Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
TUCKER
Since my father’s official retirement as owner of Juniper Grove, I’d been busier than flies on shit.
Getting everything transitioned over smoothly while trying to coordinate our next roster for live covers, organizing when mares from outside facilities could come for their covers, and setting up the shows we’d be presenting this year’s foals at was taking up all my time.
The shift from foreman to owner wasn’t supposed to be all that difficult, given my father had slowly been handing things over, but the timing of it all was hardly ideal with how the last birth of the season went and things with Jackson.
Add in the fact I hadn’t made the time to set up a proper office before all of this, and it was safe to say I was feeling sufficiently overwhelmed.
Thankfully, though, Granger was a rockstar under pressure, and he’d swooped in to help manage some admin things, all while keeping the rest of the farm running like a well-oiled machine. It’d helped me make the time to finally find a space of my own that’d become my office.
My father had offered his old one, but it’d been inside the farmhouse and the thought of waking up every day to go work out of my childhood home just felt wrong.
It’d made sense for my dad, but I knew I’d feel better if I was somewhere more central, which was how I’d ended up clearing out one of the unused storage rooms in the main barn.
It didn’t hurt that it was just down the hall from Poe’s stall, either.
I had just gotten the place all set up, looking somewhat like an office with a desk and a few chairs when my parents had dropped by with boxes upon boxes of paperwork.
They contained an assortment of stuff that I would need such as vendor contact information, racing fees, and lineage maps along with a bunch of things I didn’t need mixed in.
It was going to take me forever to sort through it all, and with everything going on, it’d fallen low on my to-do list.
I was sitting in my office midweek, going over an inventory and expense list my father had sent me when a knock sounded at my door.
“Come in!” I called, not looking away from my computer monitor until a familiar head poked in from the hallway.
“Got a minute?” Granger asked, coming in anyway and plopping down into one of the chairs set up before my desk.
“Depends,” I huffed good-naturedly, raising an eyebrow at him with a small smirk on my lips.
“If you’re going to take advantage of me having an office just so you can corner me into listening to you whine about your issues with that bartender at Wagner’s, I have all of about two seconds before I’m cutting you off. ”
Granger threw his hands up in the air, leaning back in his seat.
“I’m telling you, that guy is a certified ass!
I made one lousy comment about the drinks tasting watered down one time and the man has short served me ever since.
I know you think I’m crazy, but I’ve watched him pour my drinks and those pours are real fucking quick, Tuck.
Plus I’m never hungover on the nights he’s behind the bar, even if I’m drinking the same amount. The evidence speaks for itself, man!”
I let out a low chuckle, crossing my arms as I rested back against my chair as well. “Two seconds,” I reminded him, knowing full well Granger had intentionally made that comment thinking the bartender would top him off for free, only for the guy to see right through him.
He flapped his hand, making an annoyed sound before he moved on. “He’s not why I’m here. I wanted to talk with you about Jackson.”
“What about Jackson?” I asked, my heart flipping around inside my chest at just the sound of his name.
“What are your plans for his contract?”
For a second, it took my brain a moment to catch up to Granger’s words, and I blinked at him blankly as he waited.
“His contract?” I finally managed.
He nodded slowly, taking his hat off to run a hand through his permanently unruly hair. “It ends in the next few months, so if you’re wanting to take him on for something more permanent, that’d be nice to know. Otherwise, we’re going to have to consider finding a replacement.”
“Replacement?” I nearly croaked, dread tiptoeing along my nerves like a spider in its web. Jackson had always been vocal from the moment he arrived that he wanted to stay here at Juniper Grove, so why the fuck was Granger asking about a replacement for him? “Has he said something to you?”
Granger shook his head quickly. “No, he hasn’t said anything.
I know y’all are together, but work is work, and I just wanted to be prepared.
We managed without Raleigh for a long time, but it was a lot for everyone.
With Jackson in the picture, the workload has been more evenly distributed, and the guys have been able to actually take time away from the farm to do the things they need.
