Page 57 of The Moments You Were Mine
I wanted to stay and go through the footage myself.
What I did was follow the blond lightning bolt my body ached to console.
She was nearly at the barn when I grabbed her arm and pulledher around to face me. “Stop.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” she huffed, yanking herself free. “Every person in there is now wondering if I’m involved with this.”
“No one thinks that!”
“Please. I saw it all over Wylee’s face. You even—”
“Looked confused. I don’t fucking believe you’d set fire to this place,” I insisted. “Wylee felt the same way. Confusion isn’t doubt. So, tell me, Ducky, why the hell are you doubtingyourself.”
The flicker crossed her face again, the same one I’d seen while she’d been staring at the screen as if she’d lost something she couldn’t find, as if she was trying to capture a fleeting memory.
She swallowed. “I… I…” She shook her head, spun on her heel, and headed for the barn. “I have a staff meeting to prepare for and damage control to perform.”
“Fallon,” I growled out.
She ignored me.
Instead, she headed into the barn and stopped just inside the door to check a clipboard hung on a peg near the door. Two men in cowboy hats, T-shirts, and worn boots stepped forward to say how sorry they were about the fire. One of them told Fallon that none of the guests had backed out of any activities for the day. Every trail ride, boating adventure, and hiking experience was booked to the max.
Her face was impassive while she got the rundown, but I saw her shoulders lift ever so slightly in relief. Whatever was happening to her and the ranch hadn’t scared away the existing clients—at least not yet.
While she talked, I messaged Cranky, making sure he was aware the footage was coming and that I needed him to identify time gaps, black holes, or areas where the footage had been altered. I also wanted him to identify if there’d been any shifts in any of the security cameras’ directions that couldn’t be explained by Mother Nature.
The sound of Theo’s giggle drew me from my phone, and I crossed over to the stall it had come from. When I peered over the door, my heart lurched at the sweet picture that greeted me.Theo sat in the hay beside another chinook, nursing four puppies. Johnny sat on Theo’s opposite side, tail thumping while two more puppies pounced on it. The expression on Theo’s face was pure joy. Pure magic.
I snapped a photo as a lump formed in my throat. Will would have loved to see Theo like this.I’m doing my best, Will. He’s as happy as I can make him after losing you. I don’t know how you refused to get him a dog for so damn long, but what the hell am I going to do with a kid and a puppy?
Teddy stepped in next to me, leaning his arm on the stall door, and said quietly, “He has a natural knack with animals. Even the horses seemed drawn to him as we walked around. Why don’t you leave him with me for a few hours? He can help me with the feeding schedule and mucking the stalls. Basic stuff.”
“You don’t have time to be a babysitter,” I replied.
“He’s no problem at all, Parker. Besides, we both know there are very few people on this earth Fallon will let close enough to help her.”
My chin jerked up, eyes meeting his. We stared each other down. My pulse raced, thinking of all the ways I wanted to get close to Fallon, ways I shouldn’t want and yet hadn’t been able to stop myself from craving.
When I didn’t respond, he said, “You know, I’m not talking about that security bullshit or the day-to-day duties of the ranch, right?”
He never took his eyes off mine. I got what he was saying. Fallon rarely let anyone inside her walls to help maneuver the minefield of her emotions. If Maisey or Sadie were here, shemightlet them in, and even that was a big might. But for some reason, she’d always opened up to me. She’d always shared her darkest secrets as well as her hopes and fears.
At least, she had until that one fucking night had erected a new wall, this one between us.
Once she’d started texting me again, our texts had gone back to the usual banter we’d always dished out to each other, but it had all been surface level. She hadn’t even told me what had happened with JJ in San Diego. I’d only heard my dad’s third-hand version of it.
Climbing over the wall she’d raised since then wasn’t goingto be easy. But what choice did I have? None. I couldn’t walk away from her any more than I could walk away from Theo—not if I wanted to still respect myself come morning.
I moved into the stall, crouched beside Theo, and ruffled his hair. He looked up with that wide grin that would forever get him exactly what he wanted with me. “I’m going to help Fallon for a while. Teddy said you could stay with him and help with the dogs and the horses if you’d like.”
His grin grew impossibly wider. “I can help?”
“Yes. But you have to do exactly what Teddy says. The horses are big and can hurt you if you don’t stand in the right place or you do something to spook them. And you can’t run off just because you see something you like. You do only what Teddy says and stay right with him.”
“Okay, Parker. I’ll be good!” He made a cross over his chest with his little fingers.
My throat clogged. “You’re always good, bud. You just get too excited sometimes and forget to listen. So let’s put on those superpower listening ears we’ve talked about.” I pretended to take the fake ears out of my pocket and made a big production of removing his old ones and placing on super bionic ones I’d been teasing him about for days now, screwing them on before tickling his neck.
