Lucas chimed in, “I gotta roll. When I saw your car here, I stopped to ask if you could babysit Rylie tomorrow.”
“Of course.”
“I know you always say that, but it’s not your full-time job anymore now that she goes to school. I never want to assume,” Lucas replied.
I leveled my brother with a glare. “Assume all you want when it comes to my niece. If I ever have plans, I’ll happily change them.”
Lucas grinned. “Still going to ask, and thanks. I have my physical tomorrow, and Valentina and I are doing a shopping run in Asheville. Text her tonight if you need anything.”
“Text Valentina, not you?” I asked as he turned away.
Lucas looked back with a sheepish smile. “She’s more organized than me.”
“I bet,” I called as he waved. “Okay if I get there by nine?”
“Perfect.” The clinic’s door swung shut behind him, muffling his reply.
Relieved Lucas had left, I turned to Walker. “All right, let’s go check on our little friend.” Looking back at Shay, I asked, “Have you named him yet?”
Jackson laughed along with Walker. “Since y’all found him, I guess you can do the honors.”
“Let’s go see him and we’ll decide,” I said to Walker.
“Before you go, wanna grab drinks tonight with Valentina and me?” Shay asked.
“I’d love to. Text me?” At Shay’s nod, I turned to go.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jade
Walker was quiet as we walked outside, crossing the gravel parking lot between the clinic and the old farmhouse where Jackson and Shay lived. We ducked through the fence into the horse pasture. As we made our way through the pasture, Mischief, Shay’s favorite pony, trotted over to greet us. Mischief was a friendly and mischievous Banker pony, rescued from the Outer Banks after his mother almost died when he was a colt.
A dark bay with three white socks and a white star on his face, Mischief flicked his tail as he slowed to a walk and stopped beside us. Walker reached up, casually scratching him behind the ears. “Hey, buddy. How ya doing?” he asked conversationally.
Mischief answered by lifting his nose and sniffing Walker’s shoulder before turning his attention to me. He sniffed when I held out my hand. I smoothed my palm down the side of his neck before we continued walking.
“You seem pretty comfortable around horses,” I observed.
Walker lifted his shoulder in an easy shrug. “Yeah. Spent time around them growing up. How about you?”
“Same. Jackson’s younger sister, Ash, was a friend growing up. She’s not here right now, but I used to ride with her sometimes when we were kids.”
At that moment, Mischief, who’d been ambling along beside us, nudged my shoulder with his nose, just barely knocking me off balance, but enough that I stumbled into Walker. He caught me around the waist, steadying me. The moment happened quickly. In a second, I was looking up into his eyes with the feel of his strong muscled arm around my waist. All I wanted was to kiss him.
I saw the answering flare of desire in his eyes. Heat blasted through me and my channel clenched. That was how bad I had it for this man. One look into his eyes and nothing more sent my mind spinning down the track where all I could think about was the delicious feel of him inside of me.
The sound of Mischief swishing his tail nudged me back into sanity. I recalled we were standing in full view of anyone over by the vet clinic and farmhouse. Stepping back hurriedly, I licked my lips and took a breath. “Thank you.”
Walker simply nodded, and we began walking again. The rescue barn was on the far side of the horse pasture. We went through another paddock, and Walker slid open the main door into the barn.
I was instantly distracted by Squeaky, a cute mini pig who—you guessed it—squeaked. Her little curly tail wiggled as she came over and sniffed my ankle with her nose. I knelt down beside her, stroking down her back the way she liked. “Hey, Squeaky. Where’s Gloria?” I asked.
Gloria was the farm’s other pig. She was anything but mini. Although, that was how she ended up here. She had been bought as a pet for a family only to quickly outgrow her small stature. Although Squeaky couldn’t exactly answer me, Gloria did for her. She ambled out of the stall they shared farther down the aisle. The large white and black pig approached me, making her usual snuffling sound.
Walker had closed the barn door behind us and leaned over to greet Gloria. “Hey, girl. Are you keeping an eye on the latest patient?”
Maybe it was silly, but my heart squeezed at the way Walker spoke to animals. He talked to them like they were his friends, and as if they might actually answer him in return.
For the rescue program, only the horses were kept over in the lower floor of the barn where the vet clinic was housed, which was built into a slope. This barn housed Gloria and Squeaky, a few goats, some chickens on the outside, and there was also a kennel for the dogs on the other side. Any of the other odds and ends of critters that landed here were usually in this barn.
Given that it was midday, most of the dogs were out in the fenced area of the kennel. I paused to pet an indeterminate breed dog who was wagging her tail like crazy. Walker was waiting for me by the door to the recovery room at the back. Not that I spent much time here, but with Lucas working here as well as Valentina, I knew my way around. I’d even helped Valentina with feedings at the rescue program one week when Shay and Jackson were out of town.
The recovery room here, as explained to me by Valentina, was for those animals who needed a little extra care and time to recover, but didn’t need to be monitored around
