Page 48 of Stables

Dixon squats in front of me, his knees on either side of mine, his elbow on the table and his hand resting on the side of my chair.

It’s like he’s being careful not to touch me.

But he’s completely surrounding me.

The subtle heat of his body and his faint scent of pine wrap around me into a comforting cocoon.

Except it shouldn’t be.

There’s no guarantee that Dixon is any safer than Matt.

Just because he ran Matt off in the middle of the night, in his very tight underwear, doesn’t mean he won’t turn mean later himself.

But for now, he’s the lesser of two evils.

It’s how I should look at this.

Only temporary. Except what can I do to get Matt to stop?

Dixon’s dark eyes study me, and his jaw ticks beneath his morning shade of whiskers. “You have every right to worry. Is there someplace you can go? Have you thought about selling the farm and leaving?”

“I can’t sell, I owe more than it’s worth.” I don’t want to explain how stupidity got me there. “I can’t leave the state, Matt’s mom made sure of that.” Watching my fingers fidget with the hem on my pants doesn’t make this conversation any easier.

I’m going to wither away out here, slowly starving and letting bills rack up unless I can get a couple of more solid horse sales.

I’ve kicked around the idea of picking up a part time job in town, but what do I do with Paisley? I can’t afford daycare costs.

Shit, I can’t even put enough gas in my truck to make it back and forth to town.

All of my feed bills are on credit.

My palms spread. “Rock—” I look at one hand.”—meet hard place.” I glance at my left. “Here I am, in the middle.” I smack them together in a clap loud enough that I hear Paisley stir.

Dixon’s gaze drops to my interlaced fingers and his mustache twitches as his lips thin. “Call your friend, make sure she can stay here during the days I’m on shift.” His chocolate colored eyes raise to meet mine. “You shouldn’t be alone. If Libby isn’t enough, we’ll find other options.”

The sincerity in his stare makes me doubt he’d ever hurt me.

Are there really such things as genuine men who do therightthing?

I know I should protest. I don’t deserve for him to put himself in danger over me.

But there’s a part of me that is screaming if I keep pushing him away, he might actually leave.

What would I do then?

“Mommy?” Paisley’s soft footsteps pad into the kitchen and she moves up to Dixon’s side.

He drops his arm from my chair and shifts his thick thigh to give her access to reach me.

She tilts her messy auburn head before dropping her butt onto his knee to look up to me.

“Mommy, I hungry.” She blinks up at me before crossing her pudgy arms across my leg and laying her forehead on them, wiping her nose across my jeans.

I’ve never seen her take to someone like that before. The fact that she’s nonchalantly just using Dixon as a stool is hard not to smile at.

I wonder if he knows how huge this is for her?

My fingers gently work through her tangled hair. “Of course, baby girl. I’ll get you some applesauce.”

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