Page 109 of Hold Me Until Morning

The fucker was going to be pissed, his ego ripped to shreds.

And I was the asshole who thought it might be worth it because I didn’t think I’d ever felt anything better than this.

TWENTY-FOUR

HAILEY

EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD

Hailey ran the brush down the mare’s back.

Rhythmically.

Methodically.

The horse was due in a couple weeks, and Hailey had taken to giving her company each day, soothing her, letting her know she was safe.

Besides, the stables were her favorite place in the world.

She didn’t want to be anywhere else, and she knew this was the way she would spend her life.

She settled into the calm of it, the cadenced sound of the brush whispering over the mare’s dark black coat, a silence all around, her thoughts drifting into the solace.

“There you are.”

She nearly jumped out of her skin when the voice hit her from behind, and she whirled around to find her best friend poking her head over the top of the gate.

“What is wrong with you, Brooke? You scared the crap out of me.”

Brooke’s brow shot so high it was a wonder it didn’t touch the arched, soaring ceiling. “I scared the crap out of you? I’m the one who had to wander down here to the stables to find you, and you know how I feel about that.”

Brooke overexaggerated a shiver.

Hailey giggled. “These horses are harmless.”

It was a little ironic Hailey’s best friend was terrified of horses, and Brooke never let her forget it since she was spending the summer here with Hailey before she would leave to attend college in South Carolina.

They were always glued to each other’s sides, and they wanted to spend as much time together before Brooke left.

Wistfulness dampened Hailey’s mood, though she kept it concealed.

It was going to be rough, being separated from Brooke that way.

She was her person.

The one she was constantly with.

Her confidant.

The one person who she was ever truly open and honest with, especially after Hailey’s Lolly had gotten remarried again and moved two hours away, and Hailey had again found herself living alone in a mansion with her father.

Hailey and Brooke were basically opposites. Hailey was verging on shy and unquestionably plain, hoiden through and through, jeans and tees and messy braids, and Brooke looked like she should be gracing the cover of a fashion magazine.

“Are you kidding me? I just saw a beast over there in a pen that clearly was gunning for me. Rearing back then pawing at the earth.”

Hailey giggled again. “Um, yeah, you’ll want to stay away from that one.”

The stallion knew he was surrounded by mares, and he didn’t take too kindly that he was cooped up behind metal, and he had a bad temper because of it.

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