by Chant, Zoe
He really had meant to make Raelynn promise on her word as a Brody, but he’d been shaken by the look of utter horror on her face when she’d thought he was going to blurt out “on your word as a shifter.”
I can’t tell Judy what I am, Waylon realized. At least, not without talking to Raelynn first.
He stood up, glancing doubtfully in the direction of the house. In his experience, no good ever came of chasing after Raelynn once she’d locked herself in the bedroom. But maybe this time would be different…
“I’m not a parent,” Judy said. “Let alone her parent. But I remember being a teenage girl, and I always appreciated some cooling-off time.”
He sat back down with a sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. It just feels like I should be there, you know?”
She put her hand on his shoulder. Her touch brought him more comfort than he’d ever imagined was possible. “I used to think taking care of a herd of rescue horses was hard. But it’s obviously nothing compared to being the parent of teenage daughter.”
“The thing is, she never used to be difficult. That is…” He hesitated, trying to figure out how to phrase it without giving away Raelynn’s secret. “There were things that were difficult for her. Things in her life that were hard.”
Judy was nodding as if she understood. Waylon suspected that she was thinking that it must be hard for Raelynn to have divorced parents and a mother who was gone most of the time. He shrugged inwardly. That was true too, even if hadn’t been what he was thinking of. He went on, “But she’s always been the sweetest, funniest, bravest, smartest girl there ever was. Still is, of course. But she never used to defy me like this.”
“How old is she?”
“Thirteen.”
“Oh, well.” Judy made a gesture as if to say that explained everything. “How was your relationship with your foster parents when you were thirteen?”
“Parents,” he corrected her. “I didn’t get fostered out till I was older.” He saw her expression, and quickly added. “They’re still alive, don’t worry. It wasn’t some horrible tragedy. Just a… complicated family thing.”
“And? How’d you get along with your parents?”
“When I was thirteen, I ran away from home and got fetched back by the scruff of my neck.” He left out the fact that the scruff of the neck part had been completely literal, as he’d still been traveling through the woods as a grizzly bear when he’d gotten caught. “But I wasn’t doing anything dangerous!”
Only because nothing can threaten a grizzly bear, his bear pointed out.
Right of top of that, Judy said incredulously, “Running away from home isn’t dangerous?”
“Well—I didn’t go very far. Anyway, I wasn’t walking right up to a wild animal that could burn me to a crisp!”
She gave him a thoughtful look. “How much have you actually seen of her interacting with that colt?”
“I’ve seen her get so close to that beast, it’s taken years off my life!”
“But what did it look like? Literally, what did you see?”
Waylon hadn’t thought about it that way before. Slowly, thinking back, he said, “Not much. I saw her standing close to that damn colt—way too close—but as soon as the colt saw me, it burst into flames and ran off.”
“I saw more,” Judy said. “I was inside the stable, inspecting it for damage, when I spotted the colt through the window. They didn’t see me. I watched Raelynn trying to tame him for fifteen minutes, at least. Maybe half an hour.”
His immediate reaction was shock and horror, but they faded when he realized that nothing had actually happened in that time. “You mean she was standing across the meadow from it, and it only came close right before I showed up?”
“No. You have to realize, I thought he was an ordinary horse that had strayed off someone’s ranch. I stood there watching for so long because what was going on was so…” She broke off, eyeing him. “Your daughter is incredibly patient for her age. And she’s wonderful with horses. You must know that.”
“I know,” said Waylon. “But—”
Judy leaned forward, intent. He could feel her body heat, and breathe in her intoxicating natural aroma, like sun-warmed grass. “Waylon, she was taming that colt. I’ve worked with horses my entire life, including some wild ones, and there wasn’t a thing I’d have done differently. She didn’t make any sudden moves that could have startled him. She never got impatient. She just stood there talking to him, offering him a carrot, coaxing him forward until he took it from her hand. You’re not going to like hearing this, but it was beautiful to watch.”
