Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
BOOKER
R eece had been quiet since the town meeting and the confrontation with her ex. I knew it wasn’t easy for her to see him again, and it was harder still for her to stand up to him in front of the whole town.
Honestly, I didn’t think that guy could get away with showing his face anywhere around Willowbrook again. I wouldn’t be the only one who wanted to show him what I thought of a man who preyed on a woman like that. He definitely wouldn’t be getting his claws into the town by trying to buy his way in, that was for sure.
But there was something that was worrying me. Reece had bluffed with something she didn’t have, and if he called that bluff, I didn’t know what he’d do if we couldn’t follow through. The only person I could think of turning to for help was the last person I wanted to go to.
I’d do it for her, though. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for her.
“How is she?” Xander asked as he stood at my side in front of the window I’d been watching her through for the last ten minutes.
“I have absolutely no idea,” I admitted.
We’d brought the mare out onto the sandy training ring this morning so she could have some time out in the sun. The skinny little thing was doing well. She was into a normal feeding routine and finally putting on weight like she was supposed to. Partially because of the sheer amount of treats that Reece kept sneaking to her, but it wouldn’t do her any harm. The mare deserved to be spoiled after everything she’d been through.
“I need to go and see Dad,” I told Xander.
He nodded quietly, watching Reece talk to the horse outside with Val sitting at her feet like a sentry. “If there’s anything to dig up, he’ll have someone who can do it,” he told me.
I’d confided in the guys last night about everything I knew about the Camden situation and everything we didn’t have to protect Reece if he ever came back.
“Stay with her. If she asks, I’m going into town,” I told him, turning to leave, but Xander’s hand came to my shoulder to stop me.
“First, you can’t actually think I’m about to let you drive with that thing on your arm. Second, it’s already done. Spend some time with your lady, Booker. Trust us to have your back.”
I blinked in surprise. I knew Xander hadn’t gone to our father because he hadn’t left the ranch since we got back last night.
“Tell me Trace didn’t?—”
“There’re such things as telephones, Booker,” he said, sighing like I was the most exhausting person he knew. “I made the call. He’s looking into it already.”
I didn’t know what to say. I knew Xander hated them both just as much as I did. The problem was they hadn’t written him off yet, and that was why I was doing everything I could to keep him away from our parents. I didn’t want them to pull him back into all the bullshit that constantly seemed to circle the pair of them.
“What did he ask for in return?” I asked suspiciously.
Whatever it was, I’d get him out of it. There was no price I wouldn’t pay to keep Xander as free of the Farrington influence as I could. I wouldn’t let him get dragged back into what had broken him in the first place just to help me.
“Nothing.” I wouldn’t have believed him if he didn’t sound so surprised.
“You still shouldn’t have done it.”
“Booker, when are you going to accept that we’re on your side? You don’t always need to be the one who looks after everyone else. I’m here for you. We all are.”
I didn’t know what to say. My first reaction was to deny that I needed any help, but the closer we were all becoming, the more I could see just how untrue that really was.
The past few years had been tough. Trace had been trapped in an abusive marriage, and all I could do was watch from the sidelines and patch him up when he was finally ready to admit he needed help.
It had frustrated me more than I cared to admit, watching him try to solve all his own problems until he’d let me finally do something.
And now I was doing exactly the same thing to him and Xander.
We’d been brought up to be afraid of showing any kind of weakness. To close ourselves in and pretend there was nothing wrong in our lives at all costs. It was only now that we were grown men we were finally seeing how wrong it was to live that way.
It wasn’t easy to set aside thirty-five years of trying to do it all alone.
“Go and be with your lady,” Xander said softly when he no doubt realized I wasn’t ready to respond.
He gave my shoulder a soft push, and I went willingly. It was hell trying to stay this far away from her. Especially when we didn’t know where Camden had run off to.
My feet had barely made it to the porch steps when she turned and gave me that smile that was impossible to resist. She was like a magnet drawing me in, and it wasn’t until I was pulling Reece into my arms that it felt like all was right with the world again.
“She’s doing so much better,” Reece murmured as she leaned against my chest. “What time is Cole getting here?”
“Should be here any minute,” I told her, hoping that wasn’t true.
I wasn’t ready to burst this bubble yet, and as much as I hated sitting around and doing nothing like everyone wanted me to, I didn’t want the distraction of work right now, either.
