“Really?”
I laughed. “Yeah, that's why I came back to Texas in the first place. I am—was planning my dad’s wedding and staying at theranch. When I went to go meet the ranch hands, I saw Hux and realized he was the guy from the grocery store.” I left out how I’d embarrassed myself yet again, before thankfully fixing the situation—she didn’t need to know that.
Hux's mom giggled. “What a cute story.”
“You said you were plannin' your dad’s wedding,” Walker said. “What happened? Is it no longer happenin'?”
Dotty batted at her daughter. “Walker Rose, you don’t ask that!”
“What, it’s just a question?” she defended.
I blew out a breath, taking comfort in the silent feel of Hux’s hand on my thigh. “No, it’s okay. My dad and his fiancé broke things off today. Now it’s kind of a scramble of what to do. It’s too late to cancel the event and get any sort of refunds from the vendors or anything like that. And now my dad is talking about selling the ranch and, I don’t know, everything is kind of a big mess.”
I bit back a groan at the amount of unneeded information I’d just word vomited. They didn’t need to know all my problems. They hadn’t even asked. I guess at the end of the day, even the prospect of meeting Hux’s parents couldn’t quell the anxiety I felt over this whole debacle.
Hux's mom offered me a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry to hear that, sweetie.”
I returned what I hoped was a reassuring smile and not a grimace. “I’m sure it’ll work out in the end.”
Hux slid his hand up and down my thigh in soft, soothing strokes, but even as the conversation shifted I couldn’t shake the worry burrowing deeper and deeper into my heart.
I wondered how Dad was. I hadn’t heard from him. Not that I expected to, really. I hoped wherever he was, whatever he was doing, he was okay. Maybe I’d call him after dinner, check in on him.
Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.
There was no such luck getting ahold of my Dad, though. Again, not surprising, but at least I could say I tried. I offered to help Hux’s family with dishes after dinner, but Miss Dotty shooed me out, all but demanding that Hux show me some more of the property.
“Come on, let's check out the barn,” Hux said as he led me through the house with ease and out onto the front porch.
The barn wasn’t quiteas fancy as the main one on my dad’s ranch, but you could tell this one actually saw use. It was accented with warm-hued wood, flagstone, and black wrought-iron, much like the front gate. Almost all of the horses knickered and whinnied as we came in. Hux muttered something to them about not having anything to eat.
“So, are all of these your family's horses?” I asked as we walked down the right-hand aisle, filled with horses on either side. To the left was a large, indoor arena, and then to the left of that was another aisle of stalls.
“Most of ‘em in this aisle are my dad’s. The left are his horses in training or ones he’s gonna sell.”
“That’s a lot of horses." There had to be at least twenty, if not more in the barn.
“You ever ride before?” he asked, threading his fingers through mine as we walked deeper down the aisle.
I shook my head as I replied, “I mean, my dad and I rented horses for a day in Griffith Park a couple times when I was growing up, but no. Horses never really were my thing.”
“What was your thing?” he asked, as we continued walking. It’s like he knew exactly where we were going.
What was my thing? Did I have one? I tried to think of what hobbies I’d had that I felt as passionately about as he did in regards to rodeoing, but I kept coming up short.
“Um…I don’t know, honestly. I did sports growing up. Gymnastics, cheer, volleyball. But I was never, like, super into it, you know?” I pursed my lips. “The only thing I can think of that I’ve always liked to do is read.”
We stopped before the final set of stalls and Hux turned to face the right, close to where the stall door was. “You like to read? What kind of books?”
"Oh, um…" I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. "Lots of stuff. As long as it has a love story and happy ending, I'll read just about anything."
"Walker likes to read too. She tried to get me to listen to some audiobooks of her spicy books, she called 'em."
"Really? Did you like them?" I asked tentatively.
"Reading' really ain't my thing." He leaned in and whispered, "But I wouldn't mind doin' what some of those guys do to their girls in those books," he said before reaching a hand out toward the stall.
My cheeks heated, but all thoughts of spicy books and Hux and I reenacting scenes from them died in my mind as I watched as an oddly-colored horse padded from the back of its stall into the light of the aisle. Holy God, it was huge…and beautiful. It was tall. Like, crazy tall and seemed thicker set than most of thehorses in the barn. Its coat was a pretty grey color, while his long mane and tail were black as midnight.
