Chapter 21
21
AURORA
We don’t even make it fully out of the truck before a woman standing by a long stable shouts, “Johnny! I was hoping it would be you today!”
Johnny beams at her as he sets his hat on his head and slips from the truck. He swings the door shut with a grip on the half-rolled window as I sit in silence, my seat belt feeling like it’s growing tighter by the second.
He strides toward the woman with a look I’ve grown used to seeing. Happiness, a steady calm. She tosses her arms around his neck and squeals while hugging him tight and for far too long. He hugs her back, and I inhale a sharp breath through my nose when something angry and very, very green flares in my mind. It’s like I’ve tossed back a shot of poison as I work to keep my expression unbothered and climb out after him.
“It’s been far too long since you’ve been out here. Wade’s been gatekeeping you,” she says as they part.
I wait for them to separate further, but she reaches out to hold his arms, keeping him close.
He doesn’t move them out of her grip. His grin doesn’t waver. Each step I take toward them feels like I’m wading through tar. After everything earlier today, this feels far worse than it probably is.
“Thomas knows more about these babies than I do, Jill. I missed this place, though. Especially the babies in there.” He gestures to the stable.
Oh, he missed this place. How nice.
Jill, as he called her, smiles easily and freely. Some people have obvious vibes, like radioactive waves of personality that give you an insider view of how their minds work. She has too many waves. They’re so thick they nearly choke me.
Maybe that’s just my cattiness coming through.
Yeah, that’s probably it.
She flips her long blonde braid over her shoulder and pushes the top of her hat back to expose more of her tan skin. My jealousy spikes again when I sweep my gaze over her features and find them near perfect. Smooth and pimple-free. I can’t even find a single acne scar. How is that possible?
Probably because she’s nearly ten years younger than you, Aurora.
“Well, it’s nice to see you, anyway. I know the horses will be excited to see you,” she says cheerfully.
“Wade gave y’all the rundown, yeah?” he asks, shifting his hips to face the stable.
I finally reach them, my arms hanging limp before I shove my hands into my pockets. He doesn’t make a move to introduce me, and I deduce that to the fact he hasn’t noticed me. Somehow, that’s worse than any other reason.
The stable that holds his attention is more like a horse palace. It’s tall and sleek, made of matte black and deep chestnut brown siding. The doors are bigger than the ones at Steele Ranch, and there are at least three more of them. It even has a second storey on the back half with a tall window that I’d bet even swings open.
Taking a look around the ranch, it’s obvious that there’s a reason for the extravagant stable. Horses are everywhere. In a back pasture and two huge circles with shining silver fencing and equipped with several wooden barrels.
This is a horse ranch. Maybe with the specific purpose of training them. Breeding too.
“I’m so sorry for my rudeness!” Jill shrieks, snagging my attention. “I’m Jill. This is my family’s ranch.”
I blink, refocusing to find her hand extended for me to shake. Taking it to avoid being seen as rude, I yank the corner of my mouth up into a smile that I hope doesn’t look as much like a grimace as it feels.
Johnny’s eyes are a brand on my face, but I ignore him. “I’m Aurora. This is a beautiful place.”
“Thank you so much. It’s been a long journey to get it to where it is now, but yeah, it’s pretty great,” she replies.
I pull my hand back and return it to my pocket with a nod. While it’s always hard for me to make conversation in a normal situation, it’s even harder with people I don’t particularly want to converse with. It’s not anything truly against Jill; it’s just . . . me.
My ridiculous, misplaced jealousy and bitterness with how little I seem to exist to Johnny right now.
“Jill’s family are the biggest horse breeders in Alberta. We’ve gotten all our horses from them,” Johnny explains.
When he gets closer to me and slips a finger through one of my belt loops, I fight the instinct to shove him off. The pride in his voice as he speaks of her ranch bites even though it shouldn’t.
Clearly, despite my best efforts, this man has weaselled his way into my heart and made a home for himself there. It’s the only explanation I have for this desperate need to put on some cringy possessive act to scare Jill off like a wild beast marking her territory.
“How’s Joker doing?” she asks him.
“Still full of attitude. ”
With a look of understanding, she turns to me. “Do you ride too?”
“No.” I hate how stiff the word sounds.
“Rory’s a new resident of Cherry Peak. A city girl from Calgary,” Johnny says, the fingers not looped in my pants brushing the jean material at the top of my ass.
Jill jerks her head toward the stable. “Well, I hope you don’t mind ’em! Ours are incredibly friendly.”
I don’t answer before she’s leading the way. Instead, I keep my head on a swivel as we walk, busying myself with the sights around me so I don’t have to speak with Johnny and wind up exposing myself.
I’d have preferred working with Eliza today instead of being driven out here just to be ignored for a woman who’s clearly the opposite of me. If that’s what he wants, he’s been wasting his time.
“Have you had many coyotes out here recently?” Johnny asks her, keeping pace between the both of us.
One minuscule glance at the ground and I realize that his boots are nearly the same shade as hers. Fuck, even their hats are similar. Did they call each other to plan this outfit coordination this morning? Do they talk often? Jesus Christ, this is not a rabbit hole I want to go down right now.
I’m thirty, not thirteen. Grow up.
“No more than usual. You guys?”
“We did. But Eliza convinced Wade to get donkeys. Now, those fuckers kick the shit out of them when they get too close,” Johnny says.
