Rein In (Willow Bay Stables #3)(17)

“Hands.” She pointed to the sink.

I looked down at my palms, still covered in grease, and winced.

Her world had bags of sugar in pretty hands while mine had smears of black on pale skin.

Wandering to the sink behind her, I began washing my hands. Not once, not twice, but three times it took for them to be clean.

I looked to each side of me for a towel but came up empty.

Turning around, I nearly knocked her over she was standing so close.

“Here.” She passed me a hand towel.

It was suspended in the air between us as her wide eyes studied me.

My mind tripped over itself, paralyzed in its proximity to her.

She titled her head to the side, barely a fraction of an inch. Someone less caught up in her would have missed it entirely, but I didn’t.

It seemed impossible for me to ignore anything about her.

The towel dangled from her dainty hands, just far enough away that I couldn’t reach it without moving.

It felt like a dare, and my heart cowered behind my ribs like a fool.

My wet palms felt like they’d begun to sweat, and the blood pounding in my head made me dizzy.

I’d always picked truth over dare.

When I leaned forward to grab the towel, she stood up on her toes and I felt our lips touch.

Just for a second.

My soul buckled against hers, but my head screamed so loudly that my heart became deaf.

I jerked away from her, tripping over my own feet.

She didn’t seem surprised when I ran out the door.





HOME.

One of the many places my heart had found a home was in this place. I’d grown up here. I’d known triumph here, and I’d known loss here. Except as the weeks passed, I began finding it harder to leave one home for another and that seemed impossibly lucky.

I found a home nearly everywhere I’d been, while I wasn’t sure that Rhys or Glitch, even Fun Bobby or Dirt had ever felt entirely home with anyone or any place in their entire lives.

How difficult it must be to wander place to place, a nomad in your mind with a heart that’s never known a home.

“Are you okay?”

I rolled over onto my stomach and looked up at my sister through my sunglasses. We’d taken Christopher, who was now sound asleep in the shade of an apple tree, down to the lake for the day.

“Do you think everything happens for a reason?”

London’s pretty eyebrows pulled together, and she crossed her legs as she sat up on her towel. “I think sometimes it’s hard to believe that in the moment, but yah, I guess I do.” She cocked her head to the side.

Pushing my body up onto my elbows, I tilted my head to the side as I studied her. “Why do you believe it?”

She seemed to think, to settle in her own thoughts for a moment before she spoke. “Well, if I hadn’t fallen off Achilles and had to come home as a result, I wouldn’t have met Branson.”

This was true. London had been in the Olympics for dressage. She was on the fast track that led to everywhere but back home before the accident happened.

“And if I’d never met Branson”—her eyes moved to the bassinet to her right and she smiled—“then you wouldn’t have a nephew.”

I slid my sunglasses up onto my head and climbed up so I was kneeling on my towel. “So you think that if someone goes through hell in their life, it’s for a reason?”

My sister’s eyes came back to me and she studied my face. “Is this about your new job?”

“Yes.” I sighed.

Pursing her lips, she considered my question.

“I think there are bad people in this world, Aurora,” she said. “I think there are people with ugly hearts out there and some of those bad people, they will live a life that looks a lot like hell because they want to, they choose to.”

My heart sank a little.

“But sometimes, in all that filth, there are good people who do bad things for reasons justified by their hearts.” She reached forward and rested her hand on my knee. “And I choose to believe that those people did so for a reason that maybe I will never understand, but that those people, they aren’t beyond redemption.”

I felt a lump grow in my throat.

“I think there’s something special about the people whose hearts have seen rock bottom,” I whispered.

Squeezing my knee, she smiled. “And that’s what makes you so special.”

I leaned forward on my knees and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

Every relationship, including that between siblings, had times where one person would be able to give more than the other, and in this moment, my sister gave more to me than I was able to give back.

The afternoon seemed to go by quickly after that. We took Christopher in the water in between his naps, and I devoured nearly an entire watermelon without any help from London, but now I was slowly drifting in and out of sleep.

“Aurora.”

I opened my eyes and saw Wells standing at the end of my towel.

“Hi, London.” He dipped his chin in the direction of my sister.

She twisted her head to look at him. “Hey, Wells.”

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” His gaze flitted down my outstretched body.

Pushing up onto my elbows from my back, I shook my head slowly. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”