Page 85 of His Eighth Ride

“Tag.”

“Opal, the twins are here, and I don’t want to discuss this with you over the phone.”

Her eyebrows went up, but part of her liked that he wasn’t just lying down on this. He’d given her whatever she wanted as they’d gotten to know one another, and she found him strong yet soft at the same time. She supposed there was a time for everything—for him to take the lead and for him to let her have the reins.

“Okay,” she said, hating how haughty her voice came out. “But I want you to tell me everything when we sit down to talk. You said you had something serious to talk to me about, and you’ve said nothing of it.”

“Maybe I don’t need to say anything now,” he said. “Maybe I worked through things on my own.”

Opal didn’t like that, but she didn’t know what to say. Her heart wailed quietly, and she decided to let her true thoughts out. “I don’t want you to work through it on your own. We’re together, and I want us to work through things together.”

“You don’t even know what it was.”

Frustration filled her. “Exactly.”

“Tag,” someone said on his end of the line, and he said, “Yeah, give me another sec.”

Opal didn’t want to keep him from his brothers. She knew he didn’t get to see them very often. “What are you doing for your birthday?” she asked, her voice a touch higher than normal.

“We haven’t decided yet,” Tag said coolly. “We might go hiking or camping. Something. It’ll be—totally lame without you, Opal.”

“Will you tell me about the serious thing even if you’ve already solved it?”

He heaved a sigh but said, “If you want me to.”

“I do,” she said.

“Then we’ll talk next Friday,” he said. “When we go out as planned.”

Opal hated having hard conversations, but she reminded herself that she didn’t have to call in a doctor and tell them he wasn’t good enough to stay in the ER. Or reprimand someone for a mistake that could’ve cost someone’s life.

“I haven’t gotten my picture of you and that baby today,” Tag said, a flirty undercurrent in his gruff voice.

Opal’s heartbeat pulsed. “I’ll send you one,” she said. “To show your brothers.”

“Opal-honey,” he said. “I miss you like crazy.”

And there was that softness she loved. “See you soon, Taggart.” She ended the call, and she sighed as her hand dropped back to her side, taking her phone with her. The breeze played with her hair, and she loved the scent of the sea and the flowers perfuming the air here.

The sliding door opened, and Opal turned to see who’d come outside. Allison stood there as Violet toddled by, and she held up an apple. Opal smiled at the little girl. “You hungry, sweetheart?”

“Op-ple,” Violet said. “Ap-ple.”

She took it from the little girl. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll cut it up for you.” She looked at Allison and put the best smile she could on her face.

“Everything okay?” Alli asked.

Opal remembered the way she’d gasped, scoffed, and then practically thrown Spencer to her before she’d stormed outside to call Tag. “Yes,” she said anyway. “I just needed to make a call really quick.” She smiled at Violet. “Who’s ready for lunch?”

She was very good at stuffing away her emotions until she could deal with them. In the ER, she focused on the job and didn’t let anything distract her. She could do the same here, and then she’d text and call Tag that evening, when she had more time to examine how she felt and what she hoped to achieve with him.

A couple of hours later, she smiled at Alli as she went down the hall toward the master. “Time for naps, Missy,” she said to Violet. “Brother and Mama are napping. We are too.”

Violet said something in her two-year-old voice, but Opal didn’t catch it. She sat with Spencer in the living room, gently pushing herself back and forth with her toe, providing just enough movement to lull herself to sleep. Well, any other day she’d been here, she would’ve fallen asleep.

This afternoon, Opal’s mind zigged and zagged from one topic to another.

Should she change her flight and go home early?

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