Goddamn this sweet, tough brother of mine.
“Well he hasn’t hurt me. And even if he did, I would still have a working relationship with him, too, at least until Ramona’s training is done.”
“Are you sure you’d be okay with it?” Bodhi looked contemplative.
“Bodhi, I can admit I got hurt really fucking bad once. But that’s the risk people take with relationships. I know you don’t feel things the same way most of us do when it comes to romance but trust me when I tell you I’d be fine. The important thing is that your business gets off the ground with the best support possible. Carter knows his shit, okay? So give him a call or catch him when he comes over next time.”
Bodhi exhaled and rolled his shoulders in a motion that distinctly reminded me of a horse shaking off tension. “Okay. I can do that.”
He got to his feet and somewhat uncharacteristically walked over to the bed, then bent to give me a hug. I squeezed him backand didn’t ask what this was about, because I had a feeling he wouldn’t explain.
“Good night,” he said when he let go.
“Night, Bo.”
He smiled at the old nickname, nodded, and left the room.
The next handful of days became hectic with training. A client of mine was moving to another state and wanted his gelding, Snoopy, ready to travel in two weeks’ time. To pull that off, I had to shuffle things around a little, and all my concentration went to work. I couldn’t rush the horse, but I could up the training sessions to try and maximize the amount we got done before the owner came to pick him up.
I worked from early in the morning until late in the night, training horses and writing down details and forging new connections and doing all the things I needed to do to keep things running. While I did have a lot of work to do on any given day and kept busy, having a strict deadline was different. That rarely happened, and it tended to throw me off a little bit, thus exhaustion.
Gemma took on some tasks for me as usual to balance things out, but I just didn’t have the energy to do anything other than work.
Then one evening, I was coming down the steps from my office, and Carter was standing there, leaning on a wall.
“Oh, hey,” I said stupidly, running on fumes.
I stumbled on the last step, and with a speed that I didn’t know he possessed, Carter was there to catch me.
“Easy, baby,” he murmured as he waited for me to get my feet to work again.
For a moment, I let myself take comfort in his arms. I swayed into him, leaning against his chest as my hands went inside his jacket.
He squeezed me closer, saying nothing, but he didn’t need to. I felt him in my bones, somehow.
“I know you said you’re really busy, but you’re dead on your feet, Hawk.” There was only concern in his tone, so I didn’t get annoyed.
“It’s not for much longer.” Then I realized the time and pulled back to look at him. “Why are you here so late? Did something happen?” A brief flash of panic flared up behind all the exhaustion.
“I helped out at the stock barn for a couple of hours, and then I ran across Russ and we got to talking. He needed help with fixing a window at his cabin so I volunteered. Well, maybe he needed help less than he wanted company.” He smiled in a way that told me he’d had a good time with Russ, and that made me feel all sorts of things. “Then we ended up having coffee and chatting for a while. Lost track of time. Thought I’d come check on you since he said you looked tired at lunch.”
I had looked tired then. Hell, if I hadn’t thought my mom would call me or show up herself to deliver lunch, I wouldn’t have gone at all to save the energy. That was probably exactly why it was better that I’d gone anyway.
“I just need a good night’s sleep.”
His handsome face got serious. “You haven’t been sleeping well?”
“No, it’s fine. Happens sometimes. It’s not insomnia, it’s just a quality of sleep thing.” I shrugged. I’d had it on and off since puberty.
“Okay, well I also have a question for you. Actually two. Or three.” He looked a bit hesitant suddenly, which was odd.
“Shoot.”
“My assistant, Marielle and her wife Elisa are coming to visit for a couple of weeks starting Friday. They’re staying in my guestroom for most of their vacation.”
“Okay…?” My tired brain tried to keep up with the information.
“I was wondering if it would be okay to bring them here to see Ramona?” he asked hesitantly, almost like he expected me to say no for some reason.
