“I want to go on a teaching course.”
“Teaching what? Riding?”
“Yeah. My qualifications are old and out of date, so if I want to help Harry, I’ll need some new ones.”
“Okay. Why do you need to look at mountain resorts in Norway for that?”
“Because I think the only reason I’d get on a plane would be for something I’m passionate about, and I really,reallywant to do this, Joe.”
“So do it.”
“Right. Like it’s that simple.”
Of course it wasn’t simple. Nothing for Emma ever was, but surely the last year on the farm had shown her that anything was possible?
She wandered off before I figured out if she did, and Harry showed up not long after.
I let the goat have the socks and stood to greet him. “Angelo gone?”
“Yup. Put him in a taxi back to his hotel. He’s driving home tomorrow.”
“Will he be okay on his own?”
Harry shrugged. “It’s up to him to say if he’s not. I gave him a cat for Dylan’s dad, though, if it’s any consolation.”
It was. Thanks to Harry, the farm now had more cats that a Greek holiday resort, and the more of them he gave away, the better. “It wasn’t Macky, was it?”
“Of course not. I know you can’t sleep without him. Hey, are we going surfing tomorrow?”
I ignored the question—we went surfing every morning we could these days—and got up in his face. “Dude, you’re the only fella I can’t be without.”
Harry smiled and wrapped his strong arms around me. “Can’t see you ever having to be, so I guess we’re both happy, eh?”
And then some. In his quiet way, Harry had turned my world upside down. I had a life now, a future, and heart fit to burst every time I looked at him. Happy didn’t even come close.
* * *
Harry
The retreat opened almost a year to the day since I’d first set foot on Whisper Farm. Angelo and Dylan came down from London, Rhys too, but thankfully they’d somehow just missed each other.
“Shame,” Joe said when Rhys’s flying visit had come to an end, and Angelo and Dylan had just arrived. “I was looking forward to some mad drama and make-up orgies.”
I rolled my eyes. “Angelo’s a bad influence on you. Are you sure you don’t want to try the club again?”
Joe shuddered, and I laughed, because for all his brass, Joe was a private soul. Fucking in public... sharing me with someone else would never be his bag, so as fun as it had been to catch a glimpse of the world my brother and our shared friends called home, we wouldn’t be going back.
Didn’t stop him beckoning me to the bedroom window later that night, though, and pointing across the farm to the retreat’s chalet site. After a day of introductory outpatient clinics, Angelo and Dylan were the only guests staying over, and they were fucking with the lights on, blinds up, and the windows wide open.
Joe nuzzled my neck. “Do they know we can see them?”
“Probably not, though I reckon Angelo gets a kick out of making you blush.”
“He does not make me blush.”
“Liar.”
“Valid.” Joe shrugged. “Sorry. You know I love you.”
