Page 54 of Warrior Security
Chapter 16
Lark
The tile under my bare feet had been cold for six weeks. This morning, for the third day in a row, it wasn’t.
I stood at the kitchen counter holding my coffee cup with both hands, my hair still damp from a shower I’d taken in my own bathroom like a functioning adult. Through the window, I could see Logan crossing the yard toward the barn, Tova trotting beside him with her tail swinging low and easy. He’d been up before me. His mug was already rinsed on the counter, and the coffee he’d made was still hot in the pot.
Three mornings of this. Heat in the house, someone else’s coffee mug next to mine, a man who slept beside me and didn’t take up as much room as someone his size should have. I drank my coffee and watched him disappear into the barn and let myself have it for another minute before I followed.
The feeding rounds went the way they’d been going all week. He handed me the buckets before I reached for them. I tossed him the marker without looking up from the clipboard.We moved around each other in the space between the kennels without bumping, a shorthand we’d built over weeks that had gotten smoother since we’d stopped pretending we didn’t want to be close.
“Birthday party’s confirmed for Saturday,” I said, checking the note on my phone between feed bins. “The Hadley family two counties over. Two ponies, the rabbits, Al Pacacino if he can behave himself, and Snowball for the petting area. The mom wants afarm experiencefor twelve six-year-olds.”
“Al Pacacino cannot behave himself. That’s his defining characteristic.”
“He can behave himself for three thousand dollars.”
Logan looked up from Duke’s bowl. “Three thousand?”
“Three thousand. Four hours, setup included, ponies and all.” I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. “And I got a second booking yesterday. Private event two weeks out. They want the full lineup.”
“Look at you, building an empire.”
“An empire of alpaca spit and rabbit fur. But it’s income, Logan. Real income. If I can book two or three of these a month, the mortgage payments are covered.”
He came over and took the clipboard from my hands long enough to look at my face. “You should be proud of this. You came up with it, and you made it happen.”
“We came up with it.”
“You came up with it. I said the words ‘mobile petting zoo,’ and you did everything else.” He handed the clipboard back and went back to the feed shelf. “I’m just the guy who carries the heavy things.”
“You carry the heavy things beautifully.”
“Thank you.” He winked at me, and I felt unmentionable places inside me tingle. “I’ve been practicing.”
Logan headed out to check on Duchess in the east paddock. She’d been favoring her left front hoof, and he wanted to take a look before we called the farrier.
My phone rang while I was restocking the cat food shelf. I pulled it out of my back pocket and checked the screen. Unknown number. I’d been fielding callbacks all week from event planners and parents I’d cold-called about the birthday party business, so I picked up without hesitating.
“This is Lark.”
A pause.
“Eleanor.”
My hand locked on the phone. The feed room went flat and airless, and the bag of cat food I’d been holding slid out of my other hand and hit the floor.
Six years of distance and that voice still reached into my chest and found the exact place where the damage lived.
“Carter. How did you get this number?”
“Your mother gave it to me. She’s worried about you, Eleanor. We all are.”
I didn’t so much as touch that. “What do you want?”
“I want to know how you are. That’s all. Is that so terrible?” Smooth and concerned and reasonable. The same voice that had convinced my parents I was the difficult one, while he disassembled my life. “Your mother mentioned you’re somewhere out west. Some kind of animal program?”
“I run an animal therapy and rescue operation.” I kept my voice level. I would give him nothing.
