before he could turn around and grab her, she was already running out the door, laughing.
She was taking it quite well too. Likely catching up to Brady to make sure he really was okay. That had been nice. Natural. Normal. He had a brief thought that this could be every day, that small moment of comfort that would erase any amount of tension. To come home to her laugh and touch.
He stowed the thought and picked up his phone. He needed to deal with the paternity results first. Then he could figure out just what Liz was starting to mean to him. Which was something more than just a casual fling. Last night had proven that, because the look in her eyes when he was deep inside her and the tenderness afterward was anything but casual.
As he was dialing Frank’s number, he spied the blue lettereddadsign Brady had made, and ran his fingers along the edge of the lettering, the paint smooth, the edge of the wood rough. It had an entirely different meaning now, not just for Brady, but for all of them. More secrets to unlock from a man who’d seemed straight and narrow. More twists and turns in this entirely messed up situation.
Frank’s receptionist picked up, and Jake adjusted his eyes out to where Tanner was still angrily ramming round bales with a tractor, and sighed.
This news might affect Tanner more than Brady, and he wasn’t quite sure how much more his brother could take.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Liz jumped off her last horse and looked at her watch as her feet hit the sand. It was well past six, but with all the interruptions she’d had today, she was still riding when she normally would’ve been in her office finishing up. Her stomach growled in response. Looping the reins over her horse’s neck, she headed back into the stable from the sand ring, the clip of hooves on the shiny paved floor the only sound save the rustling of hay from all the horses that had been brought in for the night. It was a soothing sound, one she enjoyed sitting and listening to when she needed a moment to think, or not think, as the case dictated.
The arena lights buzzed as they winked on, and as she made her way down the aisle she nodded at one of the clients who had arrived to ride their horse. It would be busy here in no time, full of lesson kids and social boarders.
This was why she usually hid in her office if she was still working. Trevor was the evening man, running the show and ensuring chaos didn’t descend. A couple of coaches would drive in on weekends to teach, so thankfully Liz didn’t have to anymore. She didn’t like the people side of the business, never had. Give her the horses and the quiet of the stables during the day. The snorts and rustles, the chirping from the barn swallows in the spring, the call of the crows on foggy early summer mornings. The ease of simply getting on with your day, no interruptions. It was why she’d fallen in love with this place the summer she had arrived with her mother. It was solid and peaceful.
But today, none of those things were working the way they should after she’d left the office, and Jake. She’d checked in with Brady once more. He’d been about to head out and check some of the bean fields. He’d told her he was fine, but the worry on his face was right there to see. She hoped he could reconcile this without internalizing too much. This would confuse anyone.
She pulled her horse into a stall, and as she took the bridle off, she stood a moment, watching a dad and daughter across the aisle tack up a school horse for a lesson Trevor was about to teach. The dad was pretending not to know what anything was, the young girl laughing and correcting him every time. The dad winked at her, holding up her helmet and asking her where this went on the horse, to peals of laughter and an, “Oh,Dad!” from the girl.
Liz turned, not wanting to be caught staring, and finished untacking her horse, tiredness settling into her arms as she hoisted her saddle off the horse’s back. She needed to go home and collapse, eat something, and not have to deal with the world until tomorrow.
“Earth to Liz?” Trevor said a moment later, and she blinked, startled by his presence in front of her. She was still standing in the door of the stall, the saddle over her arms. She’d zoned out completely.
“Hey!” she replied brightly, stepping out. Trevor took the saddle from her and set it on the rack and peered at her.
“All right?”
“Yeah. Fine. You headed in for your seven o’clock?” she deflected.
He nodded, greeting a boarder as they went past. He turned his eyes back to her. “You aren’t. You’re exhausted.”
“You should know better than to tell a woman she looks tired Trev,” she teased. “But I am,” she admitted right after.
“You know I think all that is horseshit. A spade is a spade in my world. Besides, Liz, you know very well you’d say the same to me.”
“I would. Sorry, been a wild couple of days. You talk to Brady at all?” she replied, changing the subject again.
“I talked to him, yeah. Holy Hannah, you guys have had a time of it.”
That was an understatement.
“You need a day off to recuperate? You should take one, Liz, if you need it,” he added.
She appreciated his concern but shook her head. “No, I’m okay. Need to have the normal of a day on the horses. It helps.”
“That it can,” he agreed. “Especially with today’s news, right?”
