“It’s bad, Ash,” I admitted.
“Can I tell you something but you have to keep it from her?”
“Probably not.”
He chuckled without mirth. “I’ve seen Jake a few times since this all went down, and he looks like shit.”
“Good.”
“Yeah, I’m with you, honey, but I thinkhe’s just as busted up as she is.”
“And how does this help anything, Ash? My best friend is sobbing in the next room—”
“She’scrying?”
“No, she’ssobbing. As in wracked with sobs. I have never seen her like this.”
“Damn it. Addison doesn’t cry when she’s sad.”
“I know. She only cries when she’s pissed, but she’s really sad, Ash.”
“Okay, baby. I hear you. I’ll call her again.”
“That wouldbe good.” I opened my laptop and sat down on the bed. “I’m working on something to cheer her up, too.”
“Oh really?” he asked.
“Yeah. I think a little horseback riding will do the trick. We have to—” I clamped my mouth down on what I was going to say, knowing it wouldn’t be wise to admit that Addison and I needed to train for our competition. No need for him to worry about the new level of stupiditywe’d gotten ourselves into. “We have to do some more investigating, but I think a nice horse ride will be good for her.”
“Yeah, she’ll love that. Good idea.”
“Do you know if the cops have found Candy yet?”
“Jake hasn’t updated me on that yet. Do you know when you guys are coming home yet?” He sounded a little too curious, making me wonder if he was onto our buddy barrel antics after all. No,that was ridiculous. Asher probably didn’t even know such things existed.
“Tuesday at the earliest,” I sighed. “Too long.”
“Agreed.”
Yet he sounded relieved. Probably because he didn’t have to worry about us hunting down cheaters or getting hunted by Spiders for several more days. Fearing what I was doing to my poor boyfriend, I pulled up the yellow pages and started looking for local ranches.
“I should get going so I can call around and find us some horses,” I said.
“You do that. I’ll give Addie a call and see if I can begin the cheering up process on my end.”
“You’re pretty much the best ever, you know that, right?” I asked.
“I keep tellin’ you, I’m the shit,” he replied, making me giggle. “Love you.”
“I love you too.” I hung up and got back to work.
I’d pulled up a possibleoption when my phone rang again, only this time I didn’t recognize the number. “Dylan James.”
“Hey, it’s Wyatt.”
“Oh, hi, how are you?”
“I’m good. I got your number from Dakota and I—”
