“So much for our best intentions.” She put her hands on her hips.
“Pray for them.” I reached for her. “They need it. For the record, I fucking hate this drama. At least we’ve kept our drama to ourselves.”
“I want to be a good friend.” She traced my poppy tattoo with her index finger. “Zoey knows something is up with us.”
“Good. Ty also knows you’re here.” I cupped her head to my chest. “For the record, I like sleeping at your place better, fewer interruptions.”
“You should move in with me,” Alex murmured against my pecs.
“Really?” I took ahold of both her shoulders and moved her gently away so I could look her in the eye and gauge if she meant it.
“Yes. If you want.” She looked up at me through her lashes, almost shyly.
“So, you’re inviting me to move in with you? I want to make sure I’m hearing you correctly.” There was nothing more that I wanted, but I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.
“Jace! Shut up.” Alex giggled.
“Alexandria LeRoux? I, Jace Deveraux, do hereby accept your offer of cohabitation.” I bowed low. “So long as you know that living together without marriage is a sin, and I ain’t gonna be a sinner for too long.”
“Are you serious?” Alex’s mouth formed a little “o.”
“Of course I am.” I caressed both of her cheeks and kissed her tenderly. “I want to ask you the right way, though, so this is not a proposal yet. Just a ‘please put me out of my misery if you’re not on the same page’ heads-up.”
“I’m overwhelmed. And so happy!” Alex’s smile was brighter than the sun. “I hoped this was where this was going, but I didn’t want to assume.”
“We really have to tell people, Poppy. Even though our families are on board, most of our friends don’t know about us. It’s weird. They are going to think me moving in with you is weird.” I moved to the kitchen to get some water. “It’s beyond time, I don’t want our relationship to be another LTZ spectacle. Plus, when we got back together, we agreed not to play games.”
“I totally agree.” Alex followed me and sat at the counter crossing her long, tan legs, hooking one foot under her ankle. “It’s not our thing.”
The next few weeks the band was scattered around, living their own lives so Alex and I concentrated on moving me into her house. Because we decided to keep my condo as our place in the city, there wasn’t much to move. After so many years on the road, I never got overly attached to material possessions other than my instruments. Plus, with all our endorsements and freebees, I had enough shoes, clothes, and personal products for both places.
Jen and Becca had finally finished their move into the guest house at Alex’s property, so the four of us spent a lot of time together. My other sisters and folks came back out to visit and met Alex’s dad.
When we were back in the city, we had dinner with Alex’s mom and her brother and sister. Our parents and siblings were fully on board with our relationship, we just needed to pull the trigger and go public in front of my bandmates and Zoey. Which still felt like the hardest part, for some reason.
We weren’t too worried about it though; Alex and I were blissfully happy to be entrenched in our own world.
I was surprised at how much I loved working with the horses. Alex taught me some of the basics, like mucking stalls, feeding them, putting them out to pasture, and my favorite—grooming. Bingo became my guy. When I methodically brushed out his coat every morning and combed his mane and tail, we bonded. He waited at the fence surrounding the pasture for me to give him carrots, and I swear he smiled when he saw me.
Gloria was in worse shape, but Alex was so patient and caring. She’d hired a wonderful veterinarian who had given her an exam and had measured her body chemistry to help manage her appetite. Alex taught me that when horses went for a long time without food, they had physical changes in their body that compromised their ability to digest nutrients, which made it difficult to recover.
It made me so angry that such a sweet horse had been mistreated and malnourished.
Alex had worked miracles, though. At first, she fed her small amounts of special food every hour, then every two hours, then three, and so on. Slowly and surely Gloria gained weight and was able to move to a more normal feed schedule. Meanwhile, Alex started her physical therapy routine slowly. First, by walking her gently through the pastures. As she built up strength, she let her trot and canter on a line. Not only was this good for her body, but it created such an amazing bond between my Poppy and her rescue.
We rejoiced and celebrated each step of her recovery, but the years of abuse took its toll. She had been frightened and defensive, but Alex was patiently working through all of it and a sweet and loving mare was emerging.
Witnessing how she was with the horses made me fall even more in love with Alex each day.
A part of me was secretly ashamed of myself. For as long as I’d known her, I’d been so engrossed in my band. I’d never taken the time to learn why she was so passionate about her rescues.
My eyes were now open. Experiencing just a fraction of what Alex had been doing all around the world made me a not-so-instant convert. Rather than focus on the years I hadn’t paid enough attention, I planned to make it up to her. Nothing would keep me from helping her save as many horses as we could.
Sitting on the front porch with my iPad, I was searching for property in the area when Alex bounced over to me.
“There you are!” Alex bounded up the stairs. “Good Lord, you
