Rein In (Willow Bay Stables #3)(31)

I didn’t care.

The little girl, Ryley, shook her head. “How can you be scared of color?”

“Well, it’s very bright,” I told her.

Unsatisfied with my answer, she crossed her arms over her chest. “So?”

“Sometimes if you spend too long in the dark, you forget how pretty the light can be.” I was starting to feel a little silly, but her eyes seemed to follow me, and I hoped that was a good sign.

“Maybe you should leave the dark then.” She nodded definitively, and I laughed.

My eyes tilted up to see Aurora smiling down at us. “I’m trying,” I told her.

Ryley seemed to be okay with that and took off running toward what looked like a cake table.

I stood up and forced myself to smile at the people still watching me so closely.

“I’m Rayne, by the way.” The woman with hair like the girl’s smiled. “This cowboy’s better half,” she said, gesturing to Aurora’s brother.

The corners of my mouth tipped up. She was funny, like her daughter.

Something about my interaction with the two of them made me feel more at ease.

Grant approached from behind and slapped me on the shoulder in the way men seemed to do to each other at gatherings like this. Or at least I suspected they did, I’d only ever seen it on TV or read about it in books.

“I see you’ve met Rhys.” He dipped his chin in the direction of Aurora’s father.

Larry nodded.

“He’s a fine young man,” Grant praised, and it radiated through my soul. “We’re real proud of his work here.”

Never had a man praised me, not once in my entire life.

My too-loose suit suddenly felt tight, and I couldn’t breathe.

I needed her but I was too afraid to touch her after what he’d said.

“Did you say you needed to use the bathroom?” Aurora lied.

She could read me well and she knew I needed her.

“Might as well kiss her here, son.” Grant laughed and my pulse, which was running at Mach ten, came to a skidding halt.

I looked at Aurora and she shook her head.

“Oh, please.” Grant rolled his eyes. “The two of you in love are about as subtle as a freight train”

Love.

The group around us burst out laughing, but I was sure my stomach was somewhere on the ground next to my feet.

My nerves grew a mind of their own and my stomach rolled in circles.

Love.

He knew.

All this time and he knew and didn’t care.

Love.

I felt Aurora’s arms slide around my waist, and instantly the clutter in my head cleared.

I was in love with her.

“Thank you, Grant.” She smiled at him.

He winked at her and then looked at me. “I’ll still bury you out back if you give her any trouble.”

I nodded. It was all I could manage.

I was a lucky bastard.

Her dad stepped forward, and I felt his hand curl around my left shoulder. “We all got a past, kid,” he drawled. “You hurt her, and I’ll help him do the diggin’, though. We clear?”

“Uh, yes, sir,” I answered him.

He tapped me twice where his hand had just been. “Right, let’s get us some eatin’ then.”

With that, her family walked away and left us standing there.

“That went well.” Aurora rested her chin on my chest.

I raised my eyebrows at her.

“Okay, fine.” She laughed. “Well-ish?”

I nodded. “Well-ish.”

I could settle for well-ish.





“SHHH,” I WHISPERED, TUGGING HIM behind me down the hallway.

Rhys glanced behind him, eyes a wreck with anxiety. “I don’t know if we should.”

“It’ll be fine.” I smiled. “Come on.”

He reluctantly allowed me to pull him through the doorway to my bedroom.

I let his hand slip from mine so I could close the door behind us and heard him moving around in the space.

Turning around, I leaned back on the door and watched him.

The palm of his left hand smoothed over the duvet, and his eyes flicked up toward the large, gray window.

He looked so out of place here, even in his suit. Like there was something about the very blood in his veins that bucked at the idea of belonging to this place. I could understand that. Grant’s home was lavish, and Rhys had lived a life so opposed to such grandeur that I wasn’t sure he even really recognized its influence in our society.

A good man like Grant or my sister’s husband, with the kind of money they had, could make a difference in our world. That wasn’t the kind of power Rhys understood. He knew only the heavy hand of manipulation and the underbelly of a motorcycle club that took advantage of his youth.

Despite the horrors he’d undergone as a result of his decision to walk away, it would, to this day, be his greatest accomplishment. I wouldn’t want to live in a world where someone burned through his beautiful heart and left his soul corrupt.

His fingers drew lines in the light on the windowsill as he watched the fundraiser still in full swing below us.

The black suit hung loose on his body, the telltale sign that it was too big for him, but it didn’t matter to me. He was still, hands down, the most handsome man my eyes had ever had the pleasure of falling on. The black hair on his head was still a wild mess, as per usual, and when his features hit the evening light just right, you could see his heart on his sleeve.