Page 38 of Bad & Bossy

He grinned as he took another step, getting uncomfortably close. “Is that a problem?”

Is it? I thought for a moment. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it meant I couldn’t bring Drew for a playdate. But I could use a day out and about without him, and I knew Vee would happily watch him. “No, it’s not.”

He leaned in closer, his face just an inch from mine, and my heart leaped in my chest. He’d been this close earlier, it shouldn’t affect me. But it did. “This will be good,” he breathed, his lips pressing lightly against my cheek and lingering a second too long. “A fresh start.”

I could only hope that I could keep Drew a secret for a little while longer.

Chapter 13

Cole

Horse riding was not my strongest ability.

I clung to the horn of the saddle with a death grip, the reins in my free hand, doing my best to remember the leg motions for controlling the supposedly loving horse beneath me, Darcy. He didn’t seem to like me very much.

Dana, Lottie, and her husband, Hunter, all seemed to ride as if they’d come out of the womb on the back of a foal. I’d told Lottie at least ten times that I’d rather stay on my own two feet, but apparently, I would be ruining the fun if I did that.

Dana shot past me at lightning speed, the widest smile across her lips as her long hair flowed in the breeze. It startled Darcy enough to whinny and raise his hooves. I held on for dear life, throwing myself forward and wrapping an arm around his neck, shooting a death glare at Dana as she laughed ahead of me.

“Struggling a bit?” she called back to me, as Darcy finally began to calm down.“You scared him!” I shouted back. The reins shifted as the horse shook his head in frustration at my attempt to squeeze my thighs.

Lottie and Hunter raced past Dana, shouting profanities at each other as they tried to gain the upper hand, and Dana chuckled at them. I wished I were more practiced at riding so I could join in the childish behavior with the rest of them, but no matter how many lessons I took, I’d never quite gotten the hang of it.

Dana looked far too confident as she sat up straight and directed her horse toward me, approaching slowly enough so Darcy didn’t get spooked again. Her smile morphed into something a little more sinister. “Feeling left out, pretty boy?”

A chuckle bubbled up my throat. “Surprisingly, no, not too much,” I admitted. Darcy shifted forward and turned, saddling up next to Dana’s horse. Our knees brushed against each other. “It’s nice seeing Lottie and Hunter this happy after everything they went through. I don’t mind your smugness, either.”

Something akin to surprise flashed briefly in her eyes before her little smirk returned. “Good. Don’t want you to be pouting the whole way back to the stable.”

Before I could blink, she’d taken off ahead of me, heading back toward the barn outside of Lottie’s late father’s house, leaving me and Darcy to figure it out on our own.

————

The moment my feet hit the ground, Lottie was shoving a brush into my chest. “You’re not putting him away dirty,” she said, her shit-eating grin far too wide for comfort.

Dana grumbled in the stall to my left, her horse already cleared of gear but her brush half tangled in the knots.

“Don’t tell me you’ve lost your touch already,” Lottie joked.

“You need new brushes,” Dana said, her boot colliding with the bucket at her feet as she kicked it beneath her horse’s head. He happily drank from it. “This one’s old as shit.”

“Can you two try not to bicker?” Hunter grunted, his hands wrapped tight around the plastic handles of the hay bale he carried. He’d buzzed his hair since I last saw him, and every time he turned the corner, I’d had to do a double take. We’d met a handful of times before he and Lottie got together at various events hosted by her father, who had been a business mentor to both of us.

“When’s your mom dropping off Brody?” Lottie asked, avoiding his comment entirely.

He dropped the hay bale at her feet and sliced the plastic straps with a box cutter. He checked his watch, squinting through the dripping sweat. “About thirty minutes or so.”

The time passed fairly quickly with all of us focused on our assigned tasks. I brushed down Darcy with a little help from Dana, and with every soothing stroke, he seemed to grow a little more fond of me. I almost wished we’d started with this; maybe it would have given me a moment to actually bond with the massive horse before me.

I actually felt like this had been good for me.

We made our way into the house together, Dana walking beside me as Lottie walked backward next to Hunter, rambling on about all the improvements they’d made to the house since I’d last been here. It was apparent as soon as we stepped through the sliding glass door—all-new hardwood flooring, a remodeled kitchen that combined modern with homey, brand new carpets spread throughout the living room and entry area. The walls had been repainted a dusky green, and altogether it formed a cohesive, farm-style house that looked like it had been plucked from a magazine. Brody’s old recliner still sat in the living room, standing out like a sore thumb, and I assumed she didn’t want to get rid of her dad’s favorite spot.

Hunter started prepping lunch as Lottie, Dana, and I sat around the kitchen island. I always looked forward to Hunter’s cooking—he was definitely meant to be a chef in another life.

“How’s the brewery?” Hunter asked, his attention focused wholly on the absurdly sharp knife slicing into vegetables beneath him.

“Good. We’ve got a new lineup coming out soon,” I said. I wasn’t sure if they’d told Dana anything about my rehab stint or if they assumed I had, and a little piece at the back of my mind kept worrying about it with every word spoken. “You guys will have to come to the launch party.”

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