Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105161 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105161 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Fucker.
A light knock made its way to my ears. Poor Sassy hadn’t known what to do with me after the showdown in the farmhouse kitchen. Maybe I needed to reassure her I wasn’t bothered by her brother’s annoying outburst.
I looked up only to find a different Wilde standing there on the other side of the stall door. Hudson’s hands were laced behind his neck, and he looked like he was about to carve permanent stress lines into his forehead with all that brow furrowing.
“Relax,” I muttered, standing and gesturing for him to enter. “I’m not about to tell anyone what happened between us in Cork.”
He hesitated before stepping into the stall and closing the door behind himself. I was sure he didn’t want anyone to witness our little reunion scene.
“That’s not… that wasn’t…” He let out a sigh. “Look, I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way, especially in front of my family. It was rude and unprofessional. I don’t know what got into me.”
“It’s understandable, I guess. I surprised you. Clearly you didn’t know I was coming.”
He let out a derisive laugh. “No. Definitely not. I was expecting Devlin or Cait.”
Right. Anyone but me, then.
“Sorry to disappoint,” I said. “But I’m the Murray you got. Don’t worry, I’ll leave. And as far as I’m concerned, what happened in Cork stayed in Cork.”
Hudson seemed to take a moment to process what I was saying. He had a funny expression on his face I couldn’t quite assess. I was expecting relief, but it seemed a bit more like… disappointment.
Was he disappointed in me? What, had he expected me to apologize also? Pfft. As if that was going to happen. I’d done absolutely nothing wrong, either in Cork or in the farmhouse kitchen. If Hudson Wilde expected me to—
“Well hello there,” he crooned, squatting down to pet my girl.
Dammit. I didn’t want him to be sweet to my dog. That was a bridge too far.
I let out a sigh. The man was trying to be nice and all I wanted to do was fight. “That’s Mama.”
“We’ve met before. While you were in Waterford doing those deliveries she kept me company in the office. Hey, sweet girl,” he cooed as he scratched her ears and then her flanks just the way she liked it. “Long flight, huh? Poor baby… what a good girl.” He continued to murmur sweet nothings to her as if he was actually a thoughtful, kind man.
Selfish prick.
“I, ah, saw the horses out there,” I said with a cough, nodding toward the other stalls. “Is one of those yours?”
He looked up and smiled like a damned rainbow after a storm. It was so unexpected, the warmth of it made me dizzy.
“Yeah, let me show you.”
I followed him into the central corridor between the stalls and watched him transfer his animal love chatter from Mama to a large brown horse with lovely black eyelashes and ear tips.
“This is Kojack,” he said with a shy smile. There was a hint of both pride and vulnerability in his smile, and for the first time, I saw a fragile part of him I’d only caught the barest glimpse of back home.
“He’s very pretty,” I said. “And big.” Were there other ways of describing horses? I wasn’t sure.
Hudson chuckled. “He is.” After stroking along the horse’s nose, he moved to the next stall and introduced a smaller horse named Bumble Bee. With every silky nose he stroked and made sweet eyes to, he seemed to come more alive. He snuck treats to them and talked to them as if they were each special in their own way, all the while telling me whose favorite each one was and what their temperament was like. By the time he introduced me to a barn’s worth of animals, Hudson was relaxed and beaming.
“You’re really good with them,” I said softly. “I can tell you love it here at the ranch.”
He glanced up at me through his lashes before looking away. “Maybe… maybe while you’re here we can go riding sometime.”
Even though I wanted to let the words wash over me and take away the rejection I’d felt from him earlier, I knew it was too dangerous. I truly needed to leave and put Hudson Wilde firmly behind me.
“That sounds nice, Hudson, but you were right earlier. I should go. I’ll have Cait or Devlin take my place. It’s not fair to—”
“No, I… I don’t want you to go,” he blurted. “I shouldn’t have been so dismissive. I was… I was surprised, that’s all. Surely we can get past this and work closely together just fine. If we can both agree to buckle down, maybe we can finish sooner than three months and get you back home. I can’t imagine you’re very happy being away from home that long anyway.”