Page 37 of Wild and Unruly
“Hello?” She sounds breathless through the speaker, and I close my eyes.
“Bo, hey.” I clear my throat when I can hear the anxiety in it. “Are you okay?”
I hear some ruffling in the background, and then my phone rings through, and I smile when I see her video-calling me. I sit up in bed, thankful I kept my shirt off for this conversation, and smile as I hit answer.
She smiles through the phone. Her hair is up in a ponytail, and she’s got her jeans and a button-up blouse on.
“You look nice,” I comment, settling against the headboard and watching her.
“Thank you,” she says, propping the phone against something and stepping back, ripping her ponytail out of her hair.Her rich-brown hair falls around her shoulders in a poofy wave, and she shakes it out.
“How are you?” she asks, reaching up to unbutton her blouse.
I freeze for a second, mesmerized by what she’s doing and wish she was standing next to my bed, not hers.
“Stetson?”
I blink and shake my head. “I’m okay. Missed you today.” I bite my tongue when the words slip and pinch my eyes. Shit. Maybe I shouldn’t be so open.
“Aw,” she says, bending low and smiling into the phone. “I missed you too.”
I breathe a sigh of relief and clear my throat as she reveals her tank top underneath her shirt. “Are you okay?”
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Yeah, just some stuff with my brother.”
“What’s going on?”
Bonnie kicks her boots off and starts to undo her belt, then she steps out of frame, and I look up to the ceiling, forcing myself to breathe and not react to her undressing on camera. I mean, she stepped away, so I can’t see.
But I know what she’s doing.
“He got fired from his job yesterday.”
I lift a brow in surprise. “Damn. That sucks.”
“Yeah, but he needs to not snap at everyone.”
Her words raise a red flag for me. I clear my throat, wanting to tread lightly. “Did he snap at you?”
For a moment, she doesn’t reply, and I know the answer. I don’t know her brother, obviously. I can’t imagine the pain he must feel not being able to ride anymore, not being able to takecare of himself fully because of his disability. But it doesn’t give him the right to yell at his sister.
Bonnie comes back to the phone, and she’s in an oversized T-shirt, her hair all over the place and her long legs bare.
I see her legs climb into her bed, and then her hand comes over to grab the phone, bringing me to see her again. I smile in relief just at the simple gesture of seeing her face again.
“My brother has a hard life.” I keep quiet, letting her get out what she needs to say. “It’s not his fault that he snaps sometimes, but I guess this was one too many for his boss.”
I nod my head, keeping my comments to myself and trying not to let my feelings show. “He’s stuck.” I see her sink into her pillows as she thinks, her lip tucked into her teeth. “He needs something new, some fresh new start to kickstart him, but getting him to do anything is a chore.”
“Maybe he should come to the ranch sometime? Be around animals, around the horses,” I suggest, and Bonnie pauses, a frown on her expression.
“Really? That would be okay?”
“Of course,” I say, wanting to mention how most of Dani’s clients are disabled, wondering if that’s the way she looks at him or not.
“I’m not sure he would.”
“Well, ask him.”