Jill’s laugh rings through the ranch, carried on the breeze. I stiffen, and when Johnny tugs on my belt loop in an attempt to get my attention, I know he’s noticed. He does it again, but this time, I step to the side, forcing him to let go of me.
We all stop in front of the first of the stable doors, and Johnny reaches for the handle before Jill can. She gazes up at him with a soft stare and thanks him. I swallow a scream .
He yanks the door open, and Jill steps inside first. I keep pace with her and move past Johnny without planning on saying a word. The hand on my arm when I step around him ruins my plans.
“What’s wrong?” he asks quietly, those long fingers keeping a gentle hold on me. One jerk and I’d be free.
I stare straight ahead into the stable. “I’m fine.”
“You’re lying.”
“We’re here on behalf of Steele Ranch, Johnny. This is work.”
“Oh, it is, is it? Shit, I almost forgot that you’re the Steele’s newest ranch hand.”
I gnaw on my lip to stifle a laugh at his sarcasm. He hasn’t used this particular trait of his often in my presence. It’s hot, and now I’m even more pissed off.
“If you want someone to flirt with while we’re here, I’m sure Jill is up to banter. You seem to be enjoying doing it already.”
His thumb slips over the skin below my elbow, and something about the soft touch draws my eyes. The sight of him touching me is too much right now. My middle caves in as I ache to feel his hands all over me. Head to toe, I don’t care. Anywhere would suffice. I’d take anything to stifle this want.
“Rory,” he rasps. “Look at me.”
I wet my dry lips and lie through my teeth. “I want you to let go of me.”
He does immediately. I leave him there before I can tell him to hold me again. I’d never be able to scrape my pride off the ground after that.
“Over here, Johnny. This is Biscuit. Wade mentioned him first,” Jill calls, waving at him from the end of the line of pens.
I ignore her and make my way to the other side of the stable. Most of the pens are empty, and if they run at all like Steele Ranch, then most of the horses kept in here are in use right now. Eliza explained that the horses belonging to the ranch hands and the family are kept inside. Special privilege exists in the animal world too, apparently .
“He looks good. Healthy,” I hear Johnny say behind me.
“Just turned three this spring.”
A soft patting sounds, and I can see Johnny giving the horse affection the way he does Joker without needing to turn around.
“Great. Yeah, he’s a big guy for three. Should be a good workhorse.”
A gate rattles as I move down the line of pens, peeking inside each one as if something’s tugging me along. I nearly trip when a long blonde nose juts out over the gate one pen ahead and a snort fills the air. Leaning back on my heels, I keep still, waiting to see if the horse opens its massive jaw and tries to take a piece out of me.
“Um, hi,” I mutter when a few seconds pass without teeth chomping.
Taking two steps forward, I keep a distance between myself and the mystery nose before peering inside the pen. My eyes go wide when I see the horse staring right at me, brown eyes curious.
With a coat so blonde it’s almost white, the horse looks like it was dumped into a bucket of bleach when it was born. The single brown patch on the left side of its belly is almost comical.
“Do I stink or something?” I ask when it moves closer and sniffs loudly.
It sniffs again before jutting its entire head over the gate. The shiny white mane flowing over its neck looks like silk. I want to touch it but don’t know if it’ll have me for dinner quite yet.
“This is kind of rude,” I mutter. “Demanding attention like this isn’t sweet behaviour. How am I supposed to believe you won’t bite me when you don’t have any manners?”
It waves its head in front of me, as if telling me to pet it. I roll my lips before cautiously lifting my hand toward it, all too aware that I’m risking losing the damn thing.
I’m pleasantly surprised when the horse doesn’t bite me but shoves that giant nose into my palm instead.
“Oh. You are nice, then. ”
“She likes you,” Johnny says.
I keep my attention on the horse, moving forward and reaching to stroke my palm over its neck. The muscles there are thick and strong, while the hair is soft. When the silky mane blows over my knuckles, it tickles.
“Why did you come over here?” he asks, keeping his distance.
I think I hate that more than him being too close.
“I wanted to.”
The horse releases a high-pitched noise and swings its head toward me again, bringing it so close I can see its short eyelashes.
“She really, really likes you, Rory.”
“It’s a girl?”
“You didn’t check?” he asks, sounding like he’s holding back a laugh.
I scowl. “No, I didn’t check. I was busy doing other things.”
“Yeah, darlin’. It’s a she. A beautiful she too.”
“She’s gorgeous,” I whisper, shifting my touch lower down her neck before scratching gently.
“Are you sure you’ve never even seen a horse before?”
“Never up close like this.”
He makes a low sound in his throat before offering her his hand. The traitor seems to like him as much as she supposedly does me. One sniff and she’s shoving her face toward him too.
“She likes you too, apparently,” I say bitterly.
“Joker will be jealous when she smells her on me.”
Seems Joker and I have a lot more in common than I thought.
“I can’t say that I blame her for that.”
“And why’s that, Rory?” he asks, attempting to poke into my head.
I feign nonchalance. “No reason.”
“Come on, talk to me?—”
“Ripley’s over here, Johnny,” Jill says.
I straighten my spine. “Duty calls. ”
The heat of his body is what I feel first. His breath on my ear comes next. “This conversation isn’t over.”
I refuse the shiver that tries to ripple through me and keep my eyes trained on the horse. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s right.
The moment we leave this place and he has me trapped back in that truck, I’m his to command, and we both know it.