Chapter 26
Scotty
Rosa noses my shoulder impatiently, warm breath puffing against my T-shirt.
“Easy girl, I’m getting to both of you.” I reach over, giving her nose a reassuring rub as I finish brushing Priscilla.
But my attention turns toward the sound of someone driving up to the bar, the headlights cutting across the bar.
The engine cuts, the door opens as the lights cut.
She steps out, her long legs wrapped in tight jeans.
My cock takes attention immediately, but then I see the expression on her face.
There’s something in the set of her shoulders that isn’t her usual strut. Still, she smiles when she sees me.
“Hey,” I say, as I walk toward her.
“Hey,” she echoes, arms outstretched toward me. I welcome her, wrapping my arms around her and dipping my head to kiss the tops of hers. Her fingers hook in my shirt like she needs the anchor, and that twist in my chest gets tighter.
“What are you doing here?” I ask when I pull back, thumb brushing her cheekbone. “Thought you were stuck at family dinner.”
“It ended early.” She looks past me toward the barn, then back, chin up like she’s daring me to argue. “I wanted to see you. And the girls.”
The girls. I huff a laugh. I love that she loves them just as much as I. “They’ve been acting like divas all evening.” I tip my head toward the barn. “Come on, they’ll be thrilled to see you.”
We walk side by side into the warm dim of the barn, footsteps soft on packed dirt. The mares lift their heads in tandem like they recognize their favorite person. Adrienne’s whole face softens as she reaches Rosa first, palm to the velvet of her nose.
“Hi, pretty girl.” Her voice goes low, tender. Rosa leans into her hand, nuzzling gently.
Priscilla pushes her big chest against the stall door for attention, and Adrienne laughs, “I see you, big mama.” I watch her for a beat, the way she moves, the way her shoulders drop when she’s around animals. She fits here. Maybe more than I do.
“Traitors. Pretty sure they’d sell me in a heartbeat if it meant more time with you.”
“Oh, that’s not true,” Adrienne says, turning around to look at me. She’s more relaxed than when she stepped out of her car a few minutes ago, but there’s still that stiffness under her smile.
“You okay?” I ask it plain. No hedging. I’m done swallowing questions and making assumptions about things. That’s gotten me into enough trouble with her.
She keeps her attention on Rosa, stroking the mare’s forehead. “Yeah.”
I don’t buy it. “Adrienne.”
Her hand pauses. She glances at me, then away, like the truth might bite if she looks it dead on. “Can we take the girls out?” she asks instead. “Just a loop along the creek. I’ll…we can talk then.”
That old instinct to say sure and let the rest rot in my gut flares up. I push against it. “We can talk right here.”
“I know.” She sets her jaw a little, that stubborn line I’ve always liked when it’s aimed at anyone but me. “I need the ride first. Please.”
I study her. The words she isn’t saying are loud as hell. She needs this, and I need to swallow my doubt and let her explain things in her own time. “Okay,” I say finally, nodding once. “Saddles it is.”
We move without tripping over each other. I grab pads and leather; she’s already got halters, leads clipped clean. We’ve done this dance with horses since we were kids. Memories of us and her brothers sneaking our horses out in the middle of the night to go ride.
“You tighten that like you think I’m made of glass,” she says, a hint of teasing lightening the mood. “I haven’t forgotten how to ride a horse. I won’t slip.”
“You break a nail and I’ll never hear the end of it from Dolly,” I deadpan.
She snorts. “You already don’t hear the end of it from Dolly.”
“Fair.” I swing Rosa’s reins over and step close to adjust Adrienne’s stirrup on Priscilla.
“Thank you,” she says softly.
“For what?”
“For not asking again.” Her gaze flicks to mine. “For waiting a minute and letting me think for a few first.”
My throat goes tight. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart. You’ve got all night.”
“Good.”
At the edge of the yard, she turns to Priscilla, and for a beat, we just sit there facing each other in the hush. Her hair moves in the light breeze. There’s a line between her brows that wasn’t there this afternoon.
“Adrienne,” I say, because I can’t help it. “Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”
Her mouth trembles, almost a smile. “That’s what my mom says.”
“Smart woman.”
“She is.” She nudges Priscilla forward, then looks back at me over her shoulder, eyes shining a little more than the moonlight can explain. “Come on, cowboy. Ride with me.”
I click my tongue, Rosa steps out, and the barn falls behind us. The creek’s a silver ribbon ahead, the girls already picking up the pace when they see it.
I keep close enough that our knees brush now and then.
