“Good night.”
“Night, Lake.” He winked at me and went up the stairs and inside.
I tried to not swoon on my way back to the house.
* * * *
Somehow, it all started to work like a charm. We got Rey to unclench a little with the cooking and did that in turns instead of letting him deal with the cooking, cleaning, and kittens. We upped the cleaning lady’s hours—her name was Karla and she was wonderful and maternal to the point where it made Rey uncomfortable, which made her back off a little—visits to every week, and everything was set for the time being.
I manage to steal some time with Theo most days, but we made out for a while or fell into bed at the end of each day and slept. Not that I would ever complain about either of those things. They sustained me in a way I hadn’t expected, and I felt like they did the same for Theo.
Things picked up on the rescue side, too. Theo had agreed to my and Sierra’s plan to hire someone to help him. One of the volunteers, a retiree called Barry, was glad to do all the odd jobs that needed doing and made sure the stalls were cleaned whenever there were no volunteers around. He’d insisted he would do it without payment, but Sierra and I had talked about that and decided a paycheck would make it so that we could truly rely on him being there. When Barry agreed to our terms, telling us he saw our point of view using the same exact reasoning, I knew we had done the right thing.
One night in mid-July, Theo and I sat on his couch, cuddling and idly watching an episode of a show we’d both seen before. It was more about winding down than anything.
“Sierra told me today that someone is interested in bays,” he said quietly.
He’d told me he’d put them on the rescue’s website to see if anyone was interested in them, because they’d gotten so much better after only a couple of weeks of training and staying out in the corral.
“That’s great news.” I glanced up at him where I was curled up against his side. “Did they seem like okay people?”
He smiled. “They’re a good family and want both horses. They have a sort of a hobby farm somewhere not that far from Lansing in Michigan. They’ve been looking for rescue horses to teach their kids about the value of, you know, rescuing horses and not just dogs and cats.”
Nodding, I burrowed back against him. “If you think they’re the right people for these horses, absolutely.”
“That gives us more space, though. Plus, the two extra corrals we built last week are empty still.”
Ah. I knew where he was going with this. We’d talked about expanding the operation, so to speak, and ended up building the corrals. That had cost a lot of money, with how we wanted them to be built to Theo’s specific requirements for long-term use.
Now, we were starting to see the consequences of smaller donations.
“I’ll have Sierra set up the fundraiser. She has it basically prepared and waiting for my go ahead.” I sighed.
For a while, Theo was quiet, then he asked in a gentle voice, “Are you hesitant about contacting the people in New York?”
I lifted my shoulder minutely. “Yes and no. I…”
He cleared his throat. “River might’ve told me about why that might be a big deal for you.”
I tensed, then forced myself to relax again. I wasn’t ashamed. “It felt wrong to have that job.”
“I can understand that,” Theo murmured. “Is there anything else I should know about that guy?”
“Yes and no.” I thought for a moment, then pulled away so I could sit up and make eye contact. “I’m not going to lie and say there wasn’t something more than an escort and client relationship between Anderson and me back in the day.”
I couldn’t read him when he asked, “Is that going to be an issue?”
I shrugged. “He wanted more and then I came to my senses. He wasn’t the right guy for me, but for a few weeks I got swept up by it all.”
Theo nodded, then looked away. I could see he felt uncomfortable, but I guessed I would’ve, too, in his shoes.
Sighing, I took his hand and began to play with his fingers. “He might want to come over if he decides he’s interested in donating.”
Theo’s hand in mine jerked, but he left it there. “All right.”
“River will reach out, too. If we can spin this the way Sierra thinks we can, as a new owner who is bringing the rescue into a more accepting direction, which Ruth couldn’t do because of the old donors, I bet there’ll be interest.”
“As long as it doesn’t sound like Ruth didn’t want—”
