Page 10 of Rescued Hearts

She shook her head. “I’m definitely not. I’m relieved it’s over.”

Felicity returned to making dinner, and Honor busied herself with arranging the flowers in a vase of water and placing the piece in the center of the table. Then she carried her goodies off to her room to store away for another time when she’d organize them with the rest of the stock in her van.

While she had every intention of looking to the future—to various festivals in the surrounding areas and even in Willowbrook later in the summer, a shadow lingered just around the edges of her thoughts.

Felicity’s words clung to her like the last chill of winter.

She straightened her spine. She still had no choice but to move forward…even if the path felt a little dimmer now.

* * * * *

The shovel’s blade scraped against the earth, pleasant and quiet in the evening. Gray exhaled, straightening to survey the gravel pile that had been an eyesore an hour ago but now left him with a sense of accomplishment.

Perspiration clung to his brow, and his muscles hummed from exertion. Manual labor beat hitting the gym and performing endless sets on the equipment all winter. That sort of activity left no mark on the land. This did. It proved that something had shifted, changed. Maybe that was why he needed it.

“You wiped out that whole pile of gravel!” He twisted to see his sister Willow approaching and set the shovel upright to lean on the handle.

He opened his mouth to respond but her ruffled hair and dirt-stained clothes stopped him. “You look like you’ve been dragged behind a horse.”

She gave him the head tilt that told him he was in for the sharp edge of her tongue. He waited, lips twitching to keep from smiling outright at his sister’s appearance. Covered in grit from boots to shoulders. Even her dark hair looked a bit dusty.

“I was breaking that new colt.”

“Looks like he broke you.” He peered closer at her, zeroing in on the Black Heart Ranch T-shirt beneath the grime of dirt. “Where did you get that shirt?”

Butterflies gathered in the top corner of the ranch’s logo in the middle of her T-shirt and flitted around the word RANCH.

She glanced down at herself. “What?”

“Tell me you didn’t…mess with…the Black Heart logo like that.”

She gave him a flat look. “Women work on this ranch too. Some of us want pretty things.”

“You bastardized our logo.”

“Feminized!” Her lips twisted in a smirk. “You want a shirt like mine?”

“Absolutely not.”

She swept a look over him. “The driveway looks great with the new gravel spread around.”

His only response was to wipe his forearm over the sweat on his brow. This time of day, things started to wind down around the ranch. Most of the chores were finished, and the vets who performed them went off to enjoy their evening or join in other activities. Gray was thankful he wasn’t required to hang out with the guys, or even his family, but he still hated this time of day for his own reasons.

To toss another dislike on the heap, it was Friday. Bonfire day. Most people loved Fridays, but not him. Though the match hadn’t even been struck yet, he could almost smell the ash in the back of his nose.

He started counting the seconds before Willow asked if he planned to join them at the fire tonight. He had to make his getaway now.

Swinging the shovel over his shoulder, he only took two steps toward the shed when two guys rounded the garage.

Dutch was one of the vets who’d been here long enough to know every operation on the ranch. And the newcomer, Crew, was with him.

Gray couldn’t see a way out of talking to them, so he stopped in his tracks and let them approach him. Willow suddenly appeared beside Gray, swiping at the dirt on her shirt. She flicked a lock of hair over her shoulder.

Gray peered closer at her. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing. What are you doing?”

He narrowed his eyes, but she wasn’t paying attention to him. Her gaze was fixed on the guys coming toward them.

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