I don’t reach for her hand. Not yet. I give her space, hoping that she’ll say the thing that’s sitting heavy in her chest. And if it’s what I think it is, if it’s that I’m not the man her dad wants, then I’ll have to decide how I’m going to handle it.
We ride side by side, the soft jingle of tack the only sound between us. I give her time. Every few feet, her lips part like she’s about to say something, then she closes them again. I can almost see the words forming, dying, starting again.
Finally, she exhales. “My dad doesn’t approve.”
Just like that, the night tilts. I keep my eyes ahead, watching Rosa’s ears flick forward. “Of what?”
Her voice is small but steady. “Us. Me choosing us.”
The single word lands heavily. Us. My grip on the reins tightens. “Did he say that?”
She nods once, then shakes her head, frustrated. “Not directly. But he doesn’t have to. You know my dad, he talks in half-sentences and expectations.”
I know Hudson Slade. I’ve worked beside him, fixed his trucks, and eaten at his table more times than I can count. He’s always been polite, even kind. But yeah, I know what’s between the lines when a man like that looks at a guy like me sniffing around his daughter.
“And what exactly did he expect you to do?” I ask, voice rougher than I mean it to be.
Adrienne sighs, adjusting her grip on the reins. “He thinks I’m… distracted. That I’m losing focus. That this”—she gestures between us—“isn’t serious. That I'm throwing away this amazing opportunity in L.A. because I’m settling here. At least, that’s what I gather from him.”
I hear what she doesn’t say: He doesn’t think you’re enough.
The words crawl under my skin, burn low in my chest. It’s always been an insecurity on my part, being best friends with the sons of billionaires.
I didn’t fall in line like the rest of the guys in this town, didn’t get a job at Slade Brewery, even when I was handed one by Hudson himself.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t appreciative of the offer; it’s just that it wasn’t what I wanted to do.
I liked cars, loved them. I’ve known that since I was young, and I wanted to follow that passion, so I did.
I guess I thought a man like Hudson Slade would admire that in a man… I guess not.
I stare out across the creek, the moon glinting off the water like shards of glass. “So it’s about me.”
She turns her head sharply. “No. It’s about him. His ideas of who I should be with, how my life should look. My brothers do the same thing, only louder. It’s like they see me as the little sister, even though I came out first.”
“Yeah, but they don’t have the final say.”
Her laugh is humorless. “Tell that to them.” She shifts in her saddle, exhaling hard. She keeps talking, voice softer now. “He asked me tonight if I’d really turned down L.A., " Axel told him.”
My jaw flexes. “Of course he did.”
She nods, eyes flicking toward me. “He asked me why. And I told him the truth, that it wasn’t what I wanted.”
“That’s good,” I say, even though my pulse is drumming.
She hesitates. “My mom says it’s because I’m his little girl and he’s worried. I get that, I do but I’m also not a little girl anymore. I’m a grown woman, and I’ve earned the right to go after what I want. I have done everything that was expected of me and more, and now I get to choose.”
“Hey,” I reach my hand out and grab hers, “It’s gonna be okay. Your mom is right, he’s just struggling with change, that's all. I’m sure he sees his little girl settling down with a man of your caliber.”
“Is that what we’re doing?” She smiles, “settling down?” She has that cute, flirty glint in her eye.
We ride the rest of the loop in silence, the night pressing close. By the time we get back to the barn, the sky’s gone darker, stars crowding the horizon. We move together in silence, unsaddling, brushing down the mares.
When she turns to hang the halter, I step behind her, hands finding her hips. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
She leans back against me for a second, then nods. “Yeah. I just… needed to say it out loud.”
I press a kiss to her shoulder, breathing her in. “Thank you for telling me.”
She turns, arms slipping around my neck. “I can’t stay. I’ve got that meeting in Denver in the morning.”
I nod, even though I hate it. “Text me when you get there, okay?”
“I will.”
I cup her jaw, brushing my thumb across her cheekbone. “I love you.”
Her lips part on a shaky breath, her smile growing wide. “I love you too.”
I kiss her for several minutes. When we finally pull apart, she steps back, whispering, “Goodnight, Scotty.”
“Night, sweetheart.”
I stand in the barn doorway as she drives away, her headlights fading into the dark. When it’s quiet again, I look up at the stars. I tell myself it’s fine. That she loves me, that love should be enough. But I know before I even head inside, there’s no way I’ll sleep tonight.
The house is too quiet when I close up the barn. I wash my hands at the kitchen sink until the water runs cold and the soap smell replaces the smell of horses. Doesn’t help. The silence presses in anyway.