The corner of his mouth hitched up a notch. “Farm, if you can believe it.”
Her lips parted a little; the image so different than anything she could have expected. “Farm…what?”
“Whatever. Anything.” He rolled his shoulders. “I was studying agribusiness in college when my father died. It was either step in and take the reins or let the company fall to someone who wasn’t a Forrest.” He glanced over at her. “Which is not done in my family.”
“You’re very good at it, considering. The company’s done nothing but grow under your leadership.”
“Training racehorses is something you excelled at, but you say that’s not what you really loved doing. You just love horses. Period.”
“Yes.” She pressed her lips together for a moment. “So…would you still want to be a farmer?”
He rolled his shoulders, not seeming to notice the diffidence in her question. “And end up a pauper? No, thanks.” He paused a moment. “I’m not ignorant of the perks of my position. I’m well aware of the advantages I’ve had and use them all to my convenience whenever it suits me. And that’s not something I’m willing to give up anymore. But my life isn’t anything I’d wish on someone else.”
She had no business feeling disappointment. She was supposed to have her eyes open where Jake was concerned. “Like who? The sons you are so wrong about?”
“Zach and Con will be nothing like me,” he said flatly. “I’m making certain of it.”
“How? By letting them think you don’t want anything to do with them?” She huffed out a breath. “You know what was the best thing about being raised here?”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“Straightforward,” she reminded tartly. “The best thing my parents gave me was time. Their time. And not just them. All of the family. We all grew up knowing we were wanted. Loved. And not because they told us. Which they did. But because they showed us. Day in and day out. And…and that’s what I want to give my children.” She nearly choked, getting the words past the knots inside her chest and throat.
“Exactly what I don’t give mine,” he said. “That’s what you really mean.”
“It doesn’t matter what I mean,” she said, frustrated. “It matters what you do! I’m sorry you hated your father. I really am. But you are not him. Are you going to live your entire life—go to your grave—knowing that when you had an opportunity to be different than him, you ignored it?”
But his expression was clearly set, and she shivered, yanking the zipper up on her coat. “It’s getting cold again.” In more ways than one.
He immediately drew Ziggy’s reins out of her loose grip. “Then it’s time to get back.”
She couldn’t look at him, afraid if she did, the tears lodged behind her eyes would break loose. She swung up into the saddle and turned Hepburn away from the creek.
This time when they rode, there was no racing. No laughter.
Only silence.
Chapter Twelve
“Happy Thanksgiving!”
J.D. stared stupidly at the blonde woman standing on her front porch. What was Jake’s aunt doing there?
“I know it’s unexpected,” Susan went on, as if her presence really wasn’t unexpected at all. “But Jake wasn’t at the hotel when we stopped by there first.”
“We?”
Susan waved toward the fancy SUV parked behind J.D.’s truck alongside the house, and J.D. was even more disconcerted to see Zach and Connor hopping out of the vehicle.
She blinked a little. The sky above was clear as a bell. She could smell the wood smoldering in her fireplace. Could feel the cold air touching her face.
She wasn’t dreaming.
“I’m sorry, but Jake’s not here,” she said faintly. After they’d put up the horses following their ride yesterday, he’d gathered his computer and cell phone from her kitchen table and left.
And that morning, for the first time since he’d come to Wyoming, he hadn’t been at the barn ready to greet her when she went out to tend the horses.
She’d done the chores on her own. Alone. And had known that his absence wasn’t owed to some observance of the holiday. It was owed to her straightforward comments.
The boys’ feet pounded on the steps as they reached them. “I gotta pee,” Connor greeted, brushing right past her into the house.
She pointed down the hallway. “On the right.”
He hustled through the living room and Zach followed more slowly. His eyes, so like his father’s, took her in from head to toe. “You look different,” he said.
She was not going to feel guilty in front of a nine-year-old. She brushed at the long hem of her oversize flannel shirt while the outdoor breeze blew through the open door, sharp and cold. “Is that good or bad?”
