Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
W hat an idiot. For the rest of the day, when he wasn’t actively in conversation with someone, Adam cursed himself for mentioning the kid thing to Tracy. What the hell was he thinking?
He hadn’t been thinking, that was the crux of it. He’d become comfortable being with her again and he’d fallen into old habits, such as telling her whatever was on his mind.
But mentioning his sudden interest in having kids was beyond inappropriate. What would he do next, mention that he’d pictured having them with her?
That was a perfectly logical thought process since they were currently having sex, but he needed to keep that image to himself. He shouldn’t have told her his fantasy about running away to have as much sex as they wanted, either.
Just because he could talk with her so easily didn’t mean he could blab about any old thing. He hadn’t actually asked if she’d thought about having kids with him, but he’d come damn close.
When he texted her the details of the online meeting with the environmental groups he stuck to the topic at hand. He so needed to spend a couple of hours with Luis and get his head on straight.
The construction crew would be at dinner tonight along with the adorable Jodi, but he’d discussed the renovations with them over lunch, so his presence wasn’t required. He made his apologies to Angie, Kendall and Kieran, got another hug from Jodi, and texted his brother.
He offered a pizza from town along with a cold six-pack. He kept a couple of insulated bags in his truck for just such a purpose. Luis was all for it and said he’d supply the beer and make a fire.
Fragrant cedar smoke drifted from the casita’s chimney as Adam climbed out of his truck and retrieved the pizza from the passenger seat. How long would it be before the aroma of a fire wouldn’t remind him of Tracy?
Luis had moved into Carmen’s little dun-colored home. The design resembled the mini-hacienda Mila and Claudette shared, but the casitas, one built for Carmen and the other for Ezzie, only had two bedrooms and a smaller front patio. The aunties had specifically requested a scaled-down version so they’d have less to clean.
When his dad had built them, he’d made a special trip south of the border and returned with a trailer full of light fixtures, cabinet hardware and hand-painted sinks. He’d outfitted the kitchens with retro appliances. Carmen and Ezzie had been thrilled, and now Luis and Xavier were extremely grateful for a chance to live in them.
Luckily Rio didn’t envy them for having the casitas. Auntie Kat’s two-story ski lodge suited him much better. Her crystal chandeliers, high ceilings and winding staircase had captured his imagination from the time he was a toddler. When he’d been told he could live in her house, he’d thought he’d died and gone to heaven.
Luis met him at the door and relieved him of the pizza. “Thanks for suggesting this, hermano. After all the excitement of the adoption promo I’m ready for a quiet night at home. I love that construction crew you hired, but?—”
“It turns into a party whenever they stay over. I know. But FYI, they’ve each adopted a horse. Kieran adopted two.” Leaving his jacket and hat on hooks near the door, he followed Luis into the kitchen.
“Hey, that’s great. I didn’t know. Claudette or Mila must have responded when those came through. I’ll show up tomorrow night to thank them.”
“It’s their last night, so I’ll be there, too. Angie said M.R. Morrison’s monthly newsletter will have a link to Hearts & Hooves’ new adoption program.”
“Cool. That bookstore project just keeps delivering dividends.” Shifting the pizza to a large platter, he grabbed napkins. “I don’t know if I’ve said this out loud, but Mom’s a different person since you launched that idea.”
“One of many reasons to do it. Dad was always coming up with projects.”
“Yeah, he was. We were stagnating, but not anymore. Wait’ll you see the latest figures. It’ll blow you away.” He nodded toward the turquoise fridge. “ Dos cerveza, por favor .”
Adam pulled out two bottles of Luis’s favorite Modelo and carried them into the living room. The beehive fireplace was identical to the one in Mila and Claudette’s house, only smaller.
A curved leather sectional faced it, along with a rough-hewn coffee table that provided a resting place for food, drinks, Luis’s laptop, and his booted feet. But he wouldn’t tolerate rings so Adam picked up two cork coasters from a pile next to the laptop.
“Before we start eating, let me show you some stats.” Luis set down the pizza and picked up his laptop. “The promo’s only been live since Friday, and this is where we are today.” He turned the laptop so Adam could see the screen.
He let out a whistle of surprise. At fifty bucks per adoption, they’d made thousands in only four days. “You’ll be able to do so much with that.”
“Tell me about it. We’ve been scrimping along with old feeders and leaky water tanks out in the meadows. Now we can actually pay Monty for his vet services and I can hire an assistant.”
“An assistant? Aren’t you the guy who works better alone?”
“I am and I do. Finding one won’t be easy, either. Not many wranglers have the patience. But that’s the point. It takes forever to get a wild horse ready for adoption and now that dad’s gone, it’s just me.” He closed the laptop and set it aside.
“Dad would want you to get help. He loved working with them.”
“Taught me all I know. Anyway, I now have a budget for hiring someone and we can start repairs on the halfway house barn before it falls down. I’m ecstatic. I just wish he could see it.”
Adam heaved a sigh. “Me, too.”
