“She’s right. You will.”
“I love you, Mom. Sweet dreams,” Chloe said softly as she turned to go to her bedroom, the same room she’d occupied before going off to college.
Aileen watched her daughter head to bed from her spot at the kitchen table, her mind whirling with self-deprecation and guilt.
Why hadn’t she seen how much pain Chloe was going through? Why didn’t she stop it? Granted, she had always let her grown children make their own decisions, but if she’d known about James’s abusive streak, she would have found a way to end it.
Although she wanted to keep Chloe with her as long as possible, she hoped that her daughter would accept the position with Gabe. Chloe had been riding from a very young age, and she had a wonderful affinity with horses, just like she had with all animals.
Aileen highly suspected that Gabe had several intentions other than just giving Chloe a job opportunity for which she was highly qualified, but she didn’t think it would matter. Gabe Walker was a good man, and maybe Chloe could finally see what it was like to have a man like Gabe care about her.
She sat there thinking about her children, mainly Chloe, before she finally rose and went to bed.
Gabe Walker feared very little in his life.
Today was an exception.
Chloe had called him to let him know that she was accepting the position he’d offered her as the resident vet for Walker’s Ranch over two weeks ago.
Now, he was waiting for her to arrive, and he felt like a horny teenager again, waiting to see his date. It wasn’t comfortable for a man his age, and to be honest, it was more than a little nerve-racking.
Chloe had already talked to her partners in town, and they’d agreed to let her pursue the position here. She’d given her notice almost immediately. He wasn’t surprised. All of the vets at Rocky Springs Animal Clinic were nice folks. They’d done just fine before Chloe had joined the group, and they’d do just as well without her.
I need her more.
He sat in a comfortable office chair in the viewing room, absently eating handfuls of candy from a bowl that was always present in the video and audio room that took up most of the lower floor of his home. Gabe had wanted a high-tech setup so he could watch all of the primary areas of the horse farm, and he had way more equipment than he probably needed. He could see every birthing area, pasture, and most of the barns from his location indoors, which was helpful when the mares were ready to drop their foals.
Fortunately, that wouldn’t happen for several months; most of them were expected in the early spring. He also had cameras set up to see any approaching vehicles on their way onto his property so he was prepared for deliveries and folks who wanted to look at his horses or ask about training classes. That camera was the one that had his intense focus right at the moment.
What if she backs out?
What if she changes her mind and doesn’t come?
Gabe told himself to let Chloe have time to straighten her head out after James had done a major mind fuck on her. It wasn’t an easy thing to do when his cock stood at attention every damn time she walked into the room, but he cared about more than just nailing Chloe. He wanted her to be happy again.
Chloe was his ideal, the woman who had the whole package: looks, intelligence, sweetness that could sometimes get a little tart when she was annoyed with him, and a curvy body that would fit perfectly against his big form. He still shook his head over her comment on New Year’s Eve that she was fat. Chloe Colter was as perfect as a woman could get in his eyes.
His dick had been aching to be buried inside her from the moment he’d seen her after she’d returned to Rocky Springs for good. Problem was, she was his best friend’s sister, and she’d already been claimed, engaged to the biggest asshole in town.
His fists clenched on the desk as he thought about Chloe’s confessions, and yet he was pretty certain she hadn’t shared everything.
I’d love to kill the bastard.
What kind of coward actually hurt an innocent female, and treated her like she was garbage?
Chloe deserves someone a hell of a lot better.
Unfortunately, Gabe knew that man couldn’t be him.
Blake was likely to try to beat his ass into the ground if he started messing around with his buddy’s little sister, and his friendship with Blake was important. They’d known each other since they were kids, and Gabe’s dad had still brought him to Rocky Springs almost every summer when he was a teen, even after Blake’s father had been killed. His parents and Blake’s had been close, and the two teens had bonded pretty tight during his adolescent years after he’d lost his mother. Blake had always been a friend Gabe could count on, and he’d been there for him when he’d lost his dad right after he finished college, leaving him essentially alone in Texas. Gabe still had friends in Texas, and cousins scattered around the whole country, but nobody whose friendship he valued more than Blake’s.
When the property next to Blake’s cattle ranch had gone up for sale, Gabe hadn’t hesitated to liquidate his interests in Texas and settle down in Colorado to make a new start. He’d needed it after losing both his parents.
His father had been an icon in Texas, and Gabe had never quite been able to fill his shoes. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps, but that he could never quite be the man his father had been.
Gabe had been in the process of closing the deal on the Colorado ranch and taking care of his business interests in Texas when Chloe had left for college. Gabe had never run into her again, even on the rare occasions that she had been home on break from school.