Chapter Nine #2
Ethan folded his arms on the top rail and watched.
He’d been doing a lot of that lately. Watching her. He wasn’t sure when it had stopped being about assessing her work and started being about something else entirely.
She brought Vader around and spotted him at the rail. She didn’t smile, just held his gaze for a second with those blue eyes, and something passed between them that he felt all the way down to his soul.
Then she set Vader up for another run and looked away.
He stayed at the rail. Watching. He had work to do, but he’d get to it in a minute.
As he stood there, he heard the door open and looked over to see Cole enter. He groaned. Great.
“Hey,” Cole said.
“Hey. What are you doing here?”
“Heading into town for a burger. Want to come?”
Ethan checked his watch. “Can’t. Client coming soon.”
Cole stepped up to the rail beside him and looked out at Naomi.
“She’s good.”
“Yeah, she is.” Ethan kept his eyes on her.
She spotted Cole, waved, then rode Vader over to the rail.
“Hi, Cole. Good to see you again.”
“You too, Naomi.” Cole smiled. “Hey, why don’t you bring her to Sunday dinner?”
Ethan looked at his brother like he’d grown a third eye.
“Oh, I don’t want to intrude on a family dinner,” Naomi said.
“You wouldn’t be intruding. Our parents would love to have you.” Cole looked at Ethan. “You can ask them, can’t you?”
“Sure,” Ethan said flatly.
“Well, if it’s alright with them I’d love to.” Vader shifted beneath her and she gathered her reins. “I’d better get this guy back to work before the boss gets mad.”
Ethan smirked. Cole laughed.
She rode back toward the center of the arena and Ethan turned to find his brother smiling at him.
“You’re a pain in my ass,” Ethan said.
Cole laughed. “If we waited for you to ask her she’d never get there.”
“Fuck you.”
“Come on. You’ve got it bad for her and she feels the same. What’s the problem?”
Ethan sighed. “I’ll call Mom.”
“You know she’s going to say yes. She’s been waiting for you to find someone since Claire left.”
“I know. Naomi and I are taking it slow.”
“Why? When it’s right, it’s right.”
“I guess.”
Cole was quiet for a moment. “You’re in love with her,” he said. Not teasing this time. Just saying it.
Ethan started to shake his head. Then nodded. “Yeah.”
Cole slapped him on the back. “Scary feeling, isn’t it?”
Ethan laughed despite himself. “Damn scary.”
“I’ll see you Sunday, little brother.” Cole headed for the door.
Ethan turned back to the arena. Naomi rode Vader over to the rail.
“I don’t have to go, Ethan. Cole threw that out without asking you first.”
“It’s fine. I just need to let my mom know.”
“If it’s a problem I won’t go. I don’t want to be a bother.”
“Oh, you’re a bother alright.”
She laughed. “Right back at you. Seriously though, I don’t have to go.”
“It’s fine. Really.” He stepped back from the rail. “I need to get to the house. Client’s coming.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later.”
“Damn right, you will.”
Naomi laughed.
He touched the brim of his hat and walked out of the arena.
The week settled into a rhythm he hadn’t realized he’d been missing.
He was up before five as he always was, but now there was coffee waiting when he got to the barn because Naomi was always up before him and she’d started leaving a thermos on the fence post outside Vulcan’s stall without saying anything about it.
He’d never mentioned it either. It was just there, and he’d started counting on it.
He watched her work Vader every morning and the horse was coming along faster than he’d expected.
She had a gift for reading them, knowing when to push and when to back off, and Vader was starting to show it in his times.
Johnny and Serena had noticed too, and even Rowdy, who didn’t notice much, had remarked that the black gelding was looking good.
Evenings they spent together more often than not. Sometimes at her place, sometimes at his. They’d fallen into a comfortable back and forth that felt nothing like the careful distance he’d been trying to maintain two months ago, and he’d given up trying to maintain it.
Kurt had asked about her twice more and both times Ethan had answered shortly and changed the subject.
He wasn’t going to make an issue of it unless it became one, but he also knew that Kurt wasn’t any type of threat.
He would never overstep. Everyone knew he was a softie when it came to women.
Hell, he even flirted with Ryan and Skylar when they came by.
Saturday he took her with him to The Feed Store, and she charmed everyone she met within five minutes, which didn’t surprise Ethan at all, and Sam Garrett, the sheriff of Clifton County, had pulled him aside afterward and said simply, “Don’t be an idiot about that one.”
Ethan had told him to mind his own business. Sam had laughed and gone back outside.
Life was good. He hadn’t said it out loud, but he felt it, solid and quiet.
He should have known it wouldn’t stay that way.
****
Naomi changed three times before Ethan knocked.
She finally settled on a pale-yellow blouse and dark jeans, her brown boots, her hair down. Simple. She wasn’t trying too hard.
“You look beautiful,” he said when she opened the door.
“You say that every time.”
“Because it’s true every time.” He offered his arm, she took it, and they walked down the stairs to his truck.
The drive to his parents’ place took about ten minutes, winding through the property along a road she hadn’t been on before. The cottonwoods along either side were starting to turn at the edges, the first hint of fall coming in despite the lingering summer heat.
“Are you nervous?” he asked.
“A little.”
“Don’t be. They already like you.”
“They met me once at the wedding reception.”
“My mother has talked about you several times since then. Trust me, she likes you.”
That helped more than she expected.
The Harrison ranch, his parents’ place, was bigger than she’d expected, a sprawling log home that sat back from the road behind a row of old cottonwoods. Ethan pulled up and cut the engine.
“You’re quiet,” he said.
“I’m fine.”