Page 51 of Undone

I jumped. “Oh! I didn’t know you were there.” How had I not heard him open the screen door?

He strode into the kitchen. “Yeah, I didn’t want to interrupt you. Sounded like you were on a roll. Listen, I’m sorry I’m late. Once we got back from the trail ride, things got real busy down at the barn, and I lost track of time.”

“Told you,” Shannon said.

“But I thought you said you’d put this on your schedule so everyone would know not to disturb you?” I asked.

“Well, live animals don’t always check the calendar. Goliath was acting fussy when I had him out in the paddock for some exercise. Then Red started limping and I was worried I’d have to call the doc out again. Turned out he’d thrown a shoe and everyone else had gone for the day, so I took care of it.”

“Josh.” Shannon frowned at her brother. “That could’ve waited until tomorrow and you know it.”

He shook his head. “Not with my to-do list. Have youseenwhat I have to do tomorrow and the day after? It’s never ending around here and I can’t let things go.”

“Someone else could’ve handled it,” Shannon said with head-shaking sass. “You’re the boss, remember? That means you can delegate.”

“Everyone is busy around here, and I wasn’t going to throw more work on someone else when I was right there and could handle it.”

“Seriously, Josh? It wasnotan emergency.” Shannon huffed out a harsh laugh and shook her head again.

I could understand Goliath—the Shire was still recovering from that leg cut. But I didn’t know anything about shoeing horses. From the sounds of it, Shannon was right. It didn’t seem to be an emergency situation. So why had Josh opted to do a job he didn’t urgently need to do when he was supposed to be helping me?

“Shannon, enough,” Josh barked back at her and then sighed. “Look, I’m exhausted and I don’t have the energy to deal with you right now, okay?”

“Wow, okay grumpy,” she said. She stood up and stalked from the room without another word.

“Listen, I’m really sorry I’m late,” Josh said. “Can we start practicing now?”

I picked up my phone to check the time. “Actually, we can’t. I have a conference call in a few minutes.”

Josh looked incredulous. “At this hour? Really?”

I shrugged. “I work odd hours sometimes. Nature of the business.”

“You’re mad at me, aren’t you?”

I gathered the stack of index cards Shannon had scattered when she left the table while I decided how to answer. “Not mad, exactly.”

“Then what? I really am sorry.”

I sighed. “I know you are, but if I’m being honest, then you should know that it hurts me when you choose to shoe a horse over helping me. I get that the ranch takes a lot of time and attention, but at a certain point, you need to step back and remember the world around you. And the people.”

“You’re right.” He hung his head. “About all of it. The ranch does take a lot of my time. But it was like that for my father and my grandfather, too. That’s just how it is, when you run a ranch. This isn’t a business for someone who enjoys taking vacations every year, if at all. I thought you understood that.”

“I do.” I gnawed at my lower lip while I tried to figure out how to say what I wanted to say next. “But you’re the one who offered to help me, and you said you’d make time.” I didn’t want to come across as whiny and needy.

Neither one of us spoke for a few minutes.

“I know you have a lot going on and with the trail rides just getting started.” I blew out a breath. “Maybe you shouldn’t come with me to the interview since you’re so busy.” Admittedly, it wasn’t that Ineededhim there. Iwantedhim to come with me. To see what my life was like outside the ranch and possibly understand me better.

“Zo, no. Of course I’m coming! I want to be there for you. I won’t cancel.”

I frowned. “You promise?”

Josh slid next to me on the bench so that we were thigh to thigh. He placed his finger under my chin and gently raised it so that I was looking into his eyes.

“I promise.”

He gave me the softest kiss before wrapping his arms around me in a hug. He then reached for the index cards and shuffled through themlooking at the questions. “Okay, let’s get started. Talk to me about a project that was giving you problems and how did you solve them.”

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