Weston is planning on getting surgery at the end of the year to help with his snoring, and Dudd wants to spend more time with his daughter since she’s going to start middle school.
Mack is considering starting some online classes in the fall.
So all that say, if we don’t renew his contract, we’d need to hire someone else. ”
“No.” The word fell from my lips almost immediately after Granger stopped talking, the thought of Jackson leaving and someone else taking his place was too much for me to put any real thought into.
“We don’t need to hire anyone else. I’ll get something drawn up for a permanent position.
Just… give me a few days to get through Dad’s retirement party and some of the covers. ”
His shoulders relaxed at my words, and he let out a relieved breath. “That’s good to hear.”
“What’s going on, Granger? Where did this come from?”
He glanced away, licking at his teeth before he responded. “He’s been a little off, is all. But that could be for a number of reasons. I just…” Granger let out a small sigh. “If there was something going on with y’all, I didn’t want you to be bottling it up and letting it get to you.”
My stomach plummeted at his words. Things hadn’t exactly been easy on the farm here recently, and Jackson had been there for me through both the good and bad of it.
He’d been a rock and safe place in the storm of changes.
But something had been off. I’d thought his smile seemed a little too hollow around the edges, and more than once I’d caught him staring with a far-off look in eyes, but I’d brushed it off.
Clearly, I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed it, though.
“Things are good with y’all, right?” Granger asked slowly.
Immediately my brain took me back to the evening Jackson had shown me his tattoo, walking him out to his truck after the intense connection we’d shared and watching the pain stain over every bright light in his features. I’d tried like hell to kiss it away, but it hadn’t been enough.
Everything had happened so quickly—one minute he was showing me the permanent claim he’d etched into his skin, the next I’d been on my knees for him. But I also knew deep down it never would have progressed that way if we’d gone to the bedroom.
How could I bring the man I was falling for back to a bed I still woke up in expecting to see Raleigh’s face in the morning?
It wasn’t fair to anyone, least of all Jackson.
And maybe I should have explained it, but it’d seemed like he’d understood without me having to spell anything out, and I’d needed that easy way out when I’d been so emotionally split open afterward.
I’d been honest when I said I didn’t regret taking that step with Jackson.
The sex had been fucking incredible, and there hadn’t been a single moment where guilt had snagged at my heart or I’d had to bring myself back to the present.
I’d been there with Jackson, one hundred percent through, and it felt fucking liberating.
But that didn’t mean that the connection we’d shared hadn’t been one of the more vulnerable moments of my life.
That whole experience had been altering in a way I couldn’t properly describe.
It’d been like a shroud had been pulled from my eyes, and now the world was back in stark, blinding clarity again.
It was jarring and wonderful and more than I could have ever imagined.
Colors felt brighter, more vibrant, and after I’d had time to really process everything, Jackson felt like a drug I couldn’t stop going back for.
Every time we’d been in proximity within the last few days, that same connection popped and sizzled inside of me.
But Jackson had seemed just as enthusiastic for it, hadn’t he?
“I thought so,” I said truthfully. “But maybe I should talk with him.”
Granger bobbed his head up and down. “I think that’d be a good idea.”
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I checked the time before asking, “Where is he at today?” It was just a little after ten in the morning.
“He’s tending to the front pastures the bachelor herd uses. I imagine he’ll come in for lunch since he won’t be too far out.”
I chewed my lower lip, trying to decide my next move.
Would it be better to talk once he was back for lunch and risk having the conversation cut short for work or could I wait until later?
We’d have more time to speak after dinner, even if I would have to deal with the sinking feeling in my gut till then. Mind made up, I let out a low sigh.
“Thanks for coming to me. I’ll talk with him tonight,” I told Granger, and he took that as the signal it was, standing from his chair.
“Like I told you, I’m behind you one hundred percent.”
Giving him a grunt that I hoped sounded grateful, I turned back to the expense reports as he slipped from the room.