Page 57 of Falling for Her

“Everything good?” she asks. “You sound pissed.”

“This meeting was supposed to happen three hours ago.” It’s a little past 8:00 p.m. now. “We’ll have a debrief tomorrow with Captain.”

“I can’t wait,” she deadpans. “See you then.”

She hangs up, and I make my way to the station, dumping off my keys and then getting into my truck to go home.

Finley’s car is parked at the curb when I get home. I want to kick myself for forgetting to call Brock today to find out exactly what was wrong with it.

The lights are all off in the front, but I see a glow out back. I open the front door and wait a couple of minutes before I say something, just in case Asa’s sleeping. I take off my boots and walk to the kitchen. It’s empty. The television is playing, and no one is in the room.

I find Asa upstairs, lying in the middle of his bed, turned on his side.

“Hey, Dad.” He gets up on his elbow.

“Hey, buddy.” I walk into the room and look around. “Where’s Finley?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “She was downstairs when I came to bed.” Just then, I hear the toilet flush and the downstairs bathroom door open. The TV cuts off, and I hear her footsteps moving to the kitchen.

I sit on the side of his bed. “Did you have a good day?”

He smiles big and nods. “We went to the barn.”

My eyebrows pinch together. “What?”

“We went to Mr. Charlie’s barn, and he let us ride horses.” My blood freezes. “It was really cool and Finley⁠—”

“She was there?” I try not to let him know how pissed I am.

“Yeah, she rode a black horse. Dad, she was racing with him. It was so cool!” He goes on in detail about how they both went on a trail ride, and the horse he rode.

“That sounds like fun.” I kiss his head. “Go to sleep now. I have to work tomorrow, but then I’m off for the weekend.”

“Cool. Maybe we can go back there?”

“We’ll see.”

I leave his door open a bit and head back downstairs. I’m pissed that she did something she didn’t run by me, again.

She’s in the kitchen putting away the plates.

“Hey,” she smiles at me over her shoulder. “I thought I heard voices.”

I glare at her, and her smile fades. Since I know Asa isn’t sleeping yet, I point to the glass door that leads outside, then walk over and open it.

“Do you want me to follow you?” she asks with a confused frown.

“Yes,” I hiss and go outside, continuing down the four steps to the yard.

She joins me.

I should maybe calm down a bit, count to ten or something. But just like always with her, I jump the gun. “What the fuck were you thinking?” The words come out of my mouth before I get a chance to stop them.

“Excuse me?” She steps off the last step, and I see she’s barefoot.

My hands go to my hips. “You took him horseback riding.” I lean forward.

“Umm, yeah,” she says, like she’s not getting why I’m so pissed.