by Erin Wright
Get Deputy Abby Connelly out of his system.
Chapter 26
Abby
Today was going to be a good day.
Today was going to be an awesome day. She was going to have fun with the kids and she was going to spend some quality time around horses and she was absolutely, positively not going to flirt with Wyatt. Or stare at him. Or let her heart get all weird around him.
She just wasn’t going to allow it.
And that was final.
She quickly changed out of her deputy uniform and then headed over to Adam’s place. They’d already be in gear and working because she was so late getting there, but it’d be fun to go anyway. She turned up the country western music on the radio and sang at the top of her lungs on the drive over, trying to give herself something else to do that didn’t involve thinking about Wyatt.
Because she totally wasn’t going to think about Wyatt today.
She parked off to the side and walked into the arena, the bright lights a wonderful, warm welcome.
A couple of the kids came running over to say hello, including Genny, but Abby couldn’t help searching Wyatt out. It didn’t seem like she was really “there” until she’d made eye contact with him. Which totally went against her resolutions made just five minutes before.
A contradiction she was totally going to ignore.
He caught her eye and smiled. As she walked with the chattering kids over to the horse Wyatt was working with, she only listened with half an ear to the updates since yesterday. They’d been allowed to put a saddle blanket on the horses today, and this was apparently the highlight of everyone’s life thus far. As one kid, Juan, said, “Those things are heavy! Wyatt only had to help me a little, though.”
Wyatt winked at him. “Well, when you get as tall as me, you’re not gonna need anyone’s help then.”
Juan nodded seriously at his words, and Abby bit back her smile. She could tell Juan had a lot of pride. A lot like someone else she knew.
Wyatt sent her a knowing smile and winked at her, too. She felt a flush work its way through her body and tried to stifle her groan. She couldn’t.
Couldn’t.
Couldn’t.
Couldn’t.
As the kids scattered, heading back to their horses, Wyatt and Juan began discussing when to use a soft brush versus a metal-toothed curry, and Genny slipped her hand into Abby’s. “Wanna see Sonny? I haven’t fed him any oats yet today because no one would give them to me.”
Translation: I want you to give me oats so I can feed Sonny.
Abby laughed. Wyatt wasn’t the only one to have a mini-me in the group. “Oh, we better make sure he gets a little,” she said, patting Genny on the shoulder.
Genny grinned up at her and then asked, “But why can’t we just feed the horses lots and lots of oats? Why can we only feed ‘em a little?”
“Well, oats are good for a horse, but only in moderation. Hold on, let me get you a bucket.” She’d watched Wyatt the day before, and knew where to get the small buckets and oats from. She filled one up and brought it back to Genny who was waiting as patiently as her little body would let her.
Genny grabbed at the bucket, and Abby said quietly, “What do you say, Genny?”
She paused for a moment, scrunching up her nose. “Thank you, Abby.”
With a smile, Abby let go of the bucket and Genny bounced over to Sonny, shoving a fistful of oats into his muzzle.
“Think about it like this,” Abby said, returning to the oats discussion for a moment. “Apples are good for you, right?”
“Yeah,” Genny said, eagerly feeding the eager horse. They were certainly two peas in a pod.
“But you don’t just eat apples all day every day, right?”
“Ohhhhh…” Genny looked at her, understanding dawning. “Sonny has to eat lots of things, then?”
“Yeah. He needs hay in his diet along with other grains so he gets lots of different nutrients, not just oats all day long.”
She thought she’d made Genny understand, but she wasn’t appreciating how single-minded she was, until Genny asked, “So, can I feed him hay too? I want to feed him all the food!”
Which made Abby bust up laughing. Genny had been bitten by the horse fever, there was no doubt about it. She was just like Abby had been at her age. She would’ve slept in her horse’s stall each night if her parents would’ve let her.
“Doc Whitaker has the feeding part under control. He has to make sure that Sonny won’t eat too much. Horses will eat and eat and eat until they get sick if you let them.” Another trait horses shared with small children.
“Darn,” Genny said, her face falling.
Abby helped her pick out a brush and they spent time brushing Sonny’s coat to a shine. Thank God Adam had great taste in horses, and Sonny was as gentle and calm as a summer afternoon. He seemed to love Genny’s attention almost as much as Genny loved giving it to him.
Yup, Abby was pretty sure she would sleep in Sonny’s stall if her parents let her.
After a tearful farewell and more extracted promises about coming back again, Genny left with her harried mother, talking a mile a minute about how you can’t just feed horses apples all day long. Which Abby figured was just as good a lesson as any to learn.
She hadn’t been able to talk to Wyatt much that day, which was of course exactly how she wanted it. She wasn’t going to spend a lot of time around Wyatt or thinking about Wyatt or talking to Wyatt.
Which meant she should be happy that she hadn’t talked to Wyatt much that day. Totally and completely…
Unhappy.
“Hi.” His deep voice in her ear surprised her, and she jumped a foot in the air with a startled yelp.
He reached out and put a steadying hand on the small of her back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you,” he said.
Clutching the brush to her chest, she turned towards him with an over-bright smile. “I was just lost in my own little world, I guess. I didn’t hear you sneaking up on me.”
