Chapter 19
Nineteen
Tessa
The mare was finally quiet. I’d walked her until my knees shook, checked gut sounds twice an hour, forced water under her nose until she drank, and bedded her down with fresh straw.
She breathed evenly now, sides still damp but no longer rigid with pain.
I pressed my forehead to her shoulder, exhausted, and whispered for her not to scare me like that again.
But the truth was, it wasn’t the mare that scared me. It was the man who’d shown up the moment I needed help. The way we’d moved together without thinking, like our bodies already knew the same rhythm. The way he’d pulled me out of the mare’s path without hesitation.
The way he handled Colin was nothing short of a relief. Maybe it was enough to scare him off.
But it scared me how much trust I’d given him without thinking. It scared me most that for one breathless heartbeat, I’d almost kissed him.
I grabbed my phone without thinking, without breathing, and thumbed Dani’s name. It rang once, twice.
“Tess?”
The sound of her voice cracked straight through the last thin wall I had left. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t need to.
“I’m coming,” she said immediately.
“No, you can't, you've got a job,” I sniffled.
“I can analyze data from anywhere, you know that.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
I sank down onto the couch with a long, shaking sigh.
Everything would be fine, I told myself.
I knew what I was doing with the animals.
Other than needing Wyatt’s help to get the mare on her feet, I could’ve handled it all alone.
But as exhaustion dragged me toward sleep, the last thing I thought about was the man who’d wrapped his arm around my waist and held me so tightly against him that I could still feel the echo of it in my skin.
“Tess?” Dani shouted, already stomping through the kitchen. “Where are you?”
“Here,” I said as I rubbed my eyes.
She took one look at me, sweaty, streaked with barn dirt, eyes swollen, and her entire face changed.
“What happened to you?” Her arms were already open before she reached me, and the full-body smother hug hit a second later.
I didn’t exactly melt into her, but my knees did go weak in a way I wasn’t proud of.
She pulled back just far enough to see my face. “Tell me what happened.”
I swallowed hard. “The mare colicked.”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “Is she—”
“She’s okay. I think.”
Dani blew out a sharp breath. “Good. Okay. That’s good. Now tell me why you sound like someone peeled your soul out through your ribs.”
I tried, I really did, but when the words finally came, they came out jagged anyway. I told her how bad it was, how the mare thrashed, how I couldn’t keep her on her feet alone and panicked. “I called Wyatt Hargrove for help.”
“Oh shit.”
“Don’t,” I warned.
“No, we are absolutely talking about this. You called the man you swore you hated?”
“He was the closest person,” I snapped.
“That’s not an answer. Try again.”
“He knows horses better than I do. And I didn’t have time to be picky.”
Her expression softened in that maddening way only best friends manage. “Okay. Fair. But that still doesn’t explain why you look like you got hit by a freight train.”
I wrapped my arms around myself. “We worked well together.”
Dani froze. Her eyes widened. “Oh no.”
“Stop.”
“Oh no no no.”
“Dani,” I whined because she could read me like a book.
“You didn’t kiss him, did you?”
My face heated. “No. God no. Almost?”
She blinked slowly, knowingly, infuriatingly. “Oh my God. Did you want to kiss him?”
“No? No. No, I didn’t want to kiss him.” Even my own words sounded less than convincing. I groaned and paced the kitchen. “We were shoulder to shoulder, working together, and he looked at me like. I don’t know, like he wanted me.”
Dani’s whole body softened. “Oh, honey.”
“I don’t want him to look at me like that,” I said, my voice cracking. “I don’t want him to be steady or kind or useful or close. Or tell Colin I was his woman.” I knew I should have kept that to myself, but it just spilled out.
“Excuse me?” Dani’s eyebrows lifted so high I wondered if they were going to stop.
“I need a drink for this explanation,” I said as I walked over to the fridge and pulled out the alcohol I’d bought in town. “God, this is all a nightmare. The only good thing is I got a job, and you’re here. Wait, how long are you here?” I asked as I slid a drink across the table.
“As long as you need, I can work from anywhere.” She looked around the house. “As long as you’ve got wifi.”
“It’s probably the only bill that’s paid up,” I said with a laugh.
Then my phone buzzed on the counter, and both our heads snapped to it.
Colin.
The pit in my stomach dropped open. Dani grabbed the phone before I could.
“Absolutely not.”
“He’s probably livid, imagining me with Wyatt.”
“Let him be mad, he’s a fucking loser who fumbled everything about you.” Dani took a sip of her drink. She frowned slightly. “Hargrove Brewing?”
“He owns a brewery too, how annoying is that?” I rolled my eyes as Dani took another sip of the fancy ass beer that Wyatt makes.
“I was kind of hoping Wyatt’s talk with Colin would be the end of things, but I guess not,” I said as I picked up the phone and looked at the text that just came through.
Colin: If you’re sleeping with someone else, there’s going to be hell to pay.
Dani’s voice dropped low. “Tessa. He’s unhinged. Don’t respond, make him think that sexy cowboy is railing your brains out,” she said again, smirking.
I pressed my hands to my forehead as Dani moved closer, gentler now. “Tell me the rest.”
“There is no rest,” I said hollowly. “I’m just tired. I’m terrified. And Wyatt…” I squeezed my eyes shut. “He’s confusing.”
“You like him.”
“No.”
“You’re starting to trust him.”
“Absolutely not.”
“It’s okay that you wanted him to stay.”
I swallowed hard. “I wanted him to go,” I whispered. “Because if he stayed, I didn’t know what I was going to let happen.”
“You’re human, you’re allowed to have those kinds of feelings,” Dani said with a smile.
“I broke up with my long-term boyfriend two weeks ago, and I don’t really think I should be jumping into anything else.
” I should have added the fact that I’d moved home at the drop of a hat, and the only parent I’d ever known was gone.
This wasn’t the time to jump into bed with some man I didn’t even know.
“Live a little, Tess. We both know you’ve been mentally out of your relationship for over a year. Like, when was the last time you had lackluster sex with that asshole?” Dani reached for another can of beer and cracked it open.
“He lied to me. When he came to the city to get me, he lied to me,” I said as I slumped back in the chair and crossed my arms. The light in the center of the room buzzed gently, and the refrigerator hummed in the silence.
“He omitted the truth to protect your emotions. Sounds pretty thoughtful to me.” She shrugged.
“I can’t believe you’re on his side.”
“I’m not on his side, but I am trying to get you to see that maybe he’s not the big bad wolf you think he is.”
“Go back to the city, you’re not helping.” I pointed to the door and glared at her.
“Sorry, bestie, you’re stuck with me.” Dani laughed as she grinned at me.