24. That Time I Rode More Than Just Horses #2
The stars glittered overhead as we pulled into the ranch driveway, the truck’s headlights sweeping across the familiar buildings. I hadn’t said much on the drive back, just watched the dark landscape roll past my window, feeling the weight of being reduced to a viral joke pressing against my chest.
How was this going to affect my teaching career? People on the internet were a bit unhinged at times, which concerned me.
Reid opened the passenger door for me, and I hopped out of the truck. The cool night air brushed against my cheeks, a welcome reprieve from the stuffiness of my thoughts during the drive.
“I don’t think I’m ready to go inside yet.” I glanced toward the house where I could easily hide away in Reid’s room and lick my wounds.
Reid’s hand found mine, his fingers intertwining with my own. “Come on.” He guided me toward the back of the truck, lowering the tailgate.
The metal creaked as he hoisted himself up and extended his hand to help me. I settled next to him, and Kellan hopped up beside me, his shoulder pressed against mine. Enzo leaned his hip against the edge of the tailgate as he gazed up at the sky.
The night was quiet besides the soft rustle of leaves and crickets chirping in the bushes.
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the familiar ranch sounds wash over me.
In the city, silence meant emptiness, but here, quiet carried its own kind of living, breathing calm that somehow made the confusion I’d been carrying feel smaller.
“Quinn—” Kellan started but my own words tumbled out before he could ask me what was wrong.
“I don’t want to leave.” I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to leave here. The ranch. You three.”
The silence that followed felt electric, and I rushed to fill it before I lost my nerve.
“I know it makes no sense. I know I came here as some chick who won some ridiculous contest. And then somehow, I started helping with the camp, and making stick horses with the kids, and falling into bed with all of you, which wasn’t exactly on the brochure.
” I inhaled shakily. “And then that woman tonight called me ‘the hobby horse lady’ like that’s all I am, and maybe that’s all I am to everyone else, this joke on the internet, but here.
.. with you three... I feel like me. The real me.
Not a woman cheated on by her fiancé or the viral stick horse woman or even a teacher. ”
I stared straight ahead at the dark outlines of the stables, too afraid to look at any of them as I continued.
“I don’t know what that means or how it could possibly work.” My voice grew smaller. “I’m terrified I’m assuming things. That this was just fun for all of you, and here I am making it into something bigger because I’m... because I think I’m falling for you. All of you.”
I started to move to get off the tailgate but Enzo moved in front of me, his hands landing on my thighs. “Then stay.”
“Just like that?” My voice wavered. That had been too easy.
“We have a spare bedroom you could make your own, or we could share.” Enzo brought a hand up to cup my cheek, his eyes softer than I’d ever seen them. “We can figure out the rest.”
Reid’s hand slid around my waist. “We want you here.”
Kellan bumped his shoulder against mine. “Even your stick horse.”
I laughed, feeling the knot in my chest begin to loosen. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Enzo’s thumb ran along my bottom lip. “None of us do. That’s what makes it an adventure.”
“An adventure with really good benefits.” Kellan waggled his eyebrows, and Reid reached around me to swat him.
Enzo rolled his eyes. “Besides the benefits, you could get a teaching job here or we can discuss some other options here at the ranch.”
“You’ve thought about what me staying would look like?” I swear there was dirt in my eye and I wasn’t about to start crying.
I’d been so worried that they would think I was ridiculous for wanting to stay and explore what was developing between us. It wasn’t everyday you fell for three guys at once and they all wanted us to be together.
The corner of Enzo’s mouth lifted. “Maybe.”
“We all have.” Reid’s voice was rough with honesty. “But we didn’t want to pressure you.”
My heart swelled, so full I thought it might burst. The quiet certainty in their voices, the simple way they created space for me without any grand declarations felt real.
I hadn’t come to the ranch looking for this, hadn’t even known I could want something like this.
Yet here they were, three men looking at me like I belonged, not as an outsider, a contest winner, or a temporary guest, but as someone essential to whatever this was becoming between us.
I opened my mouth to respond, but was cut off by a deafening boom that echoed across the ranch. We all jumped, the truck bed rattling beneath us as the dark sky over the ranch lit up with a firework.
“Fuck!” Kellan was already sliding off the tailgate, his face the most serious I’d ever seen it.
Another firework went off directly above the stables, showering colorful sparks down toward the buildings. Someone on the property was setting them off and it wasn’t even the Fourth of July. Even if it had been, fireworks that went off in the air were illegal in the state.
“The horses!” Reid’s voice was sharp with alarm as he leapt down.
Kellan was already running toward the source, his silhouette briefly illuminated by another burst of light.
I scrambled off the truck, nearly twisting my ankle in my haste.
I sprinted after Enzo and Reid, my mind already conjuring terrible images of panicked horses unable to escape their stalls as sparks rained down.
The peaceful moment we’d shared seconds ago shattered like glass as another burst of light illuminated the night sky.