Chapter Sixteen
“Easier said than done,” Telford muttered.
“What is?” Ayana took her mark, holding the axe that Riley had used. She pumped it experimentally. Her eyes narrowed at the target. “Don’t you dare move that closer than it was for Telford.”
A tall, dark-haired man with hair past his shoulders named Cross raised both hands up and stepped away from the targets.
Another man, Huck, one of Rohan Telford’s former army buddies and now business partners looked at Ayana. “Yes, ma’am. Ready?”
She held up a finger. “What’s easier said than done?” she challenged Telford.
“Ahhh.” He looked embarrassed.
She grinned. She was doing fantastic on the challenges so far. They were well matched and Telford’s outdoor fitness pleasantly surprised her. She’d imagined him more of a gym rat running on a treadmill while listening to a financial podcast and pumping weights with his trainer.
“This,” he said, his cheeks a little pink and he made a spastic motion to indicate the couples cheering on and shouting advice on her axe throwing. “Belonging.”
The noise and the energy tunneled, and she looked at Telford. He had made this morning possible for her, for them. He was a closed-off man, who’d let her into his life. That alone felt like a miracle. And now he was giving her a family, friends, a place where they could belong and build something.
And he can take it all away.
It felt like the late morning autumn sun dimmed, and she suddenly felt chilly.
Telford had been the first man who’d treated her like she was his equal, his partner, like her opinion and feelings mattered.
He’d made love to her like she was cherished.
Watching him bring her to orgasm in the mirror had been the most erotic thing she could imagine.
Several times she’d teared up with the intense emotion of their lovemaking—so much more than physical.
She’d loved every moment. The alarm bells should be ringing, but instead for the first time she felt hope. Maybe her life could be different. Full. No running.
“You seem like a natural in the woods.” Ayana struggled to pull herself back from the emotional brink of wanting their marriage to be real.
“Really?” He seemed pleased.
“Kiss for good luck,” she said impulsively and lowered the axe to kiss his cheek.
More cheers rang out, reminding her that not only were they not alone, but she was also up for her three attempts to axe-throw, which sounded primally satisfying.
“You don’t need luck. Just good hand-eye and strength—all of which you have.”
She bit back a smile. So Telford. Again, she practiced the warm-up swing and sighted the target. She imagined the Family—not that she’d axe them a la Lizzie Borden style—but more she wanted to rip up the repressive control she’d chafed against.
“Ready.” She definitely was.
“Clear,” Huck shouted.
Keeping her eye on the target—a rule in every athletic endeavor and life really—Ayana brought her arm up a little higher, cocked her wrist, angled back, and whooshed her arm forward, snapping her wrist.
The axe buried into the target close to center.
Cheers rang out and a few good-natured jokes about Telford not forgetting to empty the dishwasher or avoiding dog poop patrol in the backyard.
She laughed. They didn’t have a house or a dog, but maybe someday they would.
A life with security. A family that cared and rooted for you instead of crushing who you were.
A man who loved and listened and supported her dreams.
Her wishful thoughts should scare the hell out of her.
Telford ran to the target, wiggled out the axe, watched as Huck wrote down the score, and then he carried the axe back to her.
“Just like that,” he said, smiling, almost boyishly, and the glimmer in his eyes and the hint of a dimple she’d never once seen before had her catching her breath and staring at him stupidly.
“Easier said than done,” she said and winked, trying to break the spell he was effortlessly weaving around her suddenly susceptible heart.
She drew in a deep breath, bounced to her toes to settle, and then sighted the target, trying and failing to clear her mind.
The morning had been fun. They’d ziplined.
Played a spirited game of capture the flag, had tag-team raced through an obstacle course, where she and Telford had been hooked together and timed, and done rock climbing.
While the challenges had never felt remotely like a survival test, each one had been creative and fun and had revealed that Telford was a keen problem solver and team oriented.
Today had given her a glimpse of how they would work together.
He analyzed and proceeded the most logical course whereas she had often seen solutions differently, and yet Telford had listened and several times agreed and changed course.
