“So how long are you here for?” Shannon asks as I watch Lucia walk out the door.
“A few days, maybe longer,” I reply absent-mindedly.
She was upset. I should go after her. But then what would I do, because I was about two seconds away from fucking her right here in the stables before Shannon walked in. It seems like I’m always just moments away from fucking her. One word from her would be all it would take, but this was the closest I’d come to just taking her anyway.
Fuck!
“Well, it’s good to have you around,” she goes on. “Lucia seems nice.”
I shake my head and focus on Shannon. “Yeah. She is.”
She pops one eyebrow. “Something going on with you two?”
“No,” I shake my head.
“Jackson Decker. You can’t fool me,” she laughs as she pats Bastian on the nose. “Don’t you break that girl’s heart, though.”
“What?” I blink at her.
“She is so in love with you. Don’t tell me you can’t see that?”
“What? No. She likes me, yeah, but it’s like a crush.”
Shannon smiles at me. “I was only in here for a minute with you two and that was way more than a crush.”
“How is Ed anyway?” I ask, changing the subject.
She lets out a long, slow breath. “That man. He is wonderful. I damn well adore him.”
I smile at her. “I’m happy you found someone, Shan.”
“I know that you are,” she grins back at me. “And I would be for you. Because we really do just like each other. But tell me, Jackson, how would you feel if your friend’s daughter found someone else?”
“Fuck you.” I shake my head and she laughs again.
“Hey. If you’re intent on hiding your feelings, how about you help me give Zena her injection?”
“She hates those,” I frown at her.
“Exactly. And I’m the poor soul who has to give them to her once a month. I was going to do it tomorrow, but as you’re here now?”
“I ain’t distracting that crazy horse while you stick a needle in her ass.”
“She is not crazy,” she says with a hand on her hip. “She’s just cranky because she gets sore eyes sometimes. And you have a way with her.”
“Now I know you’re fucking with me.”
“You do,” she laughs. “You get it from your daddy.”
“Shan!” I warn her.
She shrugs. “Like it or not, he has a gift with animals. You do too.”
“Yeah? It’s a pity that gift didn’t extend to his wife and son, isn’t it?” I snarl.
“Come on.” She puts a hand on my arm. “You gonna help me give this horse her shot or what?”
“Fine,” I snap. At least it will stop her talking about my father.
Shannon grabs the medicine from her bag and we step into Zena’s stall.
“Just keep her calm,” she says and shoots me a look of fake terror.
I stand close to the mare, one arm on her neck while I stroke her nose with my free hand, from her ear to the tip of her nose, the way she likes it. Her ears flick and she snorts as she feels Shannon behind. Zena’s not stupid and she knows what’s coming.
“Don’t you dare let her knock me on my ass, Jackson,” Shannon warns.
“I won’t. Just get it over with.”
“Here goes,” she says and she must have given the horse her shot because Zena rears up, knocking me flat on my ass instead, and straight into a pile of fresh horse shit.
“Fuck!” I snarl as Shannon peers over Zena’s back and sees me sitting there.
Zena snorts as if to tell me I got exactly what I deserved, while Shannon almost pees in her pants as she laughs hysterically.
I stand up, my jeans and shirt covered in horse shit and shake my head. “It’s not fucking funny.” I scowl at her but she is too busy laughing her ass off.
“It kinda is though.” She takes a breath before she goes off again.
I let myself out of Zena’s stall and Shannon follows me. “Good girl,” she says to the crazy horse before she falls into step beside me.
“You stink.” She wrinkles her nose as she looks at me. “Molly will kick your ass if you go into the house like that.”
“Damn!” I hiss. “Are there any spare clothes around here?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “You’re wearing underwear, right?”
“Yes.”
“So just walk back to the house in your pants. It’s nothing I ain’t seen before.” She laughs again as she walks out of the stable.
I look down at my clothes. Fuck, I do stink. I’d forgotten how bad horse shit smells living in LA. I pull my t-shirt over my head and toss it into the pile of trash. My jeans aren’t too bad though and the smell from them not quite as close to my nose. I can take them off in the house.
I walk out of the stable a few minutes later and Shannon is waiting for me.
“Oh that is a shame,” she says as she looks down at my jeans.
“Does your fiancé know that you like to look at other men?” I ask as we walk to the house.
She grins at me. “He knows I am one hundred percent in love with him, so he wouldn’t care.”
“He seems like a good guy.”
“He is,” she says with a contented sigh, “though he doesn’t have your way with animals.”
“Fuck you.”
“When I looked up … and you were just sitting on your ass…” She snorts with laughter now and it’s so fucking infectious that I laugh too. We’re both still laughing when I open the door leading from the backyard to the kitchen. I stop when I see Lucia is sitting there alone at the table nursing a cup of Aunt Molly’s famous herbal tea.
Fuck!
She doesn’t even speak to me. She just stands up with her mug and walks out the room. I should go after her and tell her that this is not what it looks like, but maybe this is the kinder thing to do? Let her think I’m a complete jackass so that she can stop looking at me like I’m the only man she’ll ever want and I can focus on doing what I’m supposed to be doing, which is protecting her and trying to find out who tried to kill her.