He cocked his head to one side, again eerily echoing one of Jake’s mannerisms. “Good,” he finally decided. “Connor thinks you’re real pretty.”
She bit the inside of her lip. “Tell him I said thank you.” J.D. looked above him to Jake’s aunt, pulling the door wider. “Come in.”
“Thanks.” Susan’s cheeks were rosy.
J.D. pushed the door closed after her. “I’m sorry to seem a little dim, but I’m so surprised to see you.”
“Well, that makes us all surprised then,” Susan said with a wry smile. “And no need to apologize, dear. We’re the ones barging in on you. And on Thanksgiving Day, yet.” She started to unwind a narrow lilac scarf from around her neck. “Lord, but it’s cold. Jake warned me to come prepared, but truly, I had no idea!”
“Jake…warned you? He knows you’re here?”
“Of course.” Susan’s gaze settled on J.D. “Obviously, he didn’t tell you we were coming.”
“No,” she said quietly.
“Well, he did just make the arrangements yesterday,” Susan allowed, oblivious to the shock she sent sweeping through J.D. “And I assumed we’d find him here when he wasn’t at that quaint little hotel. Everything in town looked like it was closed up for the holiday and he didn’t answer his cell phone.”
Her knees felt unsteady and she sank down on the arm of the couch. “The cell service around here can be spotty at times.”
“That must be it, then.” Susan was looking around the living room, curiosity bright in her eyes. “You know, I’ve traveled all over the world, but this is the very first time I’ve been to Wyoming.”
J.D. was still trying to comprehend the fact that Jake’s aunt and sons were there at all. And that Jake, evidently, was the one to initiate it.
Had her words had some effect, after all?
“I don’t expect to see Jake until later today. He was, um, going to join my family for dinner.”
She couldn’t hazard a guess what his intentions were now.
“Turkey?”
She looked over at Connor, coming back into the room. Hunger was plain on his face. “Turkey. Ham. Beef.” With that crowd, there was always an assortment.
“We were gonna have sushi in California,” Zach informed.
J.D. withheld a shudder. She wasn’t a big fan on a good day. Add in her pregnancy-induced finicky senses, and it sounded even less appealing to her.
Susan pulled out her cell phone and began punching numbers. She held the phone to her ear, then a moment later sighed and tucked the phone away again. “Just his voice mail. I wonder where he could be?”
Since she had no clue, J.D. could only shake her head.
Susan eyed the boys. “Why don’t you two go outside and look around. I’m sure J.D. won’t mind.”
She eagerly focused on something her addled brains could comprehend. “Go ahead. The horses are all in the small corral next to the barn. Even Latitude. Just be sure not to open any gates.”
“How is Latitude doing?” Susan asked when Zach threw open the door, Connor hard on his heels.
“Better.” J.D. watched the two scurry down the porch steps, pulling on their coats again as they went, and closed the door once
more. “My cousin’s husband is a vet. He’s been working with him. The break is definitely healing and Latitude is clearly moving better. Even running some.”
“Thank heavens for that.” Susan shrugged out of her coat and dropped it on the couch beside her. “I’ll confess that I’m surprised my nephew has spent as much time here as he has.” Her gaze was speculative. “He doesn’t even spend this much time in a single stretch at Forrest’s Crossing.”
J.D. felt her face heat. “He’s quite involved with Latitude’s rehab.”
“Indeed,” Susan murmured, a hint of amusement on her face.
“I don’t know where my manners are. Can I get you something warm to drink?”
“Coffee would be heavenly.”
“Coming right up.” She quickly headed back toward the kitchen. But Jake’s aunt followed.
“I find the landscape here intriguing. Jake told me I would and he was right. I photograph babies, but when I look out at all that snow, I want to reach for my camera.”
