She follows me inside, where Wilder’s cleaning up Maverick’s hooves.
“Hey, Wild Man. This is Callie. She’ll be staying with us for a while.”
He pulls off a glove and wipes his hand on his jeans before holding it out to her. “Nice to finally meet you. Emmy Lou has told us so much about you.”
Callie’s expression softens. “She’s a sweetheart.”
He nods. “How are you settling in?”
“So far so good. My roommate is a decent cook, so that helps.”
Wilder snorts and focuses his attention on me. “You cooked?”
“What? I can cook.”
“Sure.” His shoulders shake with silent laughter as Griffin materializes from the tack room. “You called it.”
“Told you,” Griffin says. “Hey, Callie.”
She offers him an awkward wave.
“When you two are done with whatever this is, would you mind having a look at Callie’s car?”
Griffin checks his watch. “Yeah, I've got a few hours before I have anything else on my schedule.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me,” Callie says. “I can get it towed to the mechanic.”
He pulls his long hair back and ties it in a low knot at the back of his head. “Don’t bother. I can have you fixed up in no time, darlin’.”
“Are you sure?” She chews on the inside of her cheek in her best attempt to hide her discomfort, but I see right through it.
I instinctively reach for her, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. “I told you we’d take care of you, Callie.”
She glances down at our joined hands, and I wonder if she feels the same way I do when we touch. I run the pad of my thumb over her palm in a soothing motion, resisting the strong urge to bring them to my lips.
“Do you have your keys on you?” Griffin asks.
She reaches into her pocket with her free hand and tosses him the keys.
Ignoring the smug looks on my brothers’ faces, I turn my attention back to the task at hand and the woman still joined to mine. “Come on. Still a few stops left on the grand tour.”
As we exit the big barn, I point to the west pasture, wheretwo dapple-grey horses are grazing side by side. “The bigger one is Storm, and the little guy is her yearling, Memphis.”
“Storm,” she says. “That’s Olivia’s horse, right?”
“Mhm. They bonded when they were both pregnant, and they’ve been almost inseparable ever since.” Storm whinnies and ambles over to the fence like she knows we’ve been talking about her. “She’s spoiled. Probably thinks we have treats.”
Callie gazes at me expectantly. “Do you?”
“No.” I smile down at her. “But we’ll come prepared next time.”
Pops pulls up alongside the fence on Copper. My throat constricts against a sudden rush of guilt clawing its way to the surface. It’s hard to even look at Copper, not just because he’s a reminder of what happened that night. I should be the one taking care of him, but I’ve foisted that responsibility onto everyone else.
Pops takes off his cowboy hat and sets it in front of him. He’s wearing a jacket identical to the one Callie’s wearing right now. Mama bought them for us last Christmas and had them branded with the ranch logo and our names on the pockets. “You must be Callie.”
She offers him a tight-lipped smile. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Hayes.”
“Mr. Hayes was my daddy. Call me Pops. Everybody does.”
