Rein In (Willow Bay Stables #3)(35)

“It’ll be here before you know it.” She blew hope across my heartache, the way she always did.

I lifted my head and ran my fingers up into her hair. “Yah.”

She smiled and my world lit on fire.

“I have to go.” She shook her head.

Tilting her chin back with a small tug on the ends of her angel wings, I dropped a dozen kisses on her lips.

“Stay,” I breathed between the last two.

Her body betrayed her as I felt the weight of her frame lean into me. “I really do have to go.”

“Once more, angel,” I teased. “Just one more kiss.

“I have to go pick up the feed with Glitch.” She laughed trying to pull away from me.

I didn’t let her go.

Instead my lips found hers, harder this time, and the love I’d so recently learned I possessed dove into her heart and took ownership there.

Every kiss with her felt like the first, and as a man robbed of so many kisses, I knew the value of that.

“Wow,” she mouthed when our lips parted.

I laughed.

“I love you,” I promised her.

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed the underside of my jaw. “I love you, too.”

Each time she said it, I felt her initials carved into another piece of bone around my heart.

Marked for all eternity.

“I’ll see you later.” She winked as she started back toward the stall door.

I nodded.

And then she was gone.



My eyes checked the clock on the wall again. Almost four.

Dropping the pitchfork, I headed for Grant’s office.

“Are Aurora and Glitch back yet?” I asked a volunteer on the way. “With the hay.”

The older woman practically tripped over her own feet. I never spoke to anyone if I didn’t have to, that included the volunteers. Mostly, I just listened from the shadows, and no one really paid any mind to me at all.

“Are they?” I urged, and her eyes got wider.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

A growl rumbled up from my throat.

The length of my stride was already long given my height, but somehow I managed to walk even faster.

Reaching the door to Grant’s office, I pushed it open.

“Rhys, good afternoon—” He started talking, but I interrupted him.

“Are Aurora and Glitch back from the feed store?” I demanded.

His eyebrows pulled together and he leaned back in his chair. “I would assume so.” He looked at the clock on his desk. “It’s been almost four hours.”

“They should be back by now.” My voice was urgent and my anxiety was heightened at her absence.

Grant removed the reading glasses from his face and lifted a hand up, palm facing toward me. “Slow down, son. I’m sure everything’s just fine,” he assured me.

My feet paced the floorboards of his office, certain the heel of my motorcycle boots would be driven into the wood in a matter of minutes.

Seeming to assess my growing unease, Grant stood from his chair. “Why don’t we just go take a look and see if the one-ton is back yet?”

I nodded, lunging for the doorway.

Something dark lurked around the light in my heart.

It didn’t feel right.

Grant was quicker behind me than I gave him credit for and followed me around back where the company vehicles were stored.

I scanned the lot.

Nothing. No one-ton. They weren’t back.

“That’s odd.” Grant squinted as if somehow the motion would help the truck appear.

My lungs constricted, and I battled the break down in my chest. It was a habit of mine, the tendency to overreact, but this felt different.

“Call her,” I growled.

Grant seemed to arrive at the same conclusion as me. That there was no way it took two people four hours to pick up feed, not on a Thursday afternoon.

He pulled the cellphone from his pocket, dialed a number and then put it on speakerphone. It rang six times before her voicemail picked up.

“Hi, you’ve reached Aurora. Please leave me a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks, bye.”

“Aurora, dear. It’s Grant.” He spoke into the receiver. “We’re just a bit worried. If you could give us a call and let us know you’re all right, that would be great.”

He pressed end call and punched in another number.

It rang and a woman answered on the third ring. “Good afternoon. Westwood Feed and Tack, this is Tanya speaking. How—”

Grant cut her off. “Tanya, hi. It’s Grant over at Equine for Hearts. We had a pick up with you guys today.”

“Yes, the grain. We’ve got it ready out back anytime you want to send someone over to get it,” she said.

My heart roared in my chest.

“No one has come in to pick it up already?” he asked for clarification.

“Uhh. I don’t think so,” Tanya said. “Let me put you on hold and check real quick.”

Before either of us could stop her, the hold music came over the line.

“Nope.” Tanya smacked her lips together like she was chewing gum, and the sound rattled around in my skull. “The order’s still here. You need to add something to it?”