Sonny had stood placidly in front of them throughout it all, not even shying away when she’d screamed and jumped into the air.
Yeah, Adam had done a real good job picking out horses to work with small children, that was for sure. And jumpy deputies of Long Valley County. She knew better than to react like that around horses. It could’ve ended up with a kick to the head around a more skittish horse. But Wyatt…
Did things to her.
Ugh.
She sounded like she was seventeen all over again.
“So how did your day go?” she asked him as they began cleaning up, leading the horses back to their stalls, putting the brushes and feed away.
“Real good. I…” He paused for a moment. “I don’t know if I’m about to break a million rules by asking you this, but do you know the story behind Juan? I only know he’s in the foster system, but I haven’t wanted to ask him why. It just seemed too probing a question to ask a nine-year-old boy.”
She nodded slowly as she put the lid back onto the mouse-proof barrels, protecting the oats inside. “I don’t know much, other than we arrested both his parents about six months ago. That’s a matter of public record – you could find it out if you went and dug up the info in the newspaper. So I’ll save you the work and just tell you that his parents were into some bad shit. They were bringing up under-aged girls from Mexico, promising them a new life in the US, and because they were also Mexican, these girls were trusting. And desperate. Then when the girls got here, they were sold. I’m guessing you can imagine what for.”
Wyatt’s eyes went dark with anger. “Oh Lordy,” he whispered.
“Yeah. Even here in Long Valley, we’re not exempt from that sort of thing. It’s enough to make you sick.”
They waved goodbye to Adam who was putting the last of the supplies away for the day, and stepped outside into the weak winter light. The sun was setting; it would be dark soon, and even colder.
“Was Juan a part of any of
it, do you know? Did he know what his parents were doing?”
Abby shook her head. “No, not as far as we can tell. They’d drop him off at friends’ houses while they did a run. They chose Long Valley because it’s so far removed from everywhere; they thought they could fly under the radar. They don’t have any family in the US, but thank God they didn’t think they ought to bring a small child along for that sort of thing. I don’t know if Juan knows even to this day or not.”
They slowly walked to Abby’s car and she leaned against it, staring out across the frozen fields to the mountains, white with snow and ice, dusky purple around the edges from the setting sun.
“I’m glad Adam is doing this therapy camp,” Wyatt said quietly. “Kids like that need someone to give them love and attention and let them know that they matter.”
Abby’s gaze met his. “There are a lot of kids out there who need that. I know better than most that you’re here because you’ve been court-ordered to do so, but it’s still a good cause, nonetheless. I’m glad you picked it.”
“Me too,” he said simply.
And then they were just staring at each other and it didn’t matter that the cold air was seeping in around the edges of her coat and that her nose was frozen solid and she wasn’t sure if she was ever going to be able to feel her toes again. She felt excitement and lust and electricity building up inside of her and her breathing grew shallow and they began leaning, moving, shifting towards each other.
She shouldn’t. She really, really, really shouldn’t.
And yet, she couldn’t stop herself.
Their lips touched, cool and soft and the sparks went shooting through her body and her breath hitched, a shiver running through her. She put her hands up on his broad shoulders, slowly, tentatively. Through her gloves and his winter jacket, she couldn’t feel a thing, but still…she was touching him.
His hands settled on her waist and he pulled her forward against him, nestling her between his legs as his hands began stroking up and down her back. Her blood was roaring in her ears and her heart was going a million miles an hour and his tongue, oh his talented tongue was working its way between her lips, exploring, loving…
He pulled back slowly, ever so slowly, and at first she followed him, unwilling to give him up, but finally, she settled back down to the ground and opened up her eyes with a satisfied sigh. He stroked her cheek softly with the pad of his thumb, and she gave him a happy smile.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time,” he said softly.
“I just may have wanted you to do that for a long time,” she replied.
He nestled her against him, his arms wrapped around her, holding her tight, as she snuggled her face against his chest. It was cold and she should want to get into her car and turn on the heater, but she wanted to be snuggled against Wyatt more. Ignore the world for just a few moments.
“Sierra would’ve loved this camp,” Wyatt said, out of the blue. “She got horse fever so young; I’m not kidding you – it was her second word. Right after ‘nana’ which meant ‘banana.’ She didn’t learn Mom or Dad for quite a while, which just shows you where her priorities were.”
Abby felt the happiness inside of her slowly leak away, like a balloon with a pin-sized hole in it.
Sierra.
Wyatt’s baby girl who died when she was only five. The daughter he misses so much, he wants more children more than anything else in the world.
She felt the panic begin to grow in the pit of her stomach and spread up and out. She had to go. She had to go right then. She had to leave.
“Igottagohome,” she said in a burst, whirled out of his arms, and slipped into her car, starting it and throwing it into gear before taking off down the long, rutted dirt road back to the county road into town.
She was an idiot. A first-class dumbass.
But even now, she couldn’t quite make herself regret that kiss.
Chapter 27
Wyatt
The next morning found Wyatt in the shop, working on random shit. He was mostly cleaning up. Months of neglect meant a whole lot of spider webs, and he didn’t really have the concentration to do anything too strenuous, anyway.
