Page 56 of Catching Sparks

I laugh softly. “Liar. You also got away without helping with breakfast.”

We break apart, and he presses another kiss to my head before moving to Mom. He tucks her under his arm and says, “I didn’t get away with shit. Let me and Darren finish up.”

“Thank you, you big baby,” Mom teases, pressing her lips to his stubbled jaw. Their stares hold as they stand together, and my chest warms at the obvious love between them.

“You’re welcome. And don’t think that I don’t know what I was interrupting. Leave it be, Pauline.”

“For now,” she agrees, and it’s all I need to hear before leaving them in the kitchen.

Abbie is still sitting on the couch when I find her again, a cartoon playing on TV. I flop down beside her and wrap my arm around her narrow shoulders.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Do you like this show?”

I’ve never seen it before, but she doesn’t know that. “Duh. It’s one of my favourites.”

“Then yes.”

She curls into my side, and I smile, soaking up the time with my niece, knowing how possible it is that these moments could be taken from us if her mother so wished them to. Darren may be an ass sometimes, but he’s still my brother, and he’s fighting his own battles right now.

Annoying or not, family is sometimes all we have, and I’m damn grateful to have the one I do.

20

GARRISON

Wade carries a saddle from the hook outside of Kip’s pen toward me, his brows lifted expectantly. All morning, he’s been hinting at me riding the quiet, towering beast but has kept me busy doing a million other tasks instead.

The calluses on my palms from my days sweeping began burning again when he passed me a pitchfork the moment we arrived at the stables this morning and ordered me to lay fresh hay in the stable pens. It took an hour to clean out the old stuff and replace it in every pen, but it was easy enough. Nobody lingered around to watch, waiting for me to fail or step in shit. I’m proud in the weirdest way that I avoided the latter this time.

My sneakers have seen better days. I’m a stubborn ass to keep turning down the boots lingering at my front door, but I haven’t managed to put them on yet. It feels like accepting defeat.

“You’re goin’ to saddle him up,” Wade orders, dropping the heavy saddle into the arms I barely manage to lift in time to catch it.

“How do I do that?”

He tosses a small grey blanket over Kip’s back and smooths it down with a pat to his side. The brown leather in my arms is heavy, weighing me down as Wade taps a finger on the blanket.

“Set it on his back, horn closest to his head,” he instructs, sounding surprisingly calm and watching me with a patient stare. It helps ease some of my uncertainty.

Watching Kip for any sign that he doesn’t want me to do this, I slowly lift the saddle and set it on his back. Even with nothing tightened or keeping it in place, it looks like a perfect fit.

He lists off all the pieces and parts of the saddle before saying, “Kip’s been wearin’ a saddle for a long time. He loves it. Not every horse is goin’ to be the same. We got wild fuckers here that would rather beat your chest in with their hooves than let you weigh them down with one. You have to treat every horse different. Always be lookin’ for signs of distress,” Wade explains, rounding Kip’s other side and starting to make adjustments to the saddle. I watch carefully, trying to memorize the movements.

“All the horses you’ll meet in this stable are broken in and, unless you do something to upset ’em, won’t hurt you. Brody’s horse, Sky, is in the next pen over. Kale is outside, but his pen is on Kip’s other side. He belongs to Renner. You ever need anythin’ that you can’t get a hold of me for, you find Renner.”

“A good friend of yours?” I ask, still watching him fit Kip with the saddle.

“I’ve been training Renner to take over for me if I decide to kick the bucket early.”

“I assumed Brody would be taking over for you.”

Wade laughs, but it’s a strained sound. “You kiddin’?”

“No.”

“My grandson doesn’t want this place. He’d be miserable, and he doesn’t know enough about the business to keep it alive. He’s always been open and honest about that.”

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