“Oh, you don’t want to know.”
Without saying anything else, he pushed open the lounge room door to the sound of laughter and the heat from the open fire. Nash and Lily were on one sofa, with Nash massaging her feet which were in his lap. Gunner was on the other sofa, his arms waving around as he regaled some tale about horse manure.
As I walked to the doorway, Lily looked up and smiled. “Cass, hey. Come in, sit down.” She waved me in but if I thought she was going to move her legs so I could sit next to her, I was mistaken. “Sit next to Gunner and Wilder will get you a drink.”
“Yeah,” Wilder said, throwing his hands into the air. “Wilder will get you a drink, even though he’s limping. Coffee, sweet tea, coke, OJ?”
I grinned at him. “An OJ would be great.”
“Anyone else?” Wilder asked, halfway through the door. “No. Okay. Great.”
“Why do we keep him?” Gunner asked.
“Because he’s Lily’s favorite,” Nash said at the same time that Lily chimed in with, “He’s my favorite.”
“Hey.” Gunner gave me a head nod and moved further up the sofa.
I sat as far away from him as I possibly could and turned my gaze on Lily and Nash. He looked at me expectantly, still massaging Lily’s feet, while she grinned with one brow raised.
“What?” I asked.
“You said you had an idea and wanted to tell the guys.” Lily pulled her foot away from Nash and sat up. “I didn’t tell them much, just that it was about the kids at school.”
I didn’t have a chance to respond because Wilder came back into the room and handed me my drink. He then limped over to the armchair, sat in it and reclined it.
“I can’t believe you made me do that seeing as I’m injured,” he complained.
“Shouldn’t have hooked up with Monique Porter and then told her ‘it’s not you, it’s me’.”
Wilder’s usual grin faltered. “You can’t force feelings that aren’t there,” he said, and for the first time, there was something hollow in Wilder’s voice. Like maybehewas tired of pretending he didn’t want more. Even if he didn’t know what that ‘more’ looked like yet.
“Which is why you should have made it clear from the start,” Gunner said, “At least she doesn’t work for us, but you’d be best avoiding The Crafty Corner for a while.”
“But Bertie likes it when I take her to buy her crafting stuff,” Wilder protested.
“Yeah well,” Nash said. “You should have thought about that before you hooked up with the cashier.”
I looked over at Wilder and the smirk from before had vanished, replaced with something else. He looked disappointed, like a kid who opened their biggest gift at Christmas only to find it was home knits from Grandma.
“You okay?” Lily asked, clearly seeing the same thing I had.
In an instant Wilder’s wistful look was replaced with a cocky smirk. “Yeah, just remembering how it felt when she stood on my foot with her damn boots on.” He groaned dramatically. “I might be maimed for life.”
“Here’s hoping,” Nash muttered. “Now, Cassidy, what can we do for you? Lily said you had an idea about the ranch.”
“I must have missed when she became a shareholder,” Gunner said, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
I turned my head to see expressive brown eyes staring at me, clearly displaying his dislike for me. “I’m not demanding anything,” I told him. “I had an idea and wanted to run it past you. It doesn’t mean you have to say yes.” I turned in my seat to get a better look at him. “If you must know, you were the one who gave me the idea. You’re the one who told me that itwas good for kids.” I turned my head to Lily. “Did you tell them anything?”
“No honey, it’s your idea. I just told them you had one.”
“Okay,” Nash said, leaning forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. “Tell us all about it.”
I took a sip of my orange juice, unsure why I felt so nervous. It wasn’t like this had been a dream of mine for a long time, or my future was depending on it, but it was important. The more I’d thought about the kids, the more I’d researched it, the more I’d known it was the right thing to do.
“I’ve been reading about how working with animals, specifically horses, can help troubled kids.” I looked at each of the Miller brothers in turn, trying to gauge their initial reaction, but they simply looked at me with interest. Even Gunner’s head was tilted, listening carefully. “We don’t have too many troubled kids at our school, I know that, but I feel like we could do more for some of them. Lucas Keller for example. His mom works every hour she can and is probably meeting herself coming backwards trying to keep two jobs going as well as being there for him. And she just can’t do it, so I thought that maybe we could set some sort of afterschool or holiday program up, where they come and work on the ranch.” I licked my lips, sure that they were going to say no, but carried on regardless. “I’d do all the planning and get all the paperwork sorted, organize health and safety checks. You wouldn’t have to do anything.”
“Except spend time out of our busy days with these kids,” Gunner replied.
