We paused at the barn door. “Glad Adonis is okay. Let me know if anything changes, okay?”
“You got it.”
Becca looked like she was going to ask me another question, but I waved and jogged toward my truck before she could even open her mouth.
I needed to get to Shannon’s. I’d missed her this past week and after this appointment with Becca, I was desperately in need of spending time with someone I actually cared about. I paused at that thought. It was true. I did care about Shannon. She was a balm on a stormy day, and I was glad to be away from tropical storm Becca.
TWENTY-SEVEN
DECLAN
Sitting outside on the porch with Shannon wasn’t helping to air out the tension between us. I’d asked her three times if anything was wrong and she swore she was fine, but everything about her, from the way she barely pecked me on the cheek at my arrival to her short answers, made it clear she was pissed at me.
“Let’s just get it out there.” I finally sighed after another failed attempt to spark a conversation with her. “You’re upset with me.”
Shannon picked up the pace in her rocking chair. “You were doing your job. How could I be mad at you for that?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking. It wasn’t like I stood you up to go party on my own. It was work, Shannon.”
“But it wasBecca,” she yelled back before I’d barely finished speaking, and I had to fight to keep from flinching. I knew Becca wasn’t her favorite person, but I hadn’t realized her dislike of the other woman was so extreme.
“She’s a client who needed me for an emergency.”
Shannon pulled a face. “And was it an emergency? Really?”
She clearly knew who she was dealing with.
“Just a sprain,” I admitted. “But it was her new prize stallion, and I guess she’s worried.”
“Hold on, Becca’s gotanotherstallion in-house?” Shannon asked, her voice injured. “How many is that?”
I could see her running calculations in her head. “I’m not keeping score. Listen, Shannon, can we not talk about work now? I’m here, you’re here, the stars are out. Maybe we could watch for more shooting stars…”
She fell silent and I could feel the anger rolling off her in waves. It was like nothing I said would help her feel better about our postponed date. “What do you need me to say?” I asked. “What would make this better?”
“I don’t know,” she said simply.
“So you’re gonna stay mad at me?”
“I said I wasn’t mad!”
I managed a little smile. “Your words say one thing, but your tone says another.”
“Ugh!” Shannon jumped out of the rocking chair and stomped to the edge of the porch. “You just don’t get it, do you?”
My smile faded. “No, no, I get that there’s a rivalry between you and Becca. But you can’t put me in the middle of it. I’m just trying to do my job.”
“It’s more than a rivalry. From the day Becca moved to town, she has been out to get me.”
“It can’t be that bad. We were all kids when her parents bought Black Hat.”
Shannon threw up her hand, palm facing out to stop me. “No. What Eli and my sister had in school was a rivalry. It was all in good fun and no one ever got hurt. But Becca went out of her way to make things difficult for me. She sabotaged school projects. If there was a boy I showed any interest in, she’d flirt with him until she got them to stop talking to me. I was kicked out of school clubs because she spread rumors about me. It only got worse the older we got.”
She paced back and forth. “I’m sure it sounds like silly, harmless school yard antics, but that wasn’t how it felt. From the moment she moved to Poplar Springs, she’s gone out of her way to cause problems for me.”
She sighed and turned away from me, so I got out of the rocking chair and walked over to stand beside her.
“Listen, you’re upset, and I’m wrung out, so let’s try this instead,” I said in a low voice. “We’ll call it a night and I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.”
