Chapter Thirteen
T ris had been yawning since she’d gotten up, going through her regular morning routine despite the fact that it was two hours earlier than she usually got moving, especially on a weekend.
And then, belatedly in her sleepy state, it registered in her brain why she was up, and she jolted fully awake.
She had to go pick up Logan.
She grimaced as she finished with the hair dryer. She didn’t think she’d imagined the reluctance in Logan’s voice when her brother had put him on the phone to give her directions to his place. She just didn’t know exactly what caused it—an aversion to taking this trip in general, despite it being his idea, or an aversion to spending another day…with her.
She’d thought they’d gotten along very well that day in San Antonio, and even better when they’d gone to see the mustangs. Yet he’d sounded on the phone as if this were the last thing in the world he wanted to do, and she didn’t know why. She knew he liked Jeremy, and Nic was an old friend. Did he have some kind of antipathy toward Jackson? He’d spoken of him neutrally at first, then with more respect and even liking as he got to know him, especially after they’d started Thorpe Therapy Horses. At least, she thought he had.
She rinsed out her mug after her second cup of coffee, taking note of the clock and that she needed to leave in five minutes. That’s when it occurred to her, given how often she’d heard him referred to as a loner, that maybe even their little group of five felt like too much to him. She had a bit of that tendency herself, and had frequently had students like that, who did great one- on-one, but hated being on a team or in a group. If Logan was introverted by nature, this excursion with a car full of people might be something he’d normally avoid. She herself would have second thoughts if it wasn’t family.
Or maybe he just didn’t want to make this trip again, period. It was going to be a very long day, after all. And she gathered from what Jackson had said that he’d kind of gotten roped into it by Jeremy.
Now that would fit, that he would agree to this simply to not disappoint the boy. In which case they would all just have to see to it that he had a good time. Despite himself, if necessary. She’d have to tell Jeremy to make sure and direct all his questions—and he would have them, he always did—to Logan, since he knew the most about where they were going. Even if she herself had spent some time reading up on their destinations.
Jackson had wanted to leave by six since it was indeed going to be a long day. Logan said his place was about halfway between town and the Baylor ranch, but a fifteen-minute drive off the main road, the Hickory Creek Spur, so she calculated she’d need the regular twenty minutes it took to get to the ranch plus a half hour to get to Logan’s and then back to the spur. Add an extra ten minutes just in case, plus another ten for them to all get loaded up in Jackson’s vehicle, and she was headed out of her driveway into the pitch-dark of 4:50AM. As before, Logan hadn’t been happy about her trekking out here in the dark, but Jackson was a hard man to say no to.
He’d told her there was no road sign since his place wasn’t officially on a road. It was in essence a very, very long driveway, he’d said rather wryly. But after five minutes of negotiating the rough-textured gravel drive in the dark of predawn, without seeing a single building or light even in the distance, she was beginning to wonder if she’d found the right turnoff. He’d said there was a big oak tree right at the corner, and she’d seen one, but maybe there were others? He’d said his place was kind of isolated, but this was a bit extreme.
She was about to stop and go for her phone when the drive made a fairly sharp right turn and began to climb slightly. And she realized she’d been looking at road level when she should have been looking up. Because at the top of the rise was a rectangular building with a couple of large, lighted windows and a long covered porch that appeared to run the length of the front.
She let out a relieved breath and finished the turn. She saw the now familiar truck parked in a covered port next to what looked like a large workshop of sorts, several yards to the right of the house. She wasn’t quite sure where to stop, but the driveway, as he called it, seemed to run from where she was all the way to the workshop, so she simply stopped in front of the short flight of stairs that went up to the porch.
Almost as soon as she did the lights in the house went out, plunging everything into darkness. It took a moment before her eyes adjusted and she could see the tall figure on the porch, just in time to see him reach out to test the doorknob. Then he was down the steps before she even came to a full stop, and she had the strangest feeling he wanted to be sure there was no reason for her to come inside.
That thought almost made her smile. Did he live in bachelor messiness, was the place so untidy he didn’t want her to see it? She found it hard to believe that he lived that way, and even harder to believe that he’d care if she saw it if he did. Because she wouldn’t care. It was his home; he could live however he wanted.
Maybe he just doesn’t want you in his space.
That, she decided, was much more likely. He hadn’t wanted to be in her space, either, that day he’d come to her place.
And then he was at the passenger door, pulling it open and sliding his lean, strong frame into the seat. She hadn’t moved the seat from when he’d sat there before, even though it felt a little odd to have so much foot room over there.
