30. Harmony
CHAPTER 30
Harmony
M y eyes go to the barn as Brady puts the truck in park and turns it off. Wyatt whips off his seat belt and jumps out of the truck before I get out. “Calm down,” I mutter, but he’s too far gone. He’s been wanting to ride horses since he was four, but his father refused to allow it, telling him it was dirty, and he was above that.
Now here he is with Brady, who put his hand around his shoulder as the two of them walk toward the house. “We should have called before we came,” I mumble behind them as he walks to the door and rings the bell.
“You brought her a cake and muffins,” Brady calls over his shoulder. “She’ll forgive me.”
The door opens, and Autumn stands there in her pj’s and robe. “Oh, look at this.” She opens the screen door.
“Hey,” Brady greets her. “We wanted to ride horses,” he tells her.
She smiles at Wyatt, then looks at him. “Then why are you ringing my door?” She puts her hands on her hips. “You know where the barn is.”
“She brought you a cake and muffins.” Brady points at me with the basket in my hand, and her eyes widen.
“Then let her in here.” She moves out of the way, and I just laugh as I walk into the entryway.
“We won’t keep you,” I say, holding out the basket for her. “I put a couple of things in there.”
She grabs the basket and brings the whole thing to her nose and takes a whiff. “This smells like”—she closes her eyes—“I’m going to eat it all.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Go to the barn and leave me with my cakes.” She holds the basket in her arms and shoos us from the house. “I’ll get lunch for you guys.” I don’t have a chance to tell her she shouldn’t worry about it when the door is shut behind us.
“I think she doesn’t want to share those goodies,” Wyatt whispers to Brady, making us both laugh as we walk toward the red barn.
We walk into the barn, and I look around to see all the stalls, but Emmett is sitting on a dusty desk with a clipboard in his hand. “Well, well, well,” he says, and I look him up and down, seeing him wearing jeans and a plaid button-down shirt, rolled to his elbows. “What do we have here?”
“We want to ride horses!” Wyatt exclaims, making Emmett laugh as he jumps up and down.
“Is that so?” Emmett replies at the same time Charlie comes walking into the barn with a cup of coffee in his hand. “There he is, the big man; he can help you out.”
“Hey,” Charlie says, “I just got kicked out of my house for asking what was in the basket and told to mind my own business.” I roll my lips, trying not to laugh at the expression on his face. “And told to go and take care of her favorite person in the world”—he looks at me—“which is probably you.”
“Mom wants to ride horses,” Wyatt blurts, “and me too.” He puts his hands together now.
“Is that so?” Charlie smiles at him. “Then let’s get her on a horse and you too, of course.”
“He’s never ridden before,” Brady steps forward telling him, not giving me a chance to say anything, and my heart suddenly goes into my throat as I look up at him. “So he needs?—”
“On it,” Emmett declares, getting off his desk and looking at me. “Do you want me to take care of Harmony also?” He tilts his head to the side.
“She does not,” Brady snaps, almost standing in front of me, “she’s taken care of.”
“Is that so?” Emmett grins at him, knowing he’s pushing his buttons but also enjoying it. “That’s interesting.”
“It’s about to be even more interesting,” Brady grumbles, looking at Charlie who walks between them.
“Okay, you two,” he intercedes. “Emmett, you come and fix Wyatt and get him on a horse.” Then he looks at Brady. “You simmer down there and get your woman a horse.” He looks down at Wyatt. “What color horse you want?” He walks away with Wyatt, leaving Emmett standing in front of Brady.
“The last two stalls,” Emmett instructs. “Get her on the white-and-brown horse. You can take the brown one.” He looks over at me, but Brady moves also to block him. “Careful, he bucks.”
“I got it,” he grits through clenched teeth as Emmett walks down the alleyway, where I hear Wyatt talking.
“Brady,” I hiss his name, “would you stop?”
“He was asking for it.” He tries to defend himself.
“He didn’t say anything wrong,” I say as Brady turns his eyes back to me. “He was going to get me a horse.”
“Yeah, that’s not what he wanted to get you,” Brady retorts, then bends and kisses my neck. “He wanted to give you more than that.”
I walk to him, putting my hands on his abs. “Well, I don’t want anything from anyone but you.” I get on my tippy-toes. “Now, can we go riding?”
“Yeah,” he agrees, slipping his hand in mine as we walk down the other way, away from Wyatt. “I’ll bring out the horses,” he says when he opens the stall, and he grabs the brown-and-white horse.
