Page 55 of Cowboy Stole My Heart
“Nothin’. Just sounded like you were about to leave.”
Sam grimaced. “I am. The stallion I’ve been working, he’s… Nothing. I just have to go.”
“You’re leaving already?” Faith appeared in the doorway, her other daughter on her hip, pudgy little legs wrapped around her waist. “We’re about to eat.”
“Any chance I can take it to go?” he asked, giving his sister what he hoped was an apologetic look as he passed his half-asleep niece to Nate.
She nodded. “Let me grab you a container. Nate, get a couple of steaks off and you can help yourself to the salad and potatoes on the counter inside.”
Sam felt bad for leaving, he hadn’t seen Nate and Faith a lot since work had exploded for him, but he couldn’t leave Mia to deal with an out of control stallion on her own.
He took the container offered, filled it, and stopped to give his sister a hug. “I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”
“Just be happy,” she said with a smile. “So long as you’re happy, I’m happy. You don’t have anything to apologize for, okay?”
If only everyone was as accepting and kind as his sister. When he’d come home from Iraq, she’d helped to pull him through the worst of it, and it had made him doubly protective of her. But it also meant that he always felt like he’d let her down for not being there more to help her when she’d needed it the most, and he’d never forgiven himself for that.
He pushed thoughts of his sister aside as he jumped in his car. It was time to deal with a stallion and to pretend he wasn’t secretly pleased to have an excuse to escape the family dinner and see Mia again.