“Adoptions will taper off when the ad push is over next weekend, but Claudette and Mila have plans for maintaining momentum. Also, what you saw is gross, not net. Advertising costs come out of it, but the concept is dynamite.”
“Took a lot of work, though, getting pictures, naming them all.”
“Yeah, but it was fun, especially the naming part.” He spread a napkin over his lap and took a wedge of pizza. “It changes things, giving them a name.”
“I’m sure it does.” He picked up his beer and tipped it in Luis’s direction “Here’s to Hearts & Hooves.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Luis grabbed his beer, tapped it against Adam’s and took a long swallow. Then he settled back. “Okay, your turn.”
Adam gave him a look.
“Something’s going on with you and Trace. Isn’t that why you’re here?”
He chuckled. “Yep.” Glancing at his brother, he sorted through all the issues. “I don’t know where to start.”
“If you don’t, then I do.”
“Then go ahead.”
“You’re in love with that woman. Likely have been for years.” Luis said it so casually, the way someone would report the weather.
But the words hit him with the force of a magnitude 9.5 earthquake.
His brother gestured toward the pizza. “Have some. Chewing helps your brain work and yours doesn’t seem to be functioning very well.”
He picked up a pizza slice. Was he in love with Tracy? Sure, he loved her like a friend but that was different from?—
“It goes in your mouth.”
He bit into the pizza, which was warm and delicious, just like Tracy’s kiss. He loved kissing her, but that didn’t mean he was in love.
“I can tell this is a new concept for you. Haven’t you ever considered you might be in love with her?”
“No.” He talked with his mouth full, something he never did. This promised to be a night of firsts.
“Then let it roll around in that fevered brain of yours. Second question. Most of us can tell you’re hot for her body. Have you done anything about that?”
He nodded, finished chewing and swallowed.
“How was it?”
“Unbelievable.”
“For just you? Or for both of you?”
He stared at the fire as memories simmered like a bed of coals ready to burst into flames any second. “Both of us.”
“ Bueno . Then let’s review. You’re in love with her and the sex is great. But for some reason you’re having beer and pizza with me instead of in her apartment down on one knee begging her to marry you. Why is that?”
“Because she’s not in love with me.”
“Yes, she is. I can see it. Mom can see it.”
Should he go into Claudette’s forbidden fruit theory? Nah, he liked his reasoning better. “It’s only been a couple of months since Sean dumped her. She was expecting to marry the guy. She might think she’s in love with me, but it’s logical she’s only on the rebound from Sean.”
Luis studied him. “That’s what you’ve been telling yourself, isn’t it?”
“There’s an eighty percent chance it’s true. Maybe more like ninety percent, since this is the first time she’s been dumped.”
“You’re such a nerd. I keep forgetting that.”
“And I keep forgetting you’re such a smartass. How the hell can you tell the difference between a temporary rebound crush and the real thing?”
“She didn’t look at Sean the way she looks at you.”
“I believe that. She told me she wasn’t sexually attracted to him. Or any of the guys she was involved with.”
“Whaaaat?”
“Look, this goes nowhere.”
“Understood.” Luis put down both his pizza and his beer.
“In a way it’s funny, but it’s also sad how she picked boyfriends. They had to be nice, intelligent and neat. None of them turned her on but she didn’t care. She figured their good qualities would eventually make them sexy.”
“Good grief. How’d she come up with that?”
“Clearly she needs to be in control of a sexual situation. I think she’s convinced wild passion will cloud her judgment and she’ll make a terrible mistake.”
“She’s not wrong. It happens, but she’s so level-headed I doubt?—”
“Try and tell her that. She won’t believe you. That’s why I offered to draw up a contract before we did the deed.”
“And she died laughing?”
“Nope. We’re under contract to end this experiment at midnight on Friday.”
His brother’s eyebrows lifted. “Seriously?”
He nodded.
“Let me think about this.” Picking up his beer, Luis sipped it and gazed into the fire. “Do you want my advice?”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“You two nerds have managed to intellectualize the hell out of what’s basically a highly emotional issue but I guess that’s not surprising.”
“If there’s advice buried in that statement I can’t find it.”
“I’m getting there. When will you see her again?”
“Tomorrow afternoon at two. In her apartment.”
“Since you’re both overthinking this, it might be helpful if you break through the noise by having some of that wild sex she’s so worried about.”
“Hmm.” He certainly hadn’t done that today. Much as he’d enjoyed himself, he’d also been aware they were right above her office in the middle of downtown Mustang Valley.
“Be forceful, be bold. Give it all you’ve got, and then tell her you love her, want to marry her and make babies with her. You want that, right?”
He let that sink in and fill all the lonely places in his aching heart. “Yeah.”
“Of course you do. You’re Spence Bridger all over again. He loved kids more than he loved wild horses and that’s saying something.”
“Then what?”
“That’s up to you. In your shoes, I’d say I didn’t want to hear from her again until she had an answer.”
“What about the contract?”
“Tear it up. Right in front of her.”