“I think it’s pretty beautiful.” J.D. pulled down a mug and filled it with coffee from the needless pot she’d made, considering Jake’s absence that morning. She turned to hand the mug to the other woman when the kitchen door opened, and Jake strode in looking as if he did so every day.
Which until that morning, he basically did.
And J.D. also couldn’t help the relieved leap inside her chest, though he barely glanced at her as he went to his aunt, dropping a kiss on her cheek.
“Trip go okay?” He was clearly unsurprised that she was there, in J.D.’s kitchen.
“As okay as it can go with those boys,” Susan returned. “And happy Thanksgiving, darling. Zach and Connor are outside, hopefully not doing too much damage to anything. Where were you? We went by the motel before we came here.”
“I was looking at a property with Ryan.”
“Ryan!” J.D. started with even more surprise. “What property?”
“The Hanks’ place.”
Maybe she was having some weird dream and none of this was real at all. “Ryan’s interested in buying it?” Could her cousin be feeling so much more comfortable again in Weaver that he was considering buying the very spread she had her eye on?
“I’m interested in it.”
Shock held her still as she stared at Jake. “Since when?” She’d only mentioned the place yesterday. “And for what?”
They all heard the clatter on the porch steps a moment before the door flew open and Jake’s sons burst in.
“Latitude looks great!” The animation on Zach’s face dried up entirely at the sight of his father standing in the middle of the kitchen. “Oh.”
“Hello, Zach. Connor.”
J.D. wanted badly for Jake to show them some affection. To hug his boys. To make the first move and show he was glad he’d brought them there.
But he did nothing. And she couldn’t take the pained expressions on the boys’ faces a moment longer. “Hey, guys. Want to help me bring in the horses for the afternoon?” She’d be spending practically the rest of the day at the Double-C. Which meant she needed to stable the horses before she left.
And the sooner she could leave, the better, because she didn’t know what to make of Jake’s actions and her foolish emotions were getting way too far ahead of themselves.
The boys looked relieved and trotted after her as she pulled on her coat and went outside.
“How come the horses don’t freeze?” Connor asked, skipping to keep up with her.
“They could if they didn’t have adequate food to eat and enough weight on them. But they’re inside at night when it’s coldest, and when they’re outside, it’s not as cold to them as it feels to you.” She pulled open the gate to the corral where the horses were grazing. “Hold this for me, would you?”
The boys eagerly wrapped their hands around the wood.
Ziggy immediately came trotting over at her sharp whistle, followed quickly by Hepburn and Tracy. She slipped on halters and lead ropes and led them out of the corral, telling the boys to push the gate closed. Then, even though Ziggy didn’t really need a lead, she handed his rope to Zach. “Bring him into the barn.”
Connor looked disappointed, but she put him in charge of closing the stall gates, which seemed to mollify him. And then they all went back out to the corral once more and she whistled again, hiding a smile at the efforts both boys gave at mimicking her.
Latitude’s head swiveled in her direction, but it was obvious that he was darned content right where he was alongside Bonneville, who ignored her altogether. Lat swished his long black tail as if to say “don’t bug me” and lowered his head to yank at a tuft of stubborn grass peeking up above the snow.
She let his spurt of contrary independence slide and pulled in two more horses, letting Zach and Connor each take a lead this time, and once the horses were stalled, headed back out yet again. She slipped into the corral, heading toward the running buddies.
Jake had left the house and was crossing toward her. He wasn’t wearing a coat, and the ever-present breeze was rippling his white shirt against his torso.
She let out a careful breath, not quite able to tear her gaze from him as she ran her hand along Bonneville’s neck before slipping on his halter.
He turned his head and caught the shoulder of her coat in his teeth.
She jerked away, feeling the fabric of her coat tear in the process and she pulled down on his lead to remind him who was boss. “Cut it out, Bonny.” That’s what she got for not paying her usual attention.
Jake practically vaulted the fence, running toward them. “Are you all right?” He grabbed her other shoulder, pulling her around so he could see the tear that Bonneville had made. He prodded through the layers like he was looking for torn and bleeding flesh.
