A naked break.
Grinning, I strip out of my clothes and quietly make my way down the hall to where Lake is pacing in the kitchen.
“I hear you, Beau, but I think Reid is right about tearing up that back field and starting a new crop of trees.”
“Hey Lake?” I say sweetly.
“Hold on, Pen, I—” he starts as he looks over his shoulder at me, his eyes widening when he sees me standing naked with a hand on my hip. “Beau, I’ll talk to you later, gotta go.”
Stabbing his finger at the screen, Lake throws the phone behind him before closing the distance between us and scooping me into his arms.
“I could have waited,” I say innocently.
“Not a chance in hell,” he murmurs against my lips as he carries me down the hall, making me sigh against his lips becausethisis what I was missing and it makes all the difference in the world.
26
LAKE
“You’re gonna do great,” I murmur to Pen, squeezing her hand as I take my seat at the conference room table in the lodge a week later. It’s a room we almost never use, but this is important, and we need the space.
When Pen told my father she’d drafted a formal proposal for the sanctuary, he’d all but hired her on the spot. Still, she held firm, instead asking for a chance to prove she’d be an asset to the project.
He agreed.
Now, standing in the front of the room, her posture is relaxed—confident—as my siblings file in, followed by Reid and Harlan and my parents.
“All right, Pen, show us what you’ve got,” my father says once everyone is settled, and I send up a silent prayer—not that she needs it.
Pen smiles radiantly as she maps out what she believes will be the most successful plan for the sanctuary over the next five years. She explained some of this to me at the house, but watching her animatedly lay everything out there is something else entirely.
Harlan asks questions as she talks, focusing on other successful sanctuaries in the state and where our efforts would be best spent for immediate action in rescuing horses. Pen has an answer for everything, and I watch my father’s smile grow as he leans back in his chair and listens.
I know he has questions of his own, but for now he’s trusting the process and the two people who will effectively run the sanctuary—a passion project he’d been wanting to put into action.
He just needed the right people.
And undoubtedly, he’s found them.
We toastedto Pen and Harlan at the lodge before my parents excused themselves and the rest of us headed into town to the Range Bar and Grill for a celebratory dinner and drinks. Harlan and Pen had stopped talking long enough to order a beer before returning to their conversation again.
“I didn’t know he could talk that much,” Jesse says as he nods at Beau. The remark earns a laugh from the rest of us and a scowl from Reid. Harlan subtly flips us off which earns another round of laughter.
“To Pen and her kick-ass presentation, and to the dynamic duo that she and Harlan will be making the Sterling Horse Sanctuary a reality,” Wren exclaims, holding up her beer and downing half of it after everyone clinks glasses.
“Rough day?” Beau asks and she nods.
“My boss is an ass, and I hope someone breaks into his house and steals only the spoons.”
Jesse squints at her. “What?” he asks before looking around. “Did anyone understand that?”
“She wants him to be annoyed forever by the inconvenience,” Pen replies and Wren nods.
“That. Seriously, how pissed would you be if you went to eat cereal and didn’t have a spoon?”
“Remind me to take your key back,” Jesse mutters and then yelps when she pinches the backside of his arm.
“Oh holy shit,” Wren says, waving her phone at us. “You’re never going to believe who’s in Wintervale.”
