Page 79 of Chasing Home

The moonlight paints streaks through her hair, and I grin at the ethereal look of it. An angel in flesh and blood.

She cocks her head at me when she notices my staring, and I wink before inputting the code on the stable door. I lose my breath when she steps up behind me and rests her hand against my back, as if it’s a casual move she’s been doing for years.

“Does Wade know you’re breaking into his stable?”

“It’s not breaking in if I have the code, babe.”

“Sometimes the best robbers are the ones we know.”

“Fair enough. But I can’t be robbing what I already own,” I say with a glance back at her, my grin easy.

She rolls her eyes, and I steal a kiss before tugging open the door enough for us to slink inside. Flicking the light on, I watch as she glances around as if she’s never seen the inside of the stable before.

Alarm skitters through me. “Has nobody brought you in here before?”

“I’ve never needed to see it before.”

Again with that blunt honesty of hers. “You don’t need to have a reason to see something. I’d have shown you around the ranch properly if I knew nobody else had before.”

“Who says you still can’t?”

“Yeah? Mission accepted, darlin’. After we finish in here.”

I lead the way between the pens, knowing from memory where I’m going. Joker’s already waiting in her pen when we stop in front of it. She whinnies and gives her head a shake before moving toward us.

“I haven’t properly introduced you two yet, but this is Joker, Rory. She’s my girl,” I say, introducing them before cutting a look at Joker. “Be nice, yeah? Don’t embarrass me.”

“You’d embarrass yourself before she would,” Rory teases, standing beside me, her hand finding my back again.

It takes everything in me not to tell her never to remove it again. Preferably to glue it in place. “You’re not wrong.”

“Did you miss her tonight?”

I slide my hand down Joker’s mane and neck. “I always miss my Joker. But that’s not why I brought you here.”

With a final pat, I leave Joker and move to the next pen over. Aurora follows me, curiosity thick in her features. The horse lying on the pile of hay glances up at us and watches with her ears up and alert.

“Is that . . .?” Rory gasps.

“Her name is Frost. She’s probably the best-behaved mare in here. Poor Joker has been made to look like a rowdy adolescent.”

“Why is she here?” The awe in her voice hits me square in the chest, threatening to empty the air from my lungs.

“She’s yours.”

“Mine? I don’t know a damn thing about horses!”

She’s jumpy when I wrap my body around her from behind and grip the pen door, trapping her. Trying to twist in my arms, she huffs and winds up rubbing her cheek against mine.

“I’m going to teach you, darlin’. Every fucking thing that I know.”

“Johnny,” she protests, her ass grinding over my groin with every jerky movement of her body. “Let me look at you, dammit.”

I drop a hand to her stomach and hold her against me, stilling her movements. “I’ve always believed that horses choose their owners. Joker chose me the first time I met her. It was like a string connected us down deep, right in my chest. The same thing happened with Brody and Sky, Wade and Kip. Hell, even Garrison and Kip. There’s an animal out there for everyone. We’re connected to them on a biological level.”

“And you think me and this horse are the same? After one interaction?”

“It only takes once. You felt it too, told me yourself that you were drawn toward her pen. I took a chance on buyin’ her, and if you don’t want her, then I’ll take her as my own. But I’m certain about this. Call me a dreaming idiot, but I won’t apologize for believing what I do. She’s yours, and you’re hers. Kindred spirits.”

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