Page 79 of The Secret
Jed shrugs. “It doesn’t sound like it to me.”
He’s determined to judge me, so I shake my head at him.
“Talk to your brother.”
* * *
Eventually, I find the keys to the jeep, the anger still fizzing inside me. Jed is an asshole. I just need to find Dan and stop letting whatever is up with Jed ruin what little time we have together. As I drive across rutted tracks through the fields, I stop and ask some people working in the fields where I can find Dan and they direct me to a barn sitting just before the vineyards merge into the corn and the wheat. And when I walk into the darker interior of the barn, Dan is next to an old machine that’s making the most unholy racket. He has ear defenders on, and sweat is sticking the cotton of his T-shirt to his broad shoulders, tools scattered over the floor at his feet.
I move to catch his eye, and he sees me suddenly, his eyes widening, and he grins before stepping up to slap his hand against a huge button. The machine grinds to a shuddering halt with a loud clacking noise. The silence is deafening. He wrenches off his ear protectors and moves closer, pulling me into a kiss and running his fingers through my curls, as he watches his hands.
“You’re a welcome sight. How did you find me?”
I grin up at him. “People seemed to know where you’d be.”
He laughs and gestures behind him. “Yeah. Unfortunately. We’re desperate to keep this old thresher running. We can’t afford a new one.”
“I wish you’d let me help.”
He steps back and shakes his head with a smile. “Jed just asked me to sort this out this morning. It’s been running slow and stopping for weeks. We need it out in the fields today …” He chews his lip. “I thought it’d be an easy fix, but it’s going to take me a while. I wanted to take you and Benny out riding today.”
“Benny can ride?”
He laughs. “She’s a demon on a horse. It’s Nisha’s day off today, and Benny needs an adult with her when she rides. Nathanial is good but …”
“Nathanial?”
“He looks after the horses.”
“I’m not a great horsewoman, but I’ve done some riding. I can go out with her while you fix this.”
“We can go this afternoon.”
“No seriously, I’d love to take her out.”
“I feel like …”
“This is normal life, Dan—things get busy and we have to help each other out. I reach out and squeeze his hand. “You have no idea how glad I am to get this kind of normality back. I’d love to spend some time with her, and then when you’re finished, come and join us or we can have a picnic or something.”
He groans and pulls me back in for a warm hug. “A picnic sounds good. Thanks for being amazing,” he says, kissing my cheek, and I laugh, patting his face.
I leave Dan trying to weld something together and head back to the house to make myself some breakfast. Jed’s in the lounge at a desk, and I brace myself as I tell him the plan, but he just narrows his eyes and looks at me for long minutes before grunting and waving his hand. When I find Benny in the kitchen with the old housekeeper and suggest riding, she squeals and races around.
So I steal the jeep again, and Benny directs me to the stables as she chatters away about her pony, Skedaddle—Skye for short—and how she rides her every day. She’s bouncing on her seat as we get close to a low building that looks beautifully cared for: better looked after than the house.
An old man with gray hair and a limp comes out of a stall, and I jump down from the jeep.
“Nathanial?”
“Aye, that’s me.”
“The animals get all the luxury around here, hunh?” I say, gesturing at the pristine building, and he guffaws showing rows of broken teeth. Then he moves over to open the car door, and Benny flings herself at him.
“This is Liss, my girlfriend,” she says. “We need something nice and easy for her to ride.”
I laugh as my heart flutters at the description.
A half hour later, Nathanial and I are sitting on two of the most placid horses I think I’ve ever come across as we watch Benny race her little pony across the open field, hanging on for dear life.
