Page 8 of Coiled Tight
“Sure, but?—”
“I’ll see what I can find.”
Fuck.
He really was going to hate my guts by the end of the week.
By the end of the day, really.
four
saúl
“When were you going to tell me we have a new vet?” I clenched my fingers around the doorframe to the main stables while pressing the phone to my ear.
Oddly enough, the stables had the best reception, and after showingCamaround, I’d used the excuse of taking Swiftheart back while he unpacked to get some distance. The guy was fine. I saw the nod of approval Sofía—my sister, and the head vet he’d work alongside—gave when he discussed the way to handle the cub we were keeping isolated while he recovered his strength. That was good enough for me, but… Fuck. Every time a person was near him without an animal to act as a buffer, he looked two hairs away from having a panic attack. How that would be conducive to anything, I had no idea.
There was also the pesky detail that I hadn’t been consulted on the fact that he’d be livingwith me. The house was lonely, yes, but I’d slowly turned it into my territory.
I was protective.
“Cameron! He arrived all right?” My father switched to Spanish as he asked, so I did too.
I doubted he was going to walk the distance—or grab the truck I’d already handed him a set of keys to—to come get me, but it was probably a good idea to switch languages, too. One could never be too careful, they said.
“If you ignore that he showed up at the back gate, he doesn’t speak a word of Spanish, and I didn’t know I was expecting someone? Sure, Da, he arrived all right.”
The old man laughed. “He’ll learn. He has good bones on him.”
Not from what I’d seen, but I kept the thought to myself. “And what is it with him living at the main house?”
“We needed a live-in vet, and you know your sister is damned set against the idea,” he said, adding the usual disdain that was expected when Sofía’s dedication to the sanctuary came up. I kept my mouth shut and didn’t point out that she stayed over when any of the horses were injured, but it was pointless for her to be here 24/7 when there was a whole team dedicated to horse care. “And the lodging is full, not a bed to spare.”
I called bullshit, but it might as well be true.
Da knew how to end all my arguments before I’d even begun.
“I would’ve appreciated a warning, is all.”
Some of the horses turned their heads toward me. I shook my head. The last thing I wanted was for one of them to think my biting tone had to do with them.
Right now, we only had two dozen adults swishing their tails and roaming around. Not that I was worried about unused space. We always got an influx after the rodeo events—people either offloading their injured or old horses on us, or alerting us of horses that needed to be rescued.
Saddle Up—one of the largest events in the country—was coming up in a few months.
“And what would that have achieved? You would’vefought me on it like the stubborn man you are. Cameron is a great addition to the animal care team. He will do you good, too.”
Wait, what?
I could feel my brain screeching to a halt. “What do you mean he’ll do me good?”
“He had one of those flags around his wrist when we talked. Not the rainbow one, but you know, one of those.”
One of those.
Right.
“Da, just because someone is gay?—”