No criticism. No demeaning. And when she’d continued to roll off a wide-mouthed tunnel instead of being able to get over it, he’d climbed inside and had used a rocking momentum to carry her to the top and hadn’t teased her or complained about the delay—and at the end, they’d received extra points for teamwork and innovation.
“Ready?” Huck called out as she sighted the target.
That was a loaded question. But she’d once told Telford to think of their days as a married couple as a form of improv. So ready or not, she was on stage, and it was her turn, and she was also going to do her best to turn their improv into a life together.
“Ready.”
“Clear.”
I want this.
Ayana let the axe fly and watched, thrilled, as it buried deep in the center of the target.
*
“Of course, I know how to ride.”
Telford didn’t dial down the tension in his voice, and Cash gave him a hard second look.
“It’s not a …” Cash waved his hand. “Neither of us had a chance to live on the family ranch. I wasn’t flexing or judging.
I didn’t learn to ride until I was sixteen and caught a job at a ranch that also bred bulls and broncs and hosted a rodeo training school.
I worked hard, and the ranch hands gave me a shot. ”
Telford paused in his perusal of the horse and looked at Cash, who lounged with deceptive ease, arms crossed, legs crossed, and leaning against the corral gate.
“I was an apartment townie off and on and then housed in group homes in Casper until I busted out and took control of my life,” Cash added, clearly an invitation to share.
Telford looked away from the sincerity burning in his brother’s eyes. They’d finished the morning challenges and were now at the stables to ride out and picnic on the ranch.
Ayana chatted with Piper and Lane as they walked down a different aisle in the barn discussing horses and probably a lot of other things that women talked about so effortlessly.
He forced his shoulders to relax. It was anathema to him to share.
But he had started to trust Ayana. And if he wanted to have a connection with his half-brother, who already had adoption papers filed to adopt their half-sister, Bronte, then he’d have to start to trust Cash.
Let his guard down so they could be in each other’s lives.
But how?
Ayana made it look so easy with her direct questions and steady gaze that saw through him. She listened, didn’t judge, and instinctively knew when to push or not.
“It’s been too long,” Telford confessed.
“I’ve been based in Denver nearly half my life so I could have taken the opportunity to ride—plenty of ranches, but I trail-ran, hiked, boulder-scrambled, and kayaked in the mountains instead.
I think the thought of riding horses felt too painful.
I thought horses would remind me of losing my mom so young. ”
“She was a good mom?” Cash asked curiously.
“She was …” He thought back to his eight-year-old self, his younger-than-that self.
“She was always interested in me, treated me like I mattered. She was disciplined. Exacting. She worked hard, and wanted me to do the same, be a man of my word.” He wondered if he should bring up their bio dad—his ambush, and yet the morning had had a magical quality and now the ride—it was a family moment.
He didn’t want to share it with that loser.
“I lost her violently and too soon and have spent years running from the memories.” With a shaky hand he touched the horse he’d chosen.
Cash was quiet. His attention, his intense blue gaze didn’t relent.
“And now you can reclaim the parts of your life you’ve boxed away. Today’s the day, brother,” Cash said without missing a beat.
They saddled the horses; Cash and Boone watched him to see if he needed help.
He didn’t. The steps, the movements, the equipment were seared into his memory.
The horse, named River, definitely took his measure as much as the Telfords did.
He stood close to the horse, talking softly about nothing, really.
Admitting it had been a long time for him, and Cash snorted.
“Not like you’re at Grey’s admitting you’re a virgin since a two-year-ago divorce before a one-night stand.”
“This is a literal saddle you’re climbing back up into.” Boone high-fived Cash.
“Still in high school?” Telford muttered, but despite being a little embarrassed, he had to fight the urge to smile.
He’d never had easy camaraderie with men.
He’d been the youngest on many of the construction crews when he and Cam had first started building their business, and he’d had a lot to prove to Cam and the men.
Then his job became mostly cerebral and in the background—research, crunching numbers, strategizing.
A hazy outline of how his life could be different tantalized him.
Instinctively, he looked over River’s back to find Ayana watching him. Maddy was filming them saddling up. Riley and Petal, Witt’s daughter, who was also Cash’s sister—and his—led several horses out into the arena for Maddy and Ayana to choose one to ride.