I take one look at her and gasp. “She’s so pretty,” I observe, looking at her name on top of the stall. “Hi, Mocha,” I say as he walks out holding her reins. We make our way outside with him holding two horses, and I see Wyatt with Charlie on the other side of the fenced area. He’s on a smaller horse while Charlie is on a black one beside him, telling him what to do.
“You good?” he asks. I put my foot in the stirrup and get on the horse and watch Brady do the same thing. I swear I moan out loud, watching his arms bulk up and then seeing him sitting on the horse. He looks over and smirks at me. “Is that right, baby?”
“Um.” I shake my head and look down, trying not to blush in front of him. “It’s just sexy,” I explain softly, my mind going to last night when he bent me over in the shower with the water raining down all over me and ate and fingered me until I cried out.
“Keep whatever you’re thinking, baby, and we’ll do it tonight.”
“How do you know what I’m thinking?” I ask, and he winks.
“Your cheeks go all red.” I put my hand to my cheek as I hear Wyatt call my name.
“Momma,” he hollers, “I’m going with Mr. Charlie to walk the perimeter!” He doesn’t even wait for me to give him permission before he leaves with him.
I take a deep breath as I look over at Brady, who just motions with his head to the side, and I follow him toward the trees. We ride side by side in the quiet of the forest, and I get lost in my thoughts about the past couple of months and what has led me here. All of the shit that I’ve been through in the past six months when all I really wanted was to get on with my life.
“You okay?” he asks, and I shrug.
“I just want to live in peace. I want to wake up and take my son to school without having to look over my shoulder. I want to be able to have a babysitter come over to my house and watch him like a normal person instead of sneaking him out of places. I want to be able to just walk down the street without anyone pointing their fingers at me. I want to live in a place for more than a couple of weeks without having to pack everything up and move again and again.” I smile at him. “How’re you doing?”
“Me?” He points at himself. “I’ve never been more at peace before,” he reveals, shocking me. “It’s as if I was living my life in black and white, and suddenly, it’s in color.” All the breath in me leaves my body, all of it. Here I was thinking, his life’s been turned upside down since I came in it, but he’s telling me the opposite.
“Brady, you don’t mean that,” I tell him, and he just looks over at me.
“Why can’t I mean that?” he asks. “I’ve spent the past ten years hating you.” I look down as fast as I can not to let him see the hurt on my face. “Not because of anything you did, but because you were associated with him. Now for the past month, I’ve been trying not to kick my own ass for doing that.” I avoid looking at him. “Baby, look at me.” His voice is soft, and all I can do is shake my head and blink away the stinging of the tears. “Harmony,” he says my name, which makes it hurt so much more, “I said look at me.”
“No,” I reply, watching my hands but then raising my head and looking ahead. Knowing he’s looking at me, knowing he’s watching me. He stops his horse from walking beside me and then calls my name again.
“Baby, I said look at me.”
“And I said no,” I retort, stopping the horse also because I have no idea where the hell I am. I mean, I’m sure if I followed the path, it would lead me back to the barn.
He moves his horse beside me, and I keep my eyes ahead until his horse is in front of mine, giving me no choice but to look at him. “I said to look at me.”
“I said no,” I repeat.
“You didn’t give me a chance to finish,” he explains, and I grip the reins in my hand even tighter.
“I don’t think there is anything more to finish.”
“I will never forgive myself for feeling that.”
“It’s fine, Brady.” I try to let him off the hook and show him how much it doesn’t bother me. “I get it.”
“What do you get?” he snaps.
“I get that I was guilty by association,” I answer. “Can we just not talk about this anymore?”
“No,” he hisses, “we are going to talk about this, goddammit, because it’s important for me to tell you how wrong I’ve been.”
“Okay, fine.” I smile at him forcefully. “You get it.”
“Not fucking fine.” His eyes bore into mine, and I tell myself not to cry. “It’s the opposite of fucking fine. I was wrong, Harmony. I was so wrong about you.”
“I guess it makes two of us,” I say, knowing what I feel for him is something I haven’t felt before. I guarded my heart for the past ten years, not letting anyone else in, and in two weeks, he’s snuck in there, and I don’t know what to do about it.
“You are not the person that I painted in my head. You are kind and generous. You are the best mom. You are loving.” He starts to fumble his words, making the sting of his words lessen but not by much. “You are funny and hardworking and Jesus you are just everything.” I can feel the tears coming but this time it’s not because he sort of hated me, but because his voice is now sounding like he’s broken. “Baby”—his voice is broken—“I’m going to make it up to you.”
“There is no need for that, Brady. You’ve done more than anyone I’ve ever known has done.” I watch the anguish on his face. “So between us, we’re even.”