Page 56 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

Suddenly, Xander started laughing. It was the deep belly laugh of hysteria and damn if it wasn’t contagious. The moment he locked eyes with me, it came bursting out of my mouth as I threw back my head and laughed along with him.

Poor Val just sat between us, looking confused until she jumped off the hay bale and trotted away, clearly done with our antics.

“Have you ever seen such a sorry pair?” Xander asked. “A drunk and an asshole.”

“Hey! I’ve been nothing but nice to you.”

Xander looked at me wryly. “I have to admit you are weirdly nicer now that you’ve got Reece in your life. I just can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

“Is that why you’ve been so rude to her all night? You think she’s some kind of devil woman out to corrupt my soul?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Xander pushed me gently and huffed out a laugh. “Your soul was lost years ago. I’m more worried that you’re trying to lure her in by being someone you’re not. The poor woman might need an escape route, and I’m such a nice guy that I’d have to go completely out of my way to provide her with one. It’s going to be a massive inconvenience considering that I live in the city.”

“Yeah, ever the nice guy,” I quipped.

“Out of all of us, I’m definitely the nice one.”

I was pretty sure the look I gave him following that comment said it all.

“Does Trace know?” I asked, not sure how I felt about that.

Xander nodded. “It’s hard to hide when you’ve been staying with someone for a while.”

I guess that made sense. It didn’t take the sting out of him not feeling like he could come to me sooner. I was the eldest. I was supposed to be the one that protected them all.

“I’m turning the ranch into a therapy center,” I blurted out.

Xander raised his eyebrows in surprise, and I stood from the hay bale, walking over to the stable for the little mare and leaning on the door. When Xander joined me, I continued. “Healing horses has always been something I’ve been passionate about, but I want to expand on that. I want to help people as well.”

I could almost feel the look of surprise on Xander’s face at that statement but chose not to take it personally.

“This place has done so much for me. I know it can help others too. Plus, with the funding I could raise, it gives me the means to bring in more staff, expand our rescue numbers.”

“You’ve really thought about this,” Xander said.

“You could say that. I have my investors lined up, and I’ve already started work on putting in some cottages on the property for people to stay in.”

“That’s really impressive, Book.” Xander sounded impressed, and even if it warmed a corner of my heart I didn’t want to admit to, I didn’t know if he’d feel the same way after what I planned to say next.

“I need a doctor in town, Xander.” I turned to look at him to gauge his reaction. It was actually the one part of my business plan that I hadn’t been able to square down. I needed an on-call medical presence in case something went wrong.

Xander sighed, his head falling forward as his shoulders slumped. It was the reaction I’d been expecting.

Here I was thinking about how Gage deserved to live his life on his own terms, and yet, the first chance I had, I was reeling Xander back in.

Being on his own hadn’t been the answer for Xander though. We’d all seen him partying in high school, and obviously, that continued in college. But if it had reached a level after that to put his entire career in jeopardy, then maybe distance wasn’t what Xander needed.

Our parents were an issue we all needed to deal with. But we had support and family in each other. Reece was right. We should be building on that. We should let the people who cared about us take some of the load.

Hell, maybe we could even figure out a way to free ourselves of the parental curse if we worked together. Take back the town for ourselves and everyone who lived in it.

Okay, that sounded a bit too murderous for real life, but consequences could be a bitch, and it was time the eldest Farrington generation started facing them.

The little mare shuffled forward a step, and we both paused, practically holding our breath as she slowly, cautiously, moved closer. When she stretched her neck and her soft muzzle brushed across Xander’s hand, I knew I had him from the cautious smile that slowly came to his lips.

Xander slowly turned his hand, and the mare pressed her nose against his palm, huffing out a breath when she realized there wasn’t one of the treats there that Reece had been sneaking to her. He gently ran his hand over her muzzle, and the mare moved closer instead of cautiously stretching out to test the person in front of her.

Xander sighed again. “Tell me more about this plan of yours.”

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