Page 10 of Spring Forward

“Oh, I’m paying attention,” my voice is husky.

She barks out a short laugh and shakes her head as a slight blush colors her cheeks. “You need to pay attention to the plan,” she clarifies. Before I can say anything, her face turns serious. “Nothing can happen between us.”

I rear back like she slapped me, and I gasp, “Why?”

“You’re my boss, for one,” she tells me like it should be obvious. Maybe it should be. “And I don’t have flings, which is all it could be since this is just a temporary contract,” there’s a note of sadness in her words that tugs at me. “Flings only end with someone getting hurt.”

The way she says it, like she knows from experience, has possessiveness roaring up inside of me. I want to demand that she tell me who she’s talking about, but I swallow those words down. It’s clear she thinks she’s right and I won’t win in an argument; not now at least.

I give a jerky nod before I stand up and offer her my hand. “Come on, Freckles, lets go and grab some lunch and you can check on August.”

Her shoulders relax as if she thinks I’ve given up. I haven’t, but she doesn’t need to know that right now. I’m going to show her that Limitless is where she belongs; her and August. The boy needs something more than traveling from place to place. He’s going to be a teenager soon and figuring out how to grow into the man he’s meant to be. He can get that here with me and my brothers.

We’re quiet as we walk back toward the main house. The moment we walk in, the sound of laughter coming from the kitchen has a wide grin breaking out on Delaney’s face. She fucking glows and has no idea.

Walking into the kitchen, we stand in the doorway for a moment and take in the way August and Mack are giggling as they roll cookie dough into balls while Eden washes dishes. When I look at my woman, her head is tilted as she studies her brother, and I can almost feel the longing coming off her in waves.

Yeah, this is the place they belong, and I’ll have plenty of time to prove it to her.

CHAPTER 5

DELANEY

As I settle on the porch swing while wearing a hoodie and leggings, I almost regret not grabbing a blanket from the living room since it’s still a little chilly in the morning here. While wrapping my hands around my cup of coffee, the warmth seeps into me and helps. Only a little though.

Facing the chill of the morning is worth it for the view I have right now.

The sun is barely peeking up over the horizon and starting to paint the sky in pinks, purples, and yellows. It’s beautiful.

I’ve seen a lot of sunrises and sunsets across the country while enjoying a lot of different landscapes. This one is a favorite and I couldn’t even tell you why. There’s just something serene about it with the mountains in the distance, but with flat land in front of me. Maybe it’s all in my head and I’m simply desperate for a place to feel like home. The way I feel settled here could just bean illusion.

Who fucking knows, but this morning, as I curl my fingers around my coffee mug isn’t when I’m going to figure it out.

My mind wanders to the work we’ve gotten done over the last week. The Burns brothers have impressed me, Noel most of all. He’s committed to making this equine therapy program work, it’s clear in everything he’s been doing.

While my focus is mostly on getting the horses assessed and trained, I also lay out plans for the rest of the business. However, it’s the job of whoever will be maintaining the program to set those things up. What good does it do for me to do it and then leave? The person in charge needs to be able to maintain and shift their marketing and brand as they see fit. Of course, I’m around to help and give feedback.

Once I laid out what they would need and who might be a good resource to tap into within the community, Noel has run with it. He’s already contacted the hospital in Wintervale as well as surrounding towns to touch base about letting them know Limitless will be a resource for them. Any suggestions they’ve given him; he’s taken on and followed up with.

That’s not all, he’s also started working on the program’s website along with Fletcher since he’s the one who has been maintaining Limitless’ website up until now. A lesser man would have just handed that project off to his brother to take care of, but not Noel.

Whenever he hasn’t been working on the behind-the-scenes things which go along with implementing a program like we’re building, he’s been with me and observing how I’m assessing the horses. He hasn’t been shy about asking questions, but he’s done it in an unobtrusive way without interrupting my work.

The biggest problem is that whenever he’s around I find myself more than a little distracted. He’s the most attractive man I’ve ever met, and the only man who has made had me consider breaking my cardinal rule to not get involved with people I work with, bosses especially. Noel is the kind of man you want to break all your rules for.

He’s intense and focused. He’s kind and thoughtful. The way he listens to me and probes my thoughts is intoxicating. The way he cares about the horses, the ranch, and the equine therapy program, even though it’s in its infancy, is filled with devotion.

It makes me wonder what it would feel like to have all of that devotion directed toward me.

Could he make me feel safe? Would I feel grounded, a feeling I hardly remember anymore because it’s been so long since I experienced it? Can he be my strength while letting me be his?

I shake my head, hoping to shake off those thoughts. They’re dangerous as hell. I can’t afford to give into them, no matter how tempting they are.

And they are tempting as hell.

It isn’t just me, either. Noel has embraced August in a way no one else has before. That would be enough to endear me to the man, but the way Auggie has soaked up the attention and basked in it like the sun, has only brought the point home that my brother needs a solid, steady, consistent male presence in his life. He deserves to feel settled and to feel like he belongs. And not in a fleeting way.

I’ve done him a disservice.

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