Gunner grinned at me and headed straight for the coffee jug. It was the first thing he did every morning, and I’d learned to make it strong after my first disastrous attempt when he almost spat it over his desk.
“How was your weekend?” I asked him, checking my schedule for the day.
“Good.” He strolled to his desk with that Miller swagger, the same as his brother’s, both his brothers’. “In fact, I have news.”
His smile was beaming, childlike even. “Good news I’m guessing.”
“The fucking best.” A little blush came to his cheeks. “Actually, there are two pieces.”
“Good and bad or just good?” Rolling my chair closer to his desk, I prepared myself. I rarely only got good news, it was the way of life, my life at least. What was given with one hand was often taken with the other. Take my brothers for example, Cole was a funny, happy soul, whereas Liam, my eldest brother, was grumpy and antisocial, had been from a baby apparently, which only got worse when he was seventeen. Mom and Dad tried to rectify it pretty quickly as there was only ten months between them. Irish twins apparently. They waited another five years to create perfection, though, i.e. me.
“Both are good news,” Gunner told me, his eyes wrinkling at the corners. He was practically bouncing in his seat, desperate to tell me.
“Go for it.” I gave him a nod, putting him out of his misery.
“Firstly, we finally have a stallion.”
“We do?” That was the best news. Gunner had been wanting to ramp up the breeding part of his business for the last few months, since the new stables had been finished. He’d been struggling, though, to find the right stallion to start the Miller bloodline with Songbird, our brood mare. She already had a foal, Gypsy, who was coming up to a year old and was the most beautiful soul. Songbird’s own pedigree was incredible, but Gunner had wanted her to have one foal that she could keep, so had bred her with another stud. It was before I worked here, but I’d seen a picture of the handsome American Paint Horse who’d been a champion barrel racer. Now he wanted her to breed racehorses and finding the right stallion was the first step.
“We do,” he confirmed. “He’s a thoroughbred with the traits that wewant to establish, he’s already produced a Belmont Stakes winner, and his mother was a Kentucky Derby winner. He’s fucking beautiful, Tally. Black as night, a good balanced structure, calm and you should see him run.”
“Where did you find him?” My heart was racing at the possibilities ahead, that I might get to put into practice everything I’d learned over the last six years in Kentucky.
“Jack Parnell. He’s got a breeding stable just outside of San Antonio.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “Did you take Cassidy for a romantic break to look at horses?”
“No, I did not!” He looked affronted as they’d just spent a long weekend at a beach hotel in Corpus Christi. “Jack called me to say he thought he had what I wanted, and it was Cassidy who insisted we hire a car and go see him before we left for home.”
Rolling my eyes I scoffed. “Okay boss, I believe you. So, what’s the second piece of good news?”
“Now this,” he said, wagging a finger at me, “is the best news, a doozy piece of good news.”
Chuckling, I shook my head, entertained by my boss's good mood. To be fair he was a great boss and him being salty with me over the training saddle was a one off.
“Tell me,” I replied. “I’m all ears.”
“Cassidy and I got engaged.” He stamped his feet like an excited toddler and the expression of joy on his face was adorable. “I had dinner set up on a private beach, with a little treasure hunt that led her to the most beautiful, got to say, huge, emerald ring. And then we went for a midnight horse ride along the beach, and I won’t tell you how that ended. I did good, didn’t I?”
Beaming, I jumped up and rushed to his side to hug him, but I caught the way his hand twitched at his side like he wanted to reach for me first and just didn’t know if he should. So, I leaned in, just enough to make sure he’d feel the weight of me there, even after I let go. “That’s fantastic news, for you and Cassidy.” I leaned back to study him. “I’m guessing she loved it.”
He scoffed and threw his hands in the air. “What do you think?”
There was that Miller confidence that I’d grown to love.
“I’m so happy for you. I need to see that ring, though.”
“She’s coming over here soon, we have camp stuff to discuss. You can see it then.” There was that glassy eyed look he got when talking about his two of his favorite things: Cassidy and the kid’s camp they were building.
“How’s it going with the camp planning?” I rolled my chair back to my desk.
“The carpenter is back next week to finish the interior of the bunk house and the classrooms, then all the furniture and supplies will be delivered. We got the final permits through, so soon we’ll be ready for the trial run.”
“Bertie’s class, right?”
“Yep, Bertie’s class and she’s already appointed herself as ranch foreman for them.”
As we laughed at the idea of Bertie ruling the roost, the door swung open drawing our attention. My traitorous heart skipped two beats as Wilder walked in. There was no denying they were brothers. Despite the subtle differences the resemblance between them was strong. All three hit at least six-three, although Nash was the tallest and more muscular. He’d been a footballer once upon a time, or so I’d heard. Gunner had the darkest hair of the three of them and wore it a little longer than Nash’s. Then there was Wilder, his eyes were darker, his lashes longer, there were natural streaks of gold in his hair and his ass was the best by far.
