Page 43 of The Wounded Warrior

k

And that was that. Just ‘k’.

Since the whole injury drama, Luke had kinda forgotten what it was like to be trusted to take care of himself. Matty knew him, though. Knew what he could do.

And he could fucking take care of himself.

“So, where is your place then? On your mom and dad’s property?”

“No, I bought fifty acres just west of them. It was going to be industrial, and I wanted it more.”

“I love that.” Luke would never have cared about keeping land agricultural until Matty showed him the way horses could heal a man.

“It’s not bad at all. I have a line of properties between my place and y’all’s.”

“Yeah? Weird. Which way? Miz Owen still has the place to the east. She was telling us Harris tried to buy her out. Even tried to help auction her goats.”

“North from you, south from me.”

“Gotcha.” He thought about the three small spreads between them and the next big expanse of fence. Two small horse operations and a rescue for unwanted animals. Both horse operations were closing down soon. “What are you gonna do with that fifty or so acres closing down?”

“I’m not sure. They’ve got solid barns, good bones, all of them.”

“Yeah. Holler when you want to talk about maybe renting one of them. I think Matty is underestimating what we can dowith the horses.” He had ideas. Nothing to have deep conversations about yet, but ideas, anyway.

“Yeah? You going to expand?”

“Maybe. I have a good bit of money to invest. I didn’t do shit with my salary for years.”

“Good for you! I love when people invest in their hometown.”

“I never thought I would at all.” The sides of the road flew by, grass knee tall and gr 5800ewen, the sky overhead blue as could be.

“No. Did you have another plan or were you winging it?”

“Oh, God, I have no idea. I guess I thought I would go down in a blaze of glory and die in battle.” He was an asshole and he knew it.

“That sounds painful.”

“It is.” He snorted. “And less interesting than it should be.”

“Well, I promise to make things interesting for you here, honey.” Rory didn’t sound like he was making fun at all.

“I like that.” Luke would have reached over to touch Rory’s leg but he couldn’t remember which one was all stitched.

They drove down a long, graded road and ended up at a pretty ranch house in the middle of a bunch of mature pecan trees. “This is right nice,” Luke told him. “Private.”

“I swear I’m not an ax murderer.” Rory coasted to a stop by the back stoop. “Voilà. Ramp.”

“Why’s there a ramp?”

“Lady who lived here had a stroke. I kept it for carrying heavy things into the house.”

“Ah. Well, I’m glad. I can be heavy.” There. A joke. Ha.

“Honey, you’re stacked to the fucking ceiling. I couldn’t pick your fine ass up.”

“No?” His cheeks heated again. This man had anamazing effect on him. “Well, you’re gonna have to dance with me again to get me out of the car.”

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