“I’m fine.” She directed the mischievous horse in a tight circle until he was accompanying her and not the other way around. “Why are you interested in the Hanks’ place?” So much for keeping her tongue under control.
“Because you said that you wanted it.”
Her heart skittered around and there didn’t seem to be a darned thing she could do about it. Bonneville suddenly planted his feet, resisting her altogether. She shortened her hold on the lead, tapping his hip with her other hand. His muscles bunched, but his hindquarters finally shifted and he dropped his head and started forward, only to flatten his ears at the sight of Jake. “Watch it,” J.D. started to warn, but Bonneville snapped at him, narrowly missing his arm.
She wasn’t one to strike a horse, but she gave him a smart little whack on the nose. “No.”
“He’s a menace.” Jake moved a safer distance away.
“He’s learned some bad habits,” J.D. defended. “Thanks to owners who didn’t care.” She prodded Bonneville forward again. “When did you decide to have your aunt bring the boys here?”
“When do you think?”
Her mouth went dry and she made the mistake of lightening her grip on Bonneville’s lead and the horse yanked his head free, his powerful body launching toward the open gate. Worse than that, though, was the blur of motion that was Latitude, who saw nothing more than another opportunity to play with his running mate.
She didn’t think.
She just moved fast, cutting across Latitude’s path, waving her arms and calling him. Anything to divert him from getting out of the gate where there’d be no stopping him from overtaxing his healing leg.
Jake ran too, doing the same thing. The colt suddenly stopped short, pivoting around to avoid them and trotted in the other direction. J.D. was left to chase after Bonneville who’d cleared the gate and was standing as cocky as he could be near the vehicles parked in her gravel drive.
As long as she didn’t move toward him, he seemed content to remain still.
Jake had Latitude under control. Shaken even more by Jake’s behavior than her own carelessness, she went into the barn, warning the boys to stay where they were and grabbed her lasso before slipping
bareback onto Ziggy. She wasn’t taking any chances. If Bonneville decided to really run, the only way she’d catch him was on horseback.
Ziggy trotted out of the barn and J.D. gave Bonneville a wide berth, not wanting to spook him any more than he already was. She headed almost directly away from him before circling around to come up on him from the opposite direction. Now if he bolted away from her, he’d likely head toward the barn or the corrals and the open field rather than the road.
She had it all covered.
Except for the one ingredient provided by two nine-year-old Jake Forrest-miniatures when they decided to run across the yard from the barn to the house. “Hold it,” J.D. called out in warning.
But it was too late.
Bonneville hadn’t taken kindly to their charge, and ran directly toward J.D. and Ziggy. It wasn’t the direction she’d expected, but her mount expertly wheeled around as she sent the lasso sailing through the air to settle neatly around Bonneville’s neck.
She snugged it up and Bonneville huffed, trotting back around until he eventually stopped, though every muscle in his powerful body strained, keeping the rope tight between them.
“Whoa.” She heard one of the boys breathe. “Cool.”
She glanced quickly at the boys. “Just remember this moment for the next time I tell you to stay put.”
Two pairs of wide brown eyes looked at her with fresh respect and she barely kept herself from smiling.
Instead, she focused again on Bonneville. Clucking softly, she urged Ziggy slowly toward the recalcitrant horse while she pulled up the slack in the rope just enough to keep Bonneville mindful, but not enough to make him even more resistant. He was a 1200-pound horse. Cooperation was going to beat out force every day of the week. The horse skittered sideways, clearly unhappy with the lasso, but he was at least skittering in the direction of the barn.
“No amount of money can be worth working with that pain-in-the-ass horse,” Jake said when she and Ziggy came even with him as they steadily maneuvered Bonneville into a more agreeable frame of mind. Jake was still inside the corral. Latitude stood quietly alongside him as if he’d been the only innocent party in this particular game.
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