Page 9 of Holding The Reins

“Morning, baby.” She turns to glance at me over her shoulder. “Oof… you look like wine and unwise choices.”

I grunt in response.

“I’m making bacon and eggs, figured you’d need it after last night.”

I pour myself a cup of steaming coffee.

“Please.”

I sit down at the kitchen island just as my phone starts to ring. I put my head in my hands. Andrew’s second call of the day and it’s only nine a.m. I silence it and sip my coffee.

“You might as well face him, or he’s never going to go away. You can’t avoid him forever. Just tell him what a good for nothing prick he is,” my mom says as she fries the bacon.

My phone lights up silently again before I can ever answer her.

“Fine!” I give in, as I stand with my phone. “I’ll take it on the porch.”

“Take Harley with you, put him on the leash or he’ll run halfway to the northside field, and don’t be long; this will all be ready in fifteen minutes or so.”

The words don’t leave her mouth before Harley is at my side looking up at me expectantly. I hook his leash into his collar as I answer Andrew, tucking the phone between my cheek and my shoulder.

“Andrew,” I say as I walk the dog towards the door.

“You can’t avoid me forever, Cecilia. You’ve made your point. It’s time to come home.”

The warm, early July sun hits my face as I make my way onto the wide covered front porch juggling Harley and my coffee.

“I’m not coming back Andrew. It’s over between us.” I keep my voice calm and even.

“The hell you aren’t. We have a life here, friends, we’re engaged, for Christ’s sake.”

I’m just about to lose my shit when Harley’s leash wraps around my ankle and I go ass-over-tea-kettle in my pajamas. My phone and my coffee both go flying, mercifully most of the scalding liquid hits the grass and not me.

“Harley!” I yell as he untangles himself from my hold and takes off across the yard. I go to sit up but I’m dizzy. Did I hit my head? Yep, definitely did.

“Fucks sake, Rae, are you alright?” Nash’s deep, familiar voice is hurried as he skids in beside me. Strong arms take hold from under me and pull me to a seated position.

“Did you hit your head?” I feel his hand gently press against my skull searching for damage. His large fingers feel good and warm.

“I think so, not too hard though…” I mutter, wondering where the hell Nash Carter came from on my front lawn at nine a.m.

“Cecilia?” I hear Andrew’s muffled yelling from my phone in the grass.

Nash picks up the phone, his face sullen and his jaw tense as his eyes stay on mine.

A tattered cowboy hat, jeans and tack on the grass tells me he’s here helping Wade with the horses this morning.

“She’ll have to call you back, buddy,” he bites out, and then he hangs up the phone on Andrew.

Goddamn, cowboy Nash is fucking hot.

Iwas on my way back from cleaning tack in the west barn when she came into my sightline. I knew she was going down before she even made it down the front steps into the yard. Trying to juggle the dog leash, her phone and a coffee in her sock feet? Recipe for disaster.

As if looking after CeCe last night wasn’t already a full-time job, the universe thinks I should do it again today. As last night wore on, more men started coming into the bar and the more men that came in, the more men I had to intercept as they made their way over to talk to her.

Because she was drinking—and because she’s like my family—it’s my job to protect her and make sure some sleazebag doesn’t pick her up. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

I tried to go back to my office, but that lasted all of twenty minutes before I was back out to watch CeCe, and watch her I did. I watched her as she danced in my periphery, as she laughed and sang to Ginger, her arms up over her head as she moved. How she commanded all the attention in the room. The way her hips swayed under her tight little skirt made me wonder how her hips move in other scenarios, how they’d look with my hands gripping them pulling her down into my lap.

---