The headaches I hadn’t admitted to were finally easing, and my head didn’t feel quite as much like it was being crushed in a vise. I was taking it as a good sign. Strangely enough, my arm was bothering me the least. It helped that Reece had decided to be the one to spread arnica gel on my bruises. It made me almost grateful for them.
“I have a good feeling about today,” she told me, her fingers absentmindedly tracing circles on my chest. “I think Cole is going to give us good news.”
I knew the news she wanted, and where I’d been reluctant to tell her there was a chance of saving the foal before, I was feeling optimistic about it all, too.
“I think we should call her Spirit,” Reece said softly, her eyes watching the little mare who was starting the explore the training ring before coming back to the fence and nibbling at Reece’s pocket.
She laughed and pulled out a chunk of apple and gave it to her.
“I like it,” I told her. “It suits her.”
I ignored the sound of Cole’s truck for as long as I could, stealing every precious second I could with Reece.
I decided I liked the vet even more when he silently climbed into the training ring and didn’t interrupt the moment we were having. But unfortunately, reality couldn’t be ignored forever, and Reece stepped forward eagerly as Cole felt at Spirit’s stomach, listening carefully with his stethoscope before continuing with a quick examination.
“Well,” he said, stepping back. “Looks like you’ll have a new addition to the ranch in about seven months.”
He turned to me with a grin on his face, and Reece jumped in the air with a whoop of joy. Even Val pranced about like an idiot, joining in on the fun. Spirit watched on silently and then went searching in Cole’s pockets for her next treat. I wasn’t even surprised when he pulled out a chunk of carrot for her.
“Seven months?” I hated being the downer of the group, but someone had to warn Reece the fight wasn’t over yet. “That’s going to be a small foal.”
“Yep. Looks like you’re going to have some early morning bottle feeding in your future, Booker.” He seemed far too eager for that prospect. “I’m going to have a check on Bullet, and then I’ll come back and draw some blood. I want to keep a close eye on her hormone levels for the next couple of months. She’s gaining weight nicely though,” Cole said, retrieving another treat from his pocket and slipping it to Spirit.
“That’s because she never stops eating,” I told him, not owning up to the bag of apple chunks in my pocket.
“She’s earned it,” Reece said softly.
A breeze flowed across the ranch from the fields, pulling her long blond hair away from her face as it floated around her. Reece quickly put her hand on top of her hat to stop it from blowing away and smiled as she tipped her face toward the sun.
The bruising that she’d arrived with was gone now, and so was that forced happiness she thought she was fooling me with.
In its place there was a contentment I felt deep inside as well. It came from this place, and it was what I wanted to share with the people who needed it the most.
Cole climbed through the railings on the fence and went to head toward the barn. As he passed me, he clapped me on the shoulder.
“You’re a lucky man, Booker,” he mumbled, a note of sadness in his voice.
I probably wouldn’t have noticed it before, and I turned to watch him make his way to the big barn doors.
Val looked up at me from Reece’s side. “Go on then,” I told her, and she trotted after him.
I was so conflicted over how I’d been before Reece had come into my life. There was a part of me that was almost ashamed of how blind I’d been to the people around me. But I was doing what I needed to get through the day. It was almost like I’d merely been surviving, waiting until Reece could come along and show me what it was like to actually live.
“You look sad,” Reece said as she slipped an arm around my waist.
I looked down at the woman who had filled in all the cracks in my heart and smiled. They came so much easier now that I couldn’t imagine getting through a day trying to hide behind the scowls and muttered curses like I used to.
“I’m not,” I reassured her. “I think I might actually be happy.”
She squeezed me tight. “Me too.”
“Come on. Let’s check in on Bullet.”
We meandered over to the barn, Reece tucked under my arm, enjoying the morning in a way that I’d never even noticed before. The sun warmed my skin, and the gentle breeze brought the smell of grass over the yard.
It would be time to cut the empty pastures soon. Maybe take a trip down to one of the livestock auctions and bring in some new horses for the ranch. We needed some working horses, especially with Bullet out of commission.
Cole was already on the way out by the time we reached the door. Bullet was more of a wait-and-see case for the next few days, anyway. There wasn’t much we could do for him apart from managing any pain and monitoring the leg that he’d injured.
“He’s a fighter, that one,” Cole said, shaking his head. “I think he’s got his eye on your little mare.” He nodded toward Spirit, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Aww, a budding horsey romance,” Reece gushed. “How’s he doing?”
“Surprisingly well. Did he go down at all last night?”
