Page 75 of The Last One You Loved
MCKENNA
LITTLE BY LITTE
“The moon will call,
And the tides roll in.
Don’t it feel good to come home again?”
Performed by Joel Taylor
Written by Lane / Miller / Lotten
SeeingShadowfax hit me with waves of memories and nostalgia. I’d expected the horse not to remember me, but after I put my hand out, he nuzzled and neighed, stepping closer and butting his muzzle into my shoulder just like he had ages ago.
My throat grew thick.
“Shadowfax is one of the prettiest horses at the ranch,” Mila said. “I want to ride him, but Daddy says not yet. I do like Daddy’s horse, too. Papa says for my eighth birthday, he’s going to buy me my own horse and I can go with him to pick her out because horses and people find each other just like princes and princesses in fairy tales.”
“Breathe, Bug-a-Boo,” Maddox said, flicking his little girl on the cheek softly before turning to me. “You remember how to saddle him?”
“I remember,” I said quietly.
Once we’d tacked up the horses, Maddox tucked several paper sacks he’d brought with him from Tillie’s and placed them in the saddle bags he’d hung on Arod.
Tillie had been overjoyed to see us all together that morning. “M&M, thick as thieves again, I see.”
Mila had picked up on it immediately. “M&M? Like the candy?”
“Yep, those two were inseparable,” Tillie said with a nod. “Couldn’t have one M without the other.”
Mila had grown quiet before asking, “What do you call three M’s? Because now there are three of us.”
It had lodged another lump in my throat I wasn’t sure I’d ever clear as Tillie considered her. “Well, I guess it would be M&M’s because there are more than two kinds in the bag, right?”
“I’m definitely the yellow M&M,” Mila said. “Because Nana says I have the most sunshiny soul she’s ever seen.”
Tillie had laughed. “That you do. That you do.”
Mila had looked at us after Tillie had moved off and said, “Daddy, you’ll be the blue M&M because of your blue eyes, and McKenna will be the green one because her eyes can look greenish sometimes. Have you noticed, Daddy?”
Maddox’s gaze had met mine, locking me into place. “Yes, I’ve one-hundred-percent noticed. It’s a good choice. Green M&M’s have always been my favorite.”
There was absolutely no scientific data to back the claim that green M&M’s were some sort of aphrodisiac, but I still found myself flushing a thousand shades of red at Maddox’s innuendo. I’d blushed more since coming back to Willow Creek than I had in what felt like a lifetime. I wasn’t a blusher by nature. There wasn’t anything about human anatomy and sex that I considered embarrassing. But Maddox’s words…they weren’t sex and anatomy. They were sweet compliments and sensual promises, and those I was unaccustomed to.
Now, as he held Shadowfax’s reins for me while I mounted, my skin heated again as he caressed the back of my hand before stepping away. It was more than just a tender little touch. It was another torturous promise, just like the ones he’d spoken about outside the bathroom door.
I turned my gaze from his to Mila’s as I pulled myself together.
She wasn’t afraid of the horses at all. Instead, she stood with her hands on Arod’s muscled shoulder while Maddox mounted. Then, he reached down to lift her easily up in front of him. His biceps rippled under the tight Henley he had on, and my gaze lingered on his bulging arms before looking up to his face. He winked and then tipped his hat down low over his eyes and urged Arod forward.
Shadowfax and I followed, and I watched as Mila and Maddox moved with the horse. There was something innately tender about the way she was wrapped in front of him, like he was protecting her from the entire world, and I guessed, in a way, he was. I could hear her chattering but not what she was saying because they were just a little too far ahead of me on the path. It was probably a good thing because I needed my complete concentration on learning the movements of a horse again, trying to remember all the things Brandon had ever taught me about riding and attempting to keep my hands light on the reins.
The sun was bright, but there was still a slight bite to the air that made me glad I’d done laundry while Mila was at school, so I had my thick green sweater and jeans on with my only pair of tennis shoes. I wished I had my cowboy boots—the ones I’d left at the ranch so Mama couldn’t find them but then had taken with me to college only to promptly give them away in my efforts to forget Tennessee.
As we got farther away from the barn, I realized Maddox was leading us on the much longer path around the ranch to the hollow I’d visited. The route he was taking would make sure we didn’t have to jump the creek. At the top of a small rise, Maddox pulled up, and I brought Shadowfax alongside Arod, looking down over the pastures and meadows. As far as I could see was Hatley land. Acres they’d almost lost during those tight times right before I’d left Willow Creek. But now, the freshly painted house, the fancy gate, and the half-dozen cabins behind the barn proved it was thriving.
“I’m glad y’all kept the ranch,” I said.