“Beautiful or not,” he said grimly. “She’s never going to try it again.”
Judy gave him a long look. He thought she might argue, but instead she said, “When I was thirteen, I was screaming at my parents and slamming my bedroom door on a daily basis. I grew out of it. So will she.”
“I sure hope so. What did you scream at them about?”
Judy laughed. “You’re not going to believe this, but they wanted me to go to more parties. My mother had been beautiful and popular in high school, and my father had been a nerd who’d been jealous of the popular kids. So they both thought the key to happiness was being the star of the social scene. I had closets of dresses I never wore and stacks of makeup I never opened, and I locked myself in my room reading books about riding while they yelled at me to go to the prom.”
“If you have to be yelled at to do something that’s supposed to be fun, then it isn’t actually fun for you,” said Waylon.
“The one time I listened to my parents and went to a party, I hated it. And that was before a guy hit on me and then threw up on my shoes.”
He shuddered. “I don’t mind cats throwing up on my shoes, but I draw the line at drunk teenagers.”
“Why did you run away from home?” Judy asked.
He poured himself some lemonade to give himself time to figure out how to explain without either lying or mentioning shifters. It wasn’t easy.
Choosing his words carefully, he said, “My family is so traditional, it wraps around to being completely weird. I was home-schooled in a log cabin that didn’t have a TV or computers, because it also didn’t have electricity. We didn’t eat anything unless we hunted it, foraged it, or grew it. This was by choice, not because we were broke. But not my choice. I had just enough exposure to other people and books to know I didn’t want to live like that. I kept running away until they finally sent me to live with some… really distant relatives.” He figured that all shifters were probably related enough in some sense for that to not be a complete lie.
“It wasn’t an official foster relationship,” he added. “I was never in the system. I call it that because it’s easier to explain without having to tell the entire story.”
Judy laid her hand over his. Her touch seemed to burn into his skin. “That sounds really rough.”
His impulse was to brush it off in the interest of sounding strong and tough, but something inside him rebelled against misleading her in any way that wasn’t directly related to bears. “It was. I didn’t want to live like some kind of… cave man… but I didn’t get out till I was fourteen, and I’m sure you can imagine what it was like for me trying to go to a city public school. I still can’t really deal with big crowds.”
She squeezed his hand, somehow conveying sympathy but not pity solely with her touch. “How’d you get to be a veterinarian for magical animals?”
Once again, he was careful to tell the truth but not all the truth. “I was already a country vet when a friend of the relatives who took me in tipped me off about La Puerta. It sounded like a dream come true, for me and Raelynn both. She was ten, all her friends either had both parents still together or were living with their moms, and…” He shrugged, hoping Judy would fill in the blanks for herself, and said, “Well, she was going through a rough time. I figured no matter what other stuff was going on in her life, if there was one thing that would take her mind off it, it would b
e a baby pegasus.”
Judy, who had looked almost angry when he’d talked about Rae’s mom leaving, gave a sigh of delight. “A baby pegasus! Is it still around? I guess it wouldn’t be a baby anymore, but…”
“Nah. The animals that come through the portal don’t belong here. We take care of them for a while, make sure any injuries they have are healed, then we send them back to where they came from. The pegasus was here for a week. We bottle fed it while we waited for the portal to open again, then we sent it back to its mama.”
“They never stay?”
“Occasionally they bond with a human, and then they won’t go back. One of the other vets I work with has a…” Waylon stopped, grinning. “Want to visit Vets For All Pets and see for yourself?”
“Absolutely!”
They carried the dishes back inside, then Waylon approached Raelynn’s door. He knocked, then called, “Rae?”
“What?!” Raelynn didn’t sound like she’d cooled off in the slightest.
“I’m taking Judy to Vets For All Pets. Want to come along?”
“I thought I was grounded!”
“You’re allowed to go places I take you to.”
There was a long pause, then she yelled, “NO!”
