* * * *
The next morning, when the guys had had breakfast, Lake went to get ready while Theo waited for him in the kitchen.
“Hey, do you mind going to check on the foal once while we’re gone? She should be okay, but…” He frowned.
“Of course. Whenever there’s a good time, I’ll do that. I can go twice if you guys take longer than you think, so just text or call.”
“Great. She’s next to the donkeys. We keep her there because there are slats in the wall between the stalls and they like interacting.”
“Aww, cute.”
Lake stepped out of his bedroom and Theo’s attention immediately snapped to him. “Yes, yes he is…” Theo murmured, then saluted me and they left.
The family was supposed to come by at ten, but by ten fifteen, they hadn’t arrived yet.
“How long do I wait until I ask Sierra to text them?” Rey asked, clearly anxious.
“Give them another fifteen minutes?” I went to squeeze his shoulder.
“Okay.” He lifted his hand to his mouth and started on his cuticles. I’d seen this nervous habit once before, and that was while we’d talked about the past as we walked along the wall the other day.
I took hold of his wrist and pulled his hand away. “Hey, that’s not good. You can’t be my sous chef if you have fucked-up cuticles.”
He flushed pink and dropped his gaze. “I could wear gloves.”
“You could, but then you’ll lost some of the sensory stuff that can be helpful.”
I glanced at the clock. “Do you think I have time to go check on the foal now?”
While he, too, knew what time it was, he looked at the clock. “Yeah. It won’t take you more than ten minutes, right?”
“No, it shouldn’t.” I quickly went to pull on my sneakers and left the house.
As I passed the office, I peered in through the open window. “Si? I’m going to check on the foal. The people haven’t gotten here yet.”
“Okay!” She waved at me and then her phone rang, so I continued to jog toward the stable.
The foal was fine. She was snoozing on the bedding with the donkeys standing guard on the other side of the wall.
Just as I was about to leave her be, I noticed she’d tipped over her water bucket, so I picked it up and went to fill it as quickly as I could.
It took me fifteen minutes before I was jogging past the office again. Sierra was still on the phone, but there was an older model battered SUV in the parking lot.
I lifted my gaze off the car when I saw all five dogs standing by the porch, staring at the door. Bucky whined when he noticed me, and I could hear some of the GGs growling lowly.Shit.
Chapter 11
Rey
I had the two kittens calmed down a little, they were looking as if they’d be ready for a nap in the fleece blanket nest I’d made for them on the couch. That was good; they’d still be happy to play if and when the people arrived, but they wouldn’t be quite as hyper. That’d be nice since the kids in this family were only four and six.
Something in the back of my brain was nagging at me, but I couldn’t catch it. Something was…if not wrong, then…well, maybe it was just wrong. I tried to ignore it, because there was no reason to make myself have a panic attack for no reason at all.
Jack hadn’t been at the stable for more than ten minutes when the doorbell rang, and I gulped. Okay, okay, I could do this alone.
I straightened my spine, then walked to the front door.
I put a smile on my face and opened it.
