Page 41 of Defending Casey

She had some work she could do before the others woke up. Hale was renting a horse trailer to take them on a trail ride near one of the old mining towns on the weekend. The last thing she wanted to do was get out in the middle of nowhere and find out that they had problems with their tack.

She may be the mother of a nine-year-old child, but she almost skipped through the grasses as she walked around the side of the building.

And almost tripped over her feet when she saw someone standing in the shadows.

Her heart pounded a frantic rhythm in her chest, and she was just about to run back toward the house when she saw who it was.

“Brian?”

He lifted a hand in greeting as he stepped fully into the gray of early dawn. “Hey. I wasn’t expecting you to be up yet.”

Her smile faltered.

“Then why are you out here?”

Brian frowned and she winced at the sound of her own voice.

“Sorry,” she began. “I’m sorry; I was just surprised.”

It looked like he didn’t believe her, which was sad, but she didn’t even believe herself. Until their conversation the other day, Brian had been to the house numerous times unexpectedly. Without an invitation or even a reason to come by and she’d never felt like this.

He stayed near the barn, keeping some distance between them.

And while that felt strange, it felt good to have a chance to gather her thoughts before having to be close to him.

She needed a moment.

“I thought you weren’t coming back until next week.”

He dropped his chin down and shook his head. “I know I said that in the text, but you should know me by now. When I get upset, I say things I don’t mean, Case.”

“Casey.” She let out a breath and put an almost smile on her face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make that sound so harsh, but my name is Casey.”

He looked up at her and dropped his chin back down.

She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw his mouth pressed in a thin white line before he ducked out of her line of sight.

When he looked back up he was smiling, but it didn’t seem all that genuine.

Casey walked over to him and touched his arm. “Brian, what’s going on?”

He kicked at the dirt with the heels of his boots. “If you’re thinking about the other day, well, I’ve been thinking about it too. First, I want to apologize about what I said in front of Nora. She… she cares about him, and she should. I should never have suggested that he’s going to leave. Not in front of her. She can’t help who her father is.”

Casey felt a furrow crease her brow. “I’m sure you didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

With that, she walked past him and into the barn.

The horses looked up when she walked in, and she realized that she’d walked right past the covered bucket where she kept their treats.

A quick look over her shoulder told her that he had followed her in and was standing between her and the bucket.

The horses would have to wait for their treats. The last thing she wanted to do was walk around him again. No matter how much they disagreed about Hale, she didn’t want to argue with Brian. The tack was kept in a small closet off to the side, again, where she’d have to walk past him, so she grasped at the first chore she could find right where she was.

Grabbing the curry comb, she ducked under the chain across Powder’s stall. Powder was her father’s roan gelding and the calmest of the two horses they had around all the time. He was a smooth, easy ride and when she had a friend over to ride, she would always put them on Powder because he was the most predictable of the two mounts.

That meant she could step in the stall with him and not have to worry that her own odd feelings would rile the gelding up. Speaking softly, she started to stroke the brush over his side and shoulder. Murmuring to him, she tried to find her own peace as well.

“Casey,” Brian was standing just on the other side of the chain, his hand braced on one of the posts, “I don’t like feeling like we can’t talk.”

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