“You found it. Obviously.”
“It was questionable there for a minute or two,” she admitted.
That seemed to break the ice and she relaxed a little. At least, as much as she could with this rather spectacular specimen of manhood sitting so close.
“You weren’t kidding when you said your place was a little isolated.”
“I like it that way.”
He said it as if he’d had to explain it a hundred times before. And maybe he had.
“The quiet? Or the lack of close neighbors?”
“Yes.”
“Quiet it is, then,” she said, stung a little by the short, flat answer. She wasn’t exactly a morning person anyway. She didn’t need to add forcing conversation on someone who clearly didn’t want it.
She heard him let out a breath. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m a little…”
His voice trailed away. She gave him a sideways glance but couldn’t see much in the darkness, plus she didn’t dare take her eyes off the drive ahead for more than a second, at least until they were back on an actual road. So she took a guess.
“My brother said you pretty much got roped into this by Jeremy. Thank you for not saying no to him.”
She could almost feel him looking at her now. And this time he let out a low, short chuckle. “He’s hard to say no to. Especially when I remember how he was when they first came here.”
That he’d noticed, and cared enough to let this happen today, made her throat a little tight. “And he was already markedly better than he’d been back in L.A.”
“That I can believe,” Logan said dryly.
She smiled wryly, unable to argue that point because she felt the same way. “It was hard for my brother to walk away, but…”
“Jackson will be there for anything that boy genuinely wants.”
“Yes,” she said, somehow not surprised that he knew that about her brother. “He’ll never forget what it was like when Jeremy wasn’t…here. When he was so lost.”
He studied her for a moment. “Nor will you, I suspect.”
She didn’t try to deny it. “No. I love that child, and it was hell to see him like that.”
“And made you relive a little of your own hell?”
The question—asked in a softer, gentler tone—startled her. Enough that she answered honestly, instead of brushing it off. “Yes.”
“Sometimes the only thing that gets you through that is knowing that someone else really knows how you feel. And Jeremy knows you know, so you’re helping him.”
She liked the way he’d put that. Then another thought struck her as she remembered just who he was. What she’d seen him do with one of the particularly nervous horses on Nic’s—well, and Jackson’s now too—ranch.
Making sure there was a smile on her face now she asked, “Is this how you do it? The horses, I mean? You somehow get through to them that you know how they feel?”
She counted his startled look as a victory, because she doubted this man was taken aback very often. Then, slowly, he smiled back, and it was a lovely one.
“In a way, yes.”
“I’d love to see that at work sometime.” She went on before he could react. “Anyway, thank you. I know this is probably not how you wanted to spend the next fifteen or sixteen hours.”
She was certain she could feel his gaze now. And his voice had changed somehow when he spoke, gotten a little rougher.
“I can think of worse ways.”
She had to take in a breath to steady herself. “So can I.”
They were at the big oak tree now, and she made the turn back into civilization. The moment she thought it, she wondered at the oddness of the thought. True, his place was a bit out of the way, but it wasn’t actually remote. Last Stand was only about five miles away. It was simply that there was nothing else around it that made his home feel so isolated. Even the Baylor ranch had multiple barns and outbuildings in addition to the main house, plus the place that Jackson and Nic had made their own, which made it feel more…populated somehow.
She herself had always needed more quiet and alone time than David ever had. He had been much more gregarious and thrived on large gatherings, while she had looked upon them as something to get through. She could talk to people, and be outgoing and friendly, but afterward she needed time to recharge, while David had always been energized by the same process that drained her. It had taken him some time to understand this, and it had been one of the roughest spots in their mostly smooth marriage.
She had the feeling Logan Fox already understood. And the fact that she had thought that in conjunction with her memories of her husband rattled her to the core. So much that they made the rest of the drive in silence.
If Jeremy was sleepy, being roused at this early hour, it certainly didn’t show. He was so excited he fairly buzzed with it, hurling himself at her for a hug, and then grabbing Logan’s hand to lead him over to Jackson’s waiting SUV.
“Nic’s gonna drive at first, then you when we get there,” the boy explained.
“Got it all worked out, huh?” Logan said, making no effort to free himself from the boy’s grasp.
“Yep! So Dad and Nic start in front, then you and Aunt Tris.” He grinned. “Dad says I’m in charge of the back seat. That means I’m the boss there.”
“Yes, sir,” Logan said. Her nephew’s grin widened, and she could have hugged both of them.
It wasn’t until that heartwarming emotion ebbed a little that she wondered why the boy had made the assumption that she and Logan would always be sitting together no matter who was driving.