Waylon winced. Now came the hard part. “Can I trust you not to leave the property?”
Rae’s yell of “YES!” nearly blew down the door.
“All right, then. Call me if you need anything.” There was no reply, but he could feel her sulking like it was a dark cloud drifting out from under the door. “Bye!”
Both he and Judy let out guilty sighs of relief once they were back in his truck.
“I swear, she normally isn’t like that,” he said as he pulled out of the driveway.
“You don’t need to apologize for her,” Judy said. “I like her, even if she did nearly blow out my eardrums. And I like how you trusted her word and she trusted you to believe her.”
It had never occurred to him that he might not be able to trust Rae’s word. She’d never promised him to stay away from the hellhorse. Their fights had been about her refusal to do so, not about her saying one thing and doing another. She might be stubborn, but she never lied.
“I want to be a better parent to Rae than my parents were to me. It wasn’t only how they lived. They held me back too much. They didn’t trust me. They overprotected me, thinking it was for my own good.” Hearing his own words, Waylon turned to Judy. “Do you think I’m overprotecting Rae? Be honest.”
She made a face, an exaggerated wince of nervousness. “Are you seriously asking me to critique your parenting? I’m not even a parent myself.”
Waylon searched for a reasonable explanation for why he wanted her opinion that much, one that didn’t include Because you’re my soulmate, and I know you are because I turn into a bear. “No, but you were a horse-crazy teenage girl once. And you know how to tame horses.”
“So do you.”
He shook his head. “I’m horse doctor, not a horse trainer. Big difference. Also, you’ve seen Rae with that colt when things were going well. Like you said, I’ve only seen them right after I scared it. So, what do you think?”
Judy blew out a breath of air. She seemed less certain now than she ever had since he’d met her. “I don’t know, Waylon. On the one hand, she was doing everything right. And based on what I saw and what you told me, the colt moves away from her before he catches fire, so I don’t think he’d burn her. On the other hand, she could get caught in a fire he set. And I don’t know anything about hellhorses or portals or magical animals! You’re the expert on weird stuff, not me. What do you think?”
Waylon had been hoping she’d present such a compelling argument that it would convince him, one way or the other. “My…” …bear… “…my Dad instincts say I should lock her in her room till she’s twenty-one. My brain says you’re making some good points. My heart says Rae’s never wanted anything this much in her life, and I hate to take it away from her. My common sense says she still shouldn’t get near it.”
“There’s one thing I think we can agree on, all your parts included,” Judy said. “And that’s that she shouldn’t be doing this alone.”
More than anything else she’d said, that struck him to the heart.
Our mate is wise, rumbled his bear.
“How’d you get to be that wise?” Waylon asked.
Judy made a wry face. “Let me tell you, it’s a lot easier to be wise about other people’s problems. When it comes to my own life, I’m not so hot.”
“I don’t believe that,” said Waylon.
“Believe it. You’re talking to the woman whose horse rescue went so bust that the bank foreclosed on her ranch and left her with sixteen horses, two donkeys, and a mule, and nowhere to put them. I’m not exactly the poster girl for wise life choices.”
Waylon hadn’t wanted to pry into her financial troubles, but he’d hoped she’d bring them up herself. He wasn’t rich, but maybe he could figure out some way to help her. “You kept it going for years, though. How did you pay for it before?”
“Riding lessons, mostly. Donations.” She gave a long sigh. “I picked a town to live in that was doing well when I moved there, but half the people in it worked for the same company. When it shut down, so did the whole town. No one had money to spare. I have to start over somewhere else, but most places where people can afford to fund the rescue, land is too expensive for me. La Puerta has lots of people who own horses, no riding school, and land that isn’t absolutely ridiculously expensive, but I’m still short.”
“How short?” Waylon asked. Maybe he could make up the difference…
She gave him a look like she was reading his mind. “A lot shorter than you could make up for, so don’t even ask. I got so desperate, I’ve been trying an Instagram campaign, but I’m not exactly Ms. Photogenic.”
