Page 85 of Ethan

“I’ll see you in the morning. I’m tired,” he said.

“I bet.” A beat. “I’ll have coffee waiting.”

He felt the corner of his mouth lift. “On the fence post?”

“Where else.” He could hear the smile in her voice.

“Goodnight, Naomi.”

“Goodnight, Ethan.” A pause. “Get some sleep.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He hung up and sat there in the quiet bedroom with the phone in his hand and looked out the window at the dark ranch.

He thought about the mare settled in at Sawyer’s and the woman in the apartment above the hay barn and felt something in his chest that had been wound tight for days finally start to loosen.

He went to bed and slept better than he had all week.

Chapter Twelve

The sound of the truck engine and the rattle of the trailer came through the open barn door before anything else.

Naomi brought Vader to a walk and rode toward the rail, catching a glimpse through the arena window of the truck pulling over to the barn, dust rising behind the trailer.

The cool down got finished properly because that was a rule Ethan stood by, and because looking like she’d been watching the road since five o’clock this morning wasn’t something she wanted to advertise. Even though that was exactly what had been happening.

Vader got untacked, brushed down, and put up. She washed her hands at the barn sink.

Then Naomi walked over to the barn.

Ethan was at the back of the trailer, unhooking the hitch from the truck, then he straightened and started back to his truck.

He turned and saw her.

He looked tired and even though his scruff was three days thick, she thought he was the sexiest man she’d ever seen. Two days on the road and a fight he hadn’t wanted and not enough sleep, all of it showing around his eyes. But when he looked at her something in his expression settled that made her chest ache.

Naomi walked to him.

No words. Just her arms around him, holding on.

His arms came around her immediately, tight, his chin dropping to the top of her head.

“Hi,” she said into his chest.

“Hi.” Low and rough with tiredness.

They stood like that for a long moment.

“She’s going to be okay,” Naomi said.

“Yeah.” He tightened his arms. “She is. Sawyer will take care of her.”

Tilting her head back, Naomi looked up at him.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “For sending you away the other night.”

He shook his head. “You had every right.”