Rein In (Willow Bay Stables #3)(27)

“I’m good, great,” I mumbled, snatching my bag off the floor. “Tea was hot.”

“All right then.” He laughed as I rushed out the back door.

I wasn’t exactly sure how Grant would react to the knowledge of where my mind often wandered during the day. He was an advocate for second chances, but how would he feel about me being Rhys’s second chance?

I didn’t dwell on it.

When the time came, I’d hold his hand in front of them all without regret. If any of them had a problem with it, they could kiss my big, fat heart.

Rhys was not someone I would be ashamed of, not ever.

I ran more than walked to the barn, my eyes scanning the parking lot hoping to see him. It was Sunday, my last day of work before going home for three days.

There had been moments when I considered asking Grant if Rhys could come with me, but I knew he couldn’t.

Not without opening a can of worms I wasn’t sure we could close.

Those weren’t the terms of his parole, and an overnight trip would cause the system to erupt in a near meltdown—Rhys’s words not mine. It would require a home check by a parole officer of my dad’s house, among other things, and I doubted it would be worth the trouble, seeing as I planned for them to meet the following weekend anyhow.

Grant was hosting the annual Equine for Hearts fundraiser a week from yesterday, and he’d invited my entire family to help celebrate with us.

Something I hoped to discuss with Rhys today when I finished working with Josh.

Speaking of, the moody teenager was sulking next to the open barn doors with his obscenely large headphones.

“Morning, Josh.” I pretended to slug him on the shoulder the way I imagined a boxing coach would do.

Something about being deliriously happy made me do some very silly things.

He looked at me, horrified. The way children looked at their mothers when they wiped something from their faces in front of their friends.

My mistake.

“Headphones.” I gestured for him to remove them, and he rolled his eyes as he slid them so they hung around his neck. “If you spent half the amount of energy on making your Sundays with me productive as you did making fun of me, our time together would go by substantially quicker for the both of us, and you might even learn something.”

My mouth closed around the last word and Josh looked just as shocked as I did for having said it.

“Okay…” He tilted his head to the side, watching me cautiously.

Huh.

“Okay.” I jerked my head in a nod and walked into the barn.

I was full of surprises today, and it was barely eight in the morning.

Looked like I wasn’t the only one.

My riding boots were placed in the middle of the aisle way, each filled to the brim with wild flowers.

“Looks like you’ve got yourself an admirer, baby girl.” Glitch whistled low, coming up to stand behind us.

If only he knew.

My heart did a small somersault.

“I’m going to put these in some water in Grant’s office.” I spun around to tell Josh, only to find him aptly paying attention to me and not begrudgingly, either.

What a very peculiar day.

“If you wouldn’t mind getting started in the back paddock, I’ll be there shortly.” I gave him a cautious smile.

He grunted and moseyed by me on the way to where the wheelbarrows were stored.

And he was back, kind of.

I picked up the boots and headed toward the small kitchen just off Grant’s office that the volunteers used. With my hands full, I used my back and butt to push open the door and screamed when I nearly fell face first into Rhys on the other side.

“You scared the living daylights out of me,” I chastised him, though there really was very little unhappiness in my tone.

I missed him constantly.

His hair was disheveled in a way that stole all my daydreams, and the hard cut of his jaw seemed to relax when he looked at me.

He didn’t say anything. Instead he took the boots with their flowers from my hands and put them on the counter. Next, his arms came around my waist, and he buried his face into my neck.

The way he did it made it seem like he felt safe there, wrapped around me.

“I miss you,” he whispered, planting a kiss on the underside of my jaw.

My hands wrapped around his middle, and I hugged him.

There was never a time a hug had felt more intimate than it did with Rhys. It was as if our bodies were anchoring to each other physically, as if we needed to do so to make it through the rest of the day.

“Me, too.” I smiled to myself, though I was sure he knew I was, too.

Rhys held me like that just a minute longer before he lifted his head and planted a kiss on my lips.

We were only twenty-five and somehow this connection we shared seemed both so young, the way first loves do, and yet so wise beyond our years.

“Meet me after dinner in the place where you first heard my voice,” he whispered against my cheek.

“Okay,” I promised.

His mouth tipped up in the corner on one side. “Will you wear the yellow dress?” he asked.

I blushed and reached out for him as he started to back away.

“I will.”

He held my hand in the air between us and bending at the waist, he left a kiss there.

Then, like a shadow at daybreak, he disappeared.