Tangled in Divine(Divine Creek Ranch 14)(91)

Gwen sniffled and then huffed noisily like a small child after a crying jag. “Of course not. We’ll be right out. I’m sorry.” She reached for the shampoo.

What do you say now? Does he know what a woobie is? You practically told him that you love him.

They lathered, rinsed, dried off, and got dressed. Chris finally broke the heavy silence growing like a hot air balloon in the room. “Darlin’, can we talk more about this later, when we can take our time?”

She nodded but then shrugged. “It’s all right. I guess I was just caught up in the moment.” She looked up at him and wished he could know she never meant to hurt him. “It’s going to be awfully hard to leave here.”

Chris nodded and seemed like he wanted to say more but thought better of it. They went downstairs where scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast waited for them. After she’d scarfed her breakfast, she kissed them both and they parted company.

That day was her first solo day on the ranch, since Wilbur had left the previous morning. Even though there was no one to observe, she wanted to start out on the right foot taking as good care of the Wilson Ranch as she would her own place. Over the last several days he’d shown her where everything was located and how his routine worked so she was ready to start. She was also anxious to avoid any revealing conversations in her current state of mind.



* * * *



“Hey, Julió.”

“Yeah,” Julián replied as he broke the twine on the bale of hay and loaded flakes into the feeders located near the doorway of every horse stall.

“What’s a woobie?” Chris asked as he exited Sergeant’s stall after tending to Del’s horse.

Julián grinned. “You don’t know what a woobie is, Guido?”

“Would I fuckin’ ask you if I did?” Chris had been contemplating Gwen’s tearful declaration all morning while they’d worked cleaning out the stalls and feeding the livestock.

“Didn’t you have a blanket or a stuffed toy when you were little? Something you took with you everywhere that made you feel safe.”

“You’ve met my siblings, right?” Chris could just imagine the carnage if he’d had something like that that he was attached to.

“Oh. You have a point. Well, that’s what it is.”

“I’m her security blanket?”

“Put it in adult terms, Chris. She was telling you that you make her feel safe and protected. I’d hazard a guess that she’s in love. Did you see how fast she ate and got out of the house this morning?”

“Like a scalded cat. It was on the tip of my tongue after fooling around this morning to tell her I loved her. I barely stopped myself. I didn’t really want to stop myself, to be honest. I love her. It doesn’t matter if I say it or not, it’s still true.”

“But what does matter is how she feels. Right now she’s struggling. She wants her ranch in Colorado and her horse back but she wants to be here too. We need to make the next two months as easy as we can for her. I don’t want her upset and struggling with this the entire time she’s here.”

“You’re saying keep it light?” He wasn’t sure he was capable of that with her now. What he felt went so deep. Everything about the way he looked at her had changed. He’d gone sappy. If his brothers knew, they’d rip him to shreds.

“You can do it. Tease her. You’re good at that.”

“I’m beginning to think that whatever I used to call teasing is not something that most women actually found amusing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just stuff that Gwen has taught me, that you tried to tell me. I’ve been keeping quiet at times when I’d normally be talking my head off, and learning a thing or two in the process.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I don’t know what you’d call it but a bunch of things I’ve believed about women and relationships…I’m discovering it’s a bunch of bullshit. What my family calls loud and demonstrative, others call obnoxious. What I thought of all my life as showing affection is really a lack of personal boundaries.”

“Don’t beat yourself up too much, Chris. You’re the youngest of fifteen siblings who all had their moments teaching you about life. Now that you know better, you’ll do better. I think you needed to trust your instincts instead of your ‘training.’ And it’s called a paradigm shift, by the way.”

“You and all your Wall Street lingo.” Chris made to punch Julián’s shoulder but pulled back, thinking better of it. Then he punched him anyway.

“Ow. Whatever, Guido.”