The orthopedist cleared him a while back, and I can’t hold him back from walking all over the place, taking stairs two at a time, and climbing into the saddle every chance he gets.
He hooks his arm over the back of my chair, and I lean in.
"Riot's getting fatter," I tell him.
"He's just a little plump."
"He has abelly, Beck."
"He's earned it."
I sigh. Because he has a point. Twenty years of explosions and dirt and stunt rigs…yeah, the horse has earned a paunch and a few minions to lord over.
We sit there for a while in our typical way, my legs over his lap, his thumb rubbing circles on my knee, both of us watching the pasture wake up.
The pines are dusted with a light snow, the air smells like woodsmoke from somebody's stove down the road, and Cricket is cautiously snuffling at an icicle near the fence.
"Talked to your mama yesterday." Beck's voice goes a touch careful, the way it does when he's about to negotiate something.
"You didwhat?"
"She calledme, Laurel."
"My mother doesn’t call people."
"And yet." He grins. "She wanted to know if I'm coming up for Christmas with you."
I sit up so fast my coffee sloshes. "Really?"
"I told her I'd love to. I mean, I’ve never spent Christmas in Montana."
"Beck, you cannot just make plans with mymother?—"
"Why can’t I tell her I’d be thrilled to spend Christmas with the woman I love and her family?" He looks at me with a sidelong glance. "That felt like the right answer, darlin'. Was I wrong?"
I close my mouth.
Apparently, he's smug now, too. I know where Riot gets it from.
"Okay, okay. You’re right," I say. "But I'm warning you. The whole family will be there.Allof them—my mother, aunts,nieces, dogs, Maverick…and Lark and Lyla are flying in this year for a couple of days. Lark’s bringing her boyfriend, Garrett, too.”
"Sounds wonderful."
"It’s awar zone, Beck."
"I'll bring whiskey."
"You will need acase."
He laughs, and that easy rolling laugh he has—the one that took a while to coax out of him—settles in my chest. I lean back against him.
"Lyla's got news, by the way," I say. "C&A in Montana hired her. They want her to start an equine therapy program in the spring."
"Oh yeah? The animal sanctuary where Mav works?"
"Mhmm. Up in Deepwood Mountain. Mav and one of the senior wranglers named Carter…he was friends with Lyla's dad, before he passed…kept poking the owners about the program until they caved. She’ll be heading out in March."
"Big year for everyone it seems."
