Page 33 of Christmas with the Cowgirl
It was the first time he’d spoken directly to her since his grunt work comment.And he’d done that grunt work, so he deserved a decent answer, didn’t he?She checked the level in the feed bag she was about to sling over King’s head, nodded to indicate he could stop.Filling the canvas buckets with the right feed in the right amount for each horse was one of the most annoying things to do alone, and she appreciated that he was doing the lifting of the fifty-pound bags of feed, especially when dealing with everything from growth-oriented to senior-specific foods.
“Grumpy,” she admitted as she slipped the bag over King’s ears.“He thought he was going to sail through this like he has every other injury he’s ever had, so he tried to do some things he shouldn’t have.”
Miles set down the feed bag.“Ouch.That’s got to be tough, not only the injury but all the…subtext that comes with it.”
“Subtext?”
He shrugged.“That the older you get, the slower the healing gets.”
And again he’d surprised her.She didn’t know why she kept expecting superficial, unserious thoughts from him.He’d proven already that wasn’t the way he thought, and she should have known that Jackson wouldn’t be this close to a lightweight in that department.
And, she supposed it took more than a lightweight to come up with the kind of depth his work showed.Stonewallproved that.And his other two shows, the ones she also liked, weren’t fluffy bits of distraction either.They had their light moments, asStonewallhad, but underneath there was a rather surprisingly deep analysis of humans and why they are the way they are, in all their many variations.
They had started the cleanup, loading things into the wheelbarrow to put all the bags back in the feed room.Nic and Jackson were out with the other horses in the big pasture, getting them fed.The feeding itself was the last of the evening’s chores, and they were almost done.But she didn’t want the conversation to end, so she finally answered.
“Yes,” she finally said.“Dad’s having trouble with that part.”She couldn’t stop a sigh from escaping.“And so am I.”
“I know the feeling.”
She gave him half an eye-roll.“You?You’re too young to even be thinking about it.”
“You say that like you think I’m a dumb teenager.”His mouth quirked.“Although my dad would say that’s a redundancy.”
She laughed and felt suddenly lighter.“I think I’d like your dad.Is he who you meant, when you said you knew the feeling?”
“Yes,” he said.“He’s still really active, but he’s mentioned more than once that things don’t mend like they used to.”
“Your dad should talk to my dad.”She grimaced as the difference between them popped back into her mind.“He could warn him of what’s coming when he hits his seventies.”
Miles leaned a shoulder against the wall beside King’s stall.“He already knows.He hit seventy his last birthday.”At her look he smiled.“He got a late start.And my mom’s ten years younger.Which is a good thing, or I might not have my little sister.”
“Little?”
“Well, she’s eight years younger than me.But all grown up, married and with two kids.Which doesn’t mean I don’t still get to call her that.”
“Like I could call you my little brother.”
He’d been stacking the feed bags, but now he went very still.Then he settled the last one and turned to look at her.When he spoke his voice was quiet, but with an undertone of tension.“Is that how you think of me?”
“No!”The exclamation was out before she could stop it.“I just meant…it’s the same age difference.You and your sister, and you and…me.”
Go ahead, maybe you can make a bigger fool of yourself…
She didn’t know which was worse, that she’d voiced the age thought, proving she’d thought about it, or how she’d yelped when he’d asked if she thought of him as a little brother.Because if there was one way she did not think of him, it was that.Too young for her, yes, but sisterly?No way in a Texas summer could she ever think of him like that.
“You know,” he said, his voice just a shade too casual, “it really sucks that nobody blinks at my dad’s situation, married to a woman ten years younger, but if it was the other way around, some people would blink, or raise an eyebrow.When all that really matters is if they love each other.My folks do.They’re rock solid and always will be.”
She stared at him for a moment, trying to assess if he’d meant that in any other way than a casual—and valid—observation about human nature.The kind that appeared so often, and with such subtlety, in his shows.
Don’t be any more stupid than you’ve already been.Of course that’s all he meant.
“You’re lucky,” she finally managed to say.“Some couples are doomed from the start.Like my parents.”
He lifted a brow at her, tilting his head in that way she already knew meant he was curious.She imagined this man did that a lot, because a lot of things caught his interest.
“She bailed on us when I was five.And with her, it was a case of good riddance.Never saw her again.”
“Ouch again,” he said.“That, I don’t understand.How a parent could do that, I mean.”
