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See, it’s fine, we’re back to insults. “Nope,” he said a third time, and she rolled her eyes. Deciding that was mission accomplished, he elaborated. “It’s pinned on my corkboard.”
She blinked. Finally, her brow furrowed again, she asked, “Why?”
This oughta do it. “Because I like seeing it. I think I’m going to frame it and hang it on my wall permanently.”
Her dark, arched brows shot upward. “Frame it?”
“Yep.”
Her expression cleared. Not to a friendly one, but to one of understanding. “So you just like the reminder that I had to write it.”
“Yep.”
“That check is for almost a thousand dollars.”
He grinned at her; her tone had gotten edgy. This was the Britt he was used to. “Yep.” There, that canceled out the three nopes.
She shifted in the saddle. He was just deciding he didn’t really like looking up at her like this. Just as he didn’t like the way she’d looked him up and down when she’d ridden up here; he knew he probably looked ridiculous, soaking wet head to toe from playing with a horse who liked to splash.
“So I’m supposed to just ignore the fact that you have a big check from me that you could decide to cash at any moment and put me in a bind?”
He barely managed to stifle a frown of his own. He hadn’t actually thought about that aspect. He’d been too busy enjoying looking at the thing and remembering her expression when she’d had to write it. He felt a twinge, an echo of that feeling he’d gotten way back when he’d used someone else to get back at her for whatever thing she’d done to him. Like he’d crossed some invisible line he shouldn’t have.
He supposed he could tell her he’d never cash it. It would be worth it to him. He was enjoying having that thing in view, knowing she’d had to pay for at least one of her crazy harassment episodes. And he didn’t really need the money.
Which made him wonder, if she’d been winning so much money on the circuit, why a check under a grand would put her in a bind.
“I thought you were rolling in it, Roth, now that you’re racing the crazy Ghost.”
“That money is invested, for the future. And she’s not crazy, she’s just…spirited.” He snorted out a laugh. “She’s not,” she said, her voice sharp now as she defended her horse. “What makes her difficult outside the arena is what makes her nearly unbeatable in it. She knows what her job is, and she’s the best at it, so she’s allowed a little…eccentricity in her off time.”
“Eccentricity? Is that what you call it?”
Suddenly her tone was sweet. Too sweet. “What do you call a horse that likes you to take a bath with him?”
“Friendly,” he shot back.
She gave him a thoughtful look he knew was pure mockery. “Well, at least one of you is. Cash the damn check, Rafferty.”
She reined the palomino around and left without another word. And Cody stood there, hose in hand, wishing he’d unleashed a spray of water at her.
Except then an image of what she’d look like with that T-shirt as wet as he was formed in his mind, along with thoughts of who else he’d like to take a bath with.
He turned the hose on himself instead, certain he was flat flipping losing his mind.
Later, when he had Trey as dry as he could manage and back in his stall, with a bit of apple to top off the day, he headed inside. He was still soaking wet and had picked up enough dirt with the bottom of his jeans that he was probably trailing mud. That wouldn’t go over well. He probably should have headed around and used his own back door rather than trek through the main house. Mom wouldn’t appreciate muddy streaks all over her clean floor.
But he was already committed, so instead he stopped inside the front door and peeled off the wet jeans. Maybe he’d just throw them in the washing machine as he passed. He could—
“Is this where I’m glad you don’t go commando?”
He spun around, startled. Mom had gotten home from her latest meeting. She was grinning at him, but still he instinctively held the wet jeans in front of himself because his knit boxers weren’t much drier. Yes, she was his mother, had seen all there was to see over the years, but it was still embarrassing.
“I…sorry, didn’t know you were home.”
“Obviously.”
“I didn’t want to get dirt on the floor.”