He had to keep his eyes on the road, but even the quickest of glances confirmed his memory of her clear eyes, her striking silver-streaked hair, and the marvelous way that strength and beauty combined in her face and body. She was all woman, and he couldn’t imagine anyone not finding her perfect.
“Something must be wrong with your camera,” he said.
“It’s not just mine.”
“Then something’s wrong with all the cameras.”
She shot him a startled look, as if she wasn’t quite sure if he was serious, then changed the subject. “It’s beautiful out here. The wildflowers are amazing.”
“Yeah, we got a good bloom this year.”
Fields of wildflowers blanketed both sides of the road, orange butterfly weed interspersed with blue vervain and brilliant splashes of scarlet cardinal flower. He wanted to pull over, take her hand, and walk through the blossoms like a pair of teenagers.
Do it, rumbled his bear.
For a mad moment, Waylon nearly did. As he started to slow the truck, his imagination raced ahead, picturing them walking, then kissing, then lying down together on a sweet-scented patchwork quilt of flowers…
“Something in the road?” Judy asked. “I don’t see anything.”
He shook his head, speeding up. His bear grumbled, but Waylon was determined not to go too far with Judy before he’d told her his secret.
No matter how long it takes, he told himself. No matter how hard it gets.
Chapter Five
Am I reading him wrong? Judy wondered.
For such a rock-steady family man, he was hard to get a grip on when it came to how he felt about her. Sometimes it felt like he want to rip her clothes off on the spot, and then he’d seem to shy away like a skittish horse.
Maybe he does like me, but he’s worried about getting involved with a woman when he has a daughter, she thought. That would make sense. He was obviously devoted to Raelynn.
And that was when Judy realized something she hadn’t quite processed before. Waylon wasn’t only Waylon. He was Waylon-and-Raelynn. If she got involved with him, she wouldn’t just be dating a man. She�
�d be stepping into a family.
If I married him, I’d have a daughter.
The thought of that hit her with such a surge of conflicting emotions that she felt knocked off her feet. First there came a rush of joy. She could have a daughter! And not just any daughter, but Raelynn, the tempestuous, enthusiastic, fearless, funny, horse-mad girl. How lucky could Judy get?
But before she could even take a moment to savor that idea, she was struck by an equally powerful wave of panic. She couldn’t be a mom. She’d never had a child. She had no idea how to parent. She was forty-five and she’d never even been married. How could she even think about shouldering her way into someone else’s family?
For all their fights over the hellhorse, Raelynn and Waylon obviously loved each other deeply and meant the world to each other. What if Judy stomped all over their relationship with her stable-muddy boots and ruined it?
“Judy?” Waylon said. “Are you all right?”
She gulped hard. “Yes!”
Don’t get ahead of yourself, she thought. You haven’t even been on a date with him, and you’re already worried about marriage! Ridiculous.
Or have I had a date? I had a meal at his house. And now he’s driving me to show me where he works. Is this a date?
He pulled into the parking lot of Vets For All Pets. He had a reserved spot, but the rest of the spaces were full.
“Busy. Let’s go round the back. Oh, and I should mention, there’s two other vets who work here.” Waylon lowered his voice. “Angel and his fiancée Everly have the magical pet. You’ll love them. My other partner is Bryan, and he’s a bit… That is, he can be a little… abrupt. But he’s a great guy, so don’t be put off.”
Judy shrugged. “I’m used to people who are better with animals than with people. Don’t worry, I don’t require everyone to be sparkling conversationalists.”
“It’s not…” Waylon looked like he was going to continue, then shrugged. “Yeah, Bryan is definitely better with animals than with people. Anyway, he’s pretty busy today so we probably won’t even see him. But it looks like Everly’s already here to collect Angel at the end of his shift, so you can meet them for sure.”