The only thing his brain wanted to focus on was that kiss.
Well, and her reaction afterward. Why did she take off like that? Was he scaring her by wanting too much too quickly?
He mindlessly shoved wrenches and screwdrivers into the drawers of his toolbox as he replayed the conversation in his head. He had no idea what caused her to bolt like that. She knew he had a daughter. She knew Sierra had died in that car wreck at the hands of that bastard who couldn’t figure out when enough was enough.
So why that reaction?
He broke from his memories long enough to notice that he’d cleared the entire workbench. It looked…nice. It wouldn’t stay looking like this come spring, but for the moment, he took pride in how uncluttered it was.
Huh. Uncluttered, but damn dusty. He looked around for the broom and finally spotted it in the corner.
“Some cleaning tool you are,” he said out loud to himself as he crossed the shop. “You have more dust on you than the damn floor.” Oh well. It wasn’t like he was going to be able to make his shop spic-and-span. Less dirt on the floor overall was a win.
He’d just made the first couple of pushes of the broom when he heard the crunching of tires on the snow-covered gravel drive outside.
His head spun and his heart jumped a little. He had very few visitors out to his place, and even less after he’d been locked up for so long, which meant that the chances were real high that it was Abby out there. His heart went into double-time.
He had to play it cool. Damn, was he sixteen again?
The gravel gave a tortured crunch as the vehicle came to a stop by the house. He debated going out and flagging her down.
No, no. He kept sweeping the floor. A guy didn’t want to seem too eager.
He pushed the broom a couple more times mindlessly and then began to wonder if she’d think to come over to the shop to look for him. Maybe he should go out and flag her down after all.
He leaned the broom back in the corner where he’d found it and was just about to head outside when he heard the vehicle restart and crunch its way over to the shop.
The car door opened and closed, and then the shop door swung open. He opened his mouth to say hi when he heard, “What’re you doing hiding in here?”
The person was framed by the light coming in from outside, and it didn’t look a damn thing like Abby’s curves. And then there was also the fact that he’d recognize Stetson’s voice anywhere.
Dammit.
“I hadn’t had a chance to clean since I got out, so I thought I’d give it a little attention.” There was an edge to Wyatt’s tone that he really didn’t like, but couldn’t seem to stop from appearing. Even when he was trying to be nice to Stetson, his body just seemed to be allergic to the idea.
“Not much going on around the farm?” Stetson asked.
“Not during the winter,” he got out. Yup, that was definitely snappier than he’d meant for it to be. But truly, Stetson should know that not much farming was done during the winter. It was kinda a dumbass comment to make.
Tension filled the shop as they just stared at each other. Finally, Stetson lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.
“So I don’t know if you can or if you want to, but Jennifer and I are hosting a gender announcement party for the baby in a couple of weeks. Jennifer wanted me to ask you to come. If you can.”
The last line came out harder than Wyatt thought it needed to, but he took a deep breath. I guess I deserve a little backlash. Even if I don’t like it.
“That’d be nice. My probation allows me to leave the farm, so I can’t imagine why I couldn’t make it over,” he said slowly. “How’s Jennifer doing?”
“She’s doing pretty good,” Stetson said, a smile starting to form. Finally, a topic he was happy t
o discuss. “She knows what we’re having and has been a pest with all of her teasing.”
“You didn’t ask her what it was?” Wyatt was confused.
“Nope. I wanted to be surprised along with everyone else.” Stetson grinned, the first genuine smile he’d sent Wyatt’s way in…well, way too long.
“That’s good to hear,” Wyatt said. And it was. He wasn’t sure what else to say, though. Conversations had never flowed easily between them. Punches? Yes. Honest-to-God conversations? Not so much. “Uhhh…thanks for the invitation.”
“Sure,” Stetson said as he turned back toward the door.
Wyatt watched his retreating back for a few steps.
“Hey,” he called out, stopping Stetson in his tracks. “Declan said you helped keep things going around here during harvest time. I’m sure that wasn’t easy, especially while getting married, too, and dealing with your own harvest.”
Stetson turned and stared at him. The muscle in his jaw jumped as he prepared himself for whatever he expected Wyatt to say or do next.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” Wyatt finished.
Stetson’s eyebrows practically hit his hairline and he continued to stare at Wyatt, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop. When Wyatt didn’t say anything else, he finally just nodded, mumbled something about it being no problem, and headed out the door.
Wyatt heaved a sigh when the door closed behind his youngest brother. Every conversation with him was a field of landmines. He never knew if he was going to step in it and blow things to kingdom come again or not.
On the other hand, they’d just managed to have a whole conversation without any punching or yelling, and that had to be some sort of record. Oh, and a genuine smile from Stetson. That was a record.
Wyatt’s happiness was short-lived, though, as he began to ruminate over the choices Stetson had made in his life.
As usual, when Stetson had screwed up, he’d been saved by someone else – this time, the saving came in the form of a gorgeous banker. Only Stetson would be lucky enough to be sent a beautiful, young, single banker who was smart enough to push him to sell off his wheat and save his farm. The Miller Family Farm that had been in the Miller family for five generations.
