Chapter 37
JULES
One Month Later
“ H e doesn’t need us anymore,” she sniffed, throwing her bottom lip out in a pout.
A warm laugh rumbled in response. “That’s a good thing,” Riley reminded her, snaking an arm around her waist.
They stood like that, wrapped up together, at the edge of the pasture. It was a cool morning, the dew from the grass shimmering on their boots. The first hints of summer’s end.
Before them, Lucky fell into place with the rest of the herd. He had put on weight over the last few months, filling out while simultaneously growing taller. He was healthy, and the sight of him so well acclimated to the other horses made her heart soar.
Despite the ache from the separation that she was feeling.
In all her horsemanship classes, she was warned about not letting a foal get too attached to the human handler.
She received constant reminders that foals don’t stay cute and little forever.
That was certainly obvious to her—but the reminders were to help her start setting healthy boundaries with the young animals.
Because cute foal behavior isn’t cute when they are grown.
So, she and Riley had set their boundaries while still nursing Lucky back to health. They had prepared for this. But a part of her liked to be needed by the little guy.
“Isn’t it great how he goes right up to Cinnamon now?” Riley asked, nudging his chin into the crook of her neck.
“ Yes ,” she conceded, dragging the word out on a stubborn hiss.
She was rewarded with another rumbling laugh.
They were in a pasture out a ways from the stables, trying to keep a buffer between the animals and the hustle and bustle of construction. The new barn for the wild’s rehabilitation center was being erected, and not a moment too soon.
Lucky wasn’t their only wild horse. As soon as the papers were signed, i’s dotted and t’s crossed, Brett put out word about the new expansion—and Riley reached out to Red up at Blue Sky Sanctuary personally.
The whole community, Red especially, were thrilled by the news, and it took only a week for Riley’s old mentor to call them up.
A horse was brought to him with more medical needs than he could accommodate at his property, but it was just the thing Hayes Wilds could specialize in.
Jules peered over Riley’s shoulder at the mare Red called about.
She was still in her quarantine stage, cloistered away in a separate pasture.
Her black coat was getting a shine to it again, currently glowing in the sunlight.
Queen Etta, grazed calmly, all the while stealing glances at the herd across the way.
They had named her after Etta, Queen of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s Wild Bunch.
And Jules had a feeling that she would live up to the title.
“Think she’ll do okay too?”
Riley’s mustache tickled her cheek as he brushed a kiss across it. “We’ll make sure of it.”
She turned to face him, looping her arms around his neck.
There was a confident glint in his blue-green eyes as they held her focus.
There was no doubt in his mind, and after spending all energy running from her doubts, there was none in hers either.
She trusted him, more than she had ever trusted anyone, maybe.
Tipping her chin up, Jules brought her lips to his. She savored the taste of coffee and cinnamon on his mouth, strong and spicy and sweet. The perfect combination, same as Sundance and his wild thing.
“Hey!” Grey’s voice carried from where he parked his truck on the other side of the gate. “Get in.”
“Where we headed?” Riley asked, taking her hand in his and starting towards their team lead.
Piercing blue eyes sparkled in the morning sun. “You two just got another mustang.”
Her eyes bounced from Grey to Riley, her heart kicking up. Another horse.
Throwing open the passenger side door for her, Riley grinned ear to ear. “Ready for another one, wild thing?”
“Absolutely.”
She climbed up into the seat as he moved around to the back row of the cab. When he slipped in and leaned forward onto the center console, Grey continued. “This one is a colt, definitely older than a year. And he’s got fire to him.”
“I love him already,” she smiled.
Nearing the compound, she spotted Brett standing beside a silver horse trailer. He crossed his arms as they reached him, an eyebrow quirking up.
“You’ll have fun with this guy,” he greeted them.
“Where’d he come from?”
“Bought at a mustang auction after a round up. Then the owner realized he was nowhere near skilled enough to train him. He tried to return him,” Brett ended with a snort of disapproval.
They had heard of this more than once. Someone thinking they can get a horse for cheap—maybe glamorizing the idea of owning a true piece of the wild west. But when they realized they were in over their head, the horse was the one that suffered.
Jules’s heart kicked once again. This is why they were here to help, and there was nowhere else she would rather be.
She turned off the water, reaching for a towel as she stepped onto the plush bath mat. The steam from the shower fogged the mirror over, save for the faded residue of a lipstick kiss. That outline remained clear.
Quickly dabbing her hair dry, she threw on her should’ve been a cowgirl sweatshirt and flared leggings. Throwing open the door, Jules was greeted by a deliciously savory smell drifting through the air. She followed it through the cabin, crossing the bedroom into the living room.
From there, she could see into the kitchen where Riley was lighting two ivory taper candles.
Around the candles, flower petals scattered the table.
And behind him, a row of black, fancy take out containers lining the kitchen counter.
She recognized the restaurant containers from Sterling Vineyards, the familiarity of the smell suddenly dawning on her.
He’d gotten her favorite meal from the winery.
“What’s the occasion?” she breathed, stepping through the archway of the kitchen.
Glancing up from candles, the corner of his mouth twitched. “I may have done some snooping.”
“On what?”
“You.”
A surprised laugh escaped her as Jules leaned against the kitchen counter. “How so?”
“ Well ,” Riley drawled, putting down the lighter and closing the distance between them. He settled his hands on her waist and tugged her flush against him. “I went looking for the exact date you were originally supposed to leave. When the Argentina trip was first planned for.”
She blinked up at him. “It was probably right about now,” Jules realized aloud.
“Yesterday, actually.”
He dropped a kiss to the tip of her nose, his hands skating up her sides. When her brow pinched in confusion, his smile tipped higher.
“I wanted to celebrate the first official day you were here past what was originally planned. And that’s today.
Today is the day you were supposed to be gone from my life again, a day I would have spent holed up with my misery.
But instead, I get to hold you in my arms and tell you how much I love you, and how happy I am that you stayed. ”
A giggle escaped her as he nipped at her lips. She cupped his jaw in both hands, pulling him into a long, breathless kiss. She poured all her love for him into it, sinking deeper under the wave of bliss that crushed her.
Pulling back, she opened her eyes to lock onto his molten gaze.
“Are you sure you made the right choice?” he asked, a nervous edge catching the end of the question.
“I’ve never been surer of anything in my life. I love you, and our wild bunch.”