“I don’t have a problem coming with you. I can warm my food.”
“Glenn, man,” I ground out moving past him, quickly trying to catch up with Gunner, “we’ve got this.”
“And you’re sure you don’t want me to call Ta?—”
It took everything in me not to swing around and tell him to wipe her name from his memory because I was sick of hearing it coming out of his mouth.
“Glenn, we’ve got this, and I’ll call my girlfriend about her horse if I need to.” I didn’t say anything more, because what else was there left to say. Hopefully he got the message.
Gunner beat me to the stables by a few seconds and was already checkingDreamy out when I got there. The sharp tang of hay and horse sweat hung in the air as the horse’s snorts echoed in the cool air, Dreamy’s breath curling like steam in the dim light.
“He okay?” My heart was thudding at the idea that there might be something wrong with him.
Gunner crouched down and ran his hands down the horse’s legs. “Nothing so far.” Slowly he worked his way over Dreamy, checking every inch with precision. It was incredible how much he knew about horses and how good he was at it.
When Gunner’s hands moved over his back Dreamy shifted and reared his head with a loud snort. “Gotcha.” Pulling back the horse blanket, Gunner plucked a bur that was hooked into the fleece. “I’ll check with Benny and find out who stabled him. They shouldn’t be missing stuff like that,” he grumbled. “I always stress to check the blankets.”
He put Dreamy’s blanket back and threw the bur into the trash can. Then he pulled a packet of mints out of his pocket and took a couple out. Laying them on his palm he held it out to Dreamy, who took the mints with a grateful snort.
“At least we don’t need to worry Tally with it,” he said, smirking at me over his shoulder.
“And he’d be the last person I’d let contact her.” Too damn right I was being snippy. Glenn was hanging around too much for my liking.
“I think she might like to know if you want an excuse to call her.”
“I don’t need an excuse.”
I didn’t need a fucking excuse to call her.
“I know you’ve been looking at your phone every two minutes, all damn day, so I’m guessing she hasn’t messaged you. Which means,” he slapped his palm against my chest, “you my friend need an excuse to call her. Because if you don’t your head might just explode.”
As he walked away, chuckling, I realized he was right, I did need to find an excuse to call her.
Thankfully, she answered on the third ring.
“Hey, this is a nice surprise.”
Her voice trickled through the speaker like warm honey, drowsy andtender. I could almost feel the warmth of her skin beside me, like the memory of a favorite song played low in the background and I ached to be crawling into her bed with her.
“I miss you so fucking much, Brownie,” I breathed out. “What time are you coming back tomorrow?”
She giggled. “I’ll be leaving at six, I have work at seven-thirty. Do you plan on being in my bed when I get back?”
Looking at her horse it struck me that I didn’t want to be anywhere else. I could say it was too soon, too quick, but who the hell was I kidding. After the first month of hooking up we’d become much more than fuck buddies. We shared our days. We talked about the good and the shit. I spoke about my mom to her. We were best friends.
“Too right I will be. Now, tell me about your day.”
As we talked for the next half hour I felt the peace seep back into my bones and knew it wasn’t just because of the land. It was because of Tallulah Brown, too.
Chapter 37
Unwritten – Natasha Bedingfield
Tally
My stomach felt like I’d eaten something bad. It had been tumbling from the minute I’d agreed to tell Wilder about me knowing Nate. I knew it was the right thing to do, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t scared. Even the soft tones of the old country music station I was playing didn’t help settle me. Maybe some classic nineties dance tracks would help.
After a couple of minutes of pumping bass, I realized it was a big mistake and flipped it off. The silence only served to make the noise in my head louder. When the turning for the ranch came into view my fingers trembledagainst the steering wheel. I had to do it, though, my brothers were right, the longer I left it the worse the news would hit him when he did find out.
