Page 58 of Since Day One

I slowly nodded as shouting and a screech pierced the air. Gunnar and I both furrowed our brows and watched as Emily shot out of the arena, racing toward the door with Rob and Carsen hot on her heels.

“See you at dinner, boss!” Rob shouted.

“STOP!” Emily screeched as Carsen wiggled his brows, made smoochy sounds, and ran faster. The door flew open, all three of them disappeared into the night air, and then the door slammed shut, leaving us in silence.

I blinked, staring at the empty space.

Gunnar said nothing, his eyes fixed on the odd scene we witnessed.

Chapter 21

Gunnar inhaled deeply, snapping my gaze away from the door, and his face turned cold. Without another word, he walked away, grabbing a horse that needed to be untacked.

In silence, we removed the equipment from our horses, Gunnar working quietly beside me. But he wasn’t looking at me, wasn’t acknowledging me, and that same kind of frustrated attitude he’d directed at me earlier now rested upon his shoulders again. I thought he said he wasn’t pissed off? Once I was finished, I walked around the back of my horse and stomped right up beside him to cross my arms and wait.

If I could get over Emily this fast, he could stop being pissed this fast.

Gunnar turned around and nearly ran into me, having finished undoing the cinch and tying off the latigo. “Shit, woman,” he muttered. “You’re going to get hurt if you do that.”

“What’s up with you?” I asked, glaring at him.

“Nothing?” he replied, squeezing past me and walking to the other side of the horse.

“Something’s wrong. Like I said before, you’ve been kind of an ass today.”

“It’s nothing,” he muttered, hooking the cinch up and sliding the saddle down.

“Gunnar!” I snapped, and he looked at me, wide-eyed.

“Willow,” he replied in the same tone of voice.

“What did Ruger want that made you act like this? Even Rob and Carsen didn’t joke like normal, and I know now it had nothing to do with Emily.”

He sighed, slinging the saddle over the rail, and braced his arms against the horse he’d just untacked. “Ruger wants to host a rodeo this week, and apparently our cousin’s also got some play this weekend that Mama wants us to attend.”

I stared at him a little confused. “Okay?”

“Whenever Ruger comes to me about hosting a rodeo, he means he wants me to help him plan it and everything.”

“Wait, he hasn’t planned it and wants it this week? Is he insane?” I asked, and Gunnar chuckled.

“So you get it.” Gunnar walked around the horse toward me as I tried to understand how this would work logistically.

“If he wants people to enter, he needs to give more than a few days’ notice. Why not have it next weekend? That gives you a bit more time to plan, set it up, and deal with this play you mentioned,” I replied, and Gunnar slid his arms around my waist, pulling me into his body.

I looked up at his face as he stared over my head. “And that, Princess, is exactly what I tried to tell him, but he wasn’t having it, and then Emily showed up, so going after him didn’t exactly happen.”

Tipping onto my toes, I placed my hands on his cheeks and made the move to kiss him. It was brief, and, when I pulled away, he was smiling with his eyes closed. “Try again.”

He opened his eyes and glared at me. “Yeah, yeah. I know.” I giggled as he shook his head and let go of me. We untied the horses and slowly walked toward the garage door. “Let’s go put these horses away so I can go try and convince my little brother he’s being insane.”

“And if you can’t?”

“Then you’re stuck helping me plan, too,” he answered, jogging a few feet away and pressing the button to raise the garage.

“Uh, excuse me? Absolutely not.” I led my horse under the rattling door, and he met me outside.

We both paused as Rob and Carsen casually leaned against the wall to our left. “She’ll be sending someone with the dog,” Rob said, pushing off of the siding.

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