“Nah, I kept an eye on him with the cameras, and he was up and moving about quite a bit, which makes sense now,” I said, looking over at Spirit, who was prancing in the sand and looking happy to be outside.
“Cameras?” Reece looked confused as she spoke, and I realized how it might seem that I’d never told her about it before.
“There’s a camera in the foaling stable which is the one Bullet’s in,” I explained. “Helps to keep an eye on the mares when we know they’re imminently about to drop.”
“That makes sense,” she nodded. “Are you still wanting to have some put in around the ranch now?”
“This is because of the trouble you’ve had?” Cole asked.
He nodded at my arm. The story would be all over town by now, and after the town meeting last night, everyone knew exactly who the problem was. It was probably a good thing. If there was one thing Willowbrook was good at, it was being in everybody’s business, and there was no way Camden could move through town with no one noticing him now.
“Mm-hmm. Plus, with the new business plans, it will help with the liability insurance.”
Cole smirked, giving a little half-shrug as he did. “I’m so glad you brought that up,” he said, trying to sound casual. “All these people and horses coming on board, sounds like you might need a resident vet.”
I laughed. I had actually been meaning to talk to Cole about this but had never gotten around to it.
“Yeah, know anyone good?”
He tried to look offended, but we’d known each other for too long for him to even slightly get away with it. “I know a guy. Oof, he’s expensive though.”
“I’m sure we can work something out.”
We walked Cole over to his truck, and he loaded his supplies into the back. “Email me some details, and we can see what we can work out,” he offered. “The practice is quiet at the moment. I can put the time in now. It’s actually perfect timing because I want to bring in a trainee next year so I can maybe get a night off once in a while.”
Cole was the only vet in the area now. Most of them had moved on over the last few years. Thankfully, he was also one of the best I’d ever worked with, so it worked out well for me.
I hadn’t realized how much the town had slowly been losing over the years. The domino effect of the economy slowing down was leaching into every business around, and we needed a lot of them to sustain just the local population. We should have done this years ago. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if the delay in my father’s actions was down to him trying to turn a bigger profit.
I wanted to think better of my father than that, but he’d never really given me a reason to.
Hopefully, we weren’t past the point of no return, but I had a feeling that things wouldn’t pick up quickly enough for some businesses around here to survive.
“If things get too slow, come and talk to me,” I told Cole. “I don’t want to lose you if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“Awww, you getting attached to me, Booker?” Cole asked.
Reece sniggered, and I just shrugged. “What can I say? It’s hard to find a good vet nowadays.”
“Damn right, it is.” Cole shook my hand and climbed into his truck before leaning out the window. “Thanks, Booker. It means a lot.”
“No worries. You got much else on for today?” I asked.
I knew I was fishing for information, but I wanted to know if he was close to packing up the practice.
“Just heading over to the Barrett place.” Cole’s mouth snapped shut and then he half shrugged like it was no big deal as he fired up the truck. “See you around, Booker. Reece.”
Reece waved goodbye to Cole, and I watched in confusion as he drove up the driveway.
“Trace and Delaney don’t have any animals on the farm,” I said.
Reece looked up at me and laughed. “Nope.”
She grinned like she knew something I didn’t as we turned back to the house.
“Come on. Let’s grab some lunch,” Reece said, changing the subject.
I made it three steps before I couldn’t take it anymore.
“I don’t get it. Tell me what you know,” I demanded.
Reece laughed again, and I could see she was thinking about teasing me and withholding information.
It was time for the big guns.
“If you tell me, baby, I’ll do that thing on page 187 you want to do.”
“Have you even read page 187 yet?” Reece asked, slipping out of my grip and skipping ahead of me. “You might not like it.”
Damn, I was pretty sure there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t like to do to her. It must have shown on my face because her breath hitched, and she gnawed on her lip as she got that look in her eye that meant I was about to be a very lucky man.
“Fine,” she sighed. “Cole’s interest doesn’t lie solely in animals, you know? And there’s a certain single someone who hasn’t moved out yet with beautiful pink hair.”
My face wrinkled in confusion because, of course, I knew who she was talking about. Poor Cole. He had no idea what he was getting himself into.
“Cole and Blake?”
“Blake and whoever she wants, I’m guessing. Have you not noticed the distinct lack of single ladies a certain age around here? Money isn’t the only thing Willowbrook needs to bring into town.”
She wasn’t wrong there. Now I really felt sorry for Cole. It was desperate times if he was willing to put up with someone like Blake.
I shuddered at the thought.
She’d better not scare my vet out of town.