Tangled in Divine(Divine Creek Ranch 14)(92)

“So just keep it light. Try to make it easier for her when March comes and she has to go?”

Julián looked at him like he was two bricks shy of a load. “Hell, no. Distract her from the thought of leaving so she doesn’t dwell on it. Show her all the love and affection you can without using the L-word so she won’t feel guilty. Make it as hard as possible for her to leave in March.”

“All’s fair in love and war?”

“Something like that.”

That sounded like a better plan. Chris couldn’t see how he’d feel any better about keeping her from achieving her dream than he would from losing her altogether, but he trusted Julián to never do her harm.





Chapter Seventeen




Mid-January



Still tingling from their touch and the serenity of two sweet orgasms singing in her blood, Gwen slipped on her work gloves as she walked out to the barn to tend to Tutti. The early-morning frost was invigorating but not biting like it probably was in Colorado right then.

Something was up with Julián and Chris, and Gwen wasn’t sure exactly what. Expecting that they’d want to hammer out what was going on between them after her woobie declaration, she’d been braced for anything that evening. But they’d swept her up into their arms the moment they’d walked in. They’d stopped long enough to fix supper together, kissing, teasing, and distracting her the whole time. Once they’d helped her get her evening chores done, they’d made her forget everything else. They’d brought her to orgasm so many times there had been no energy left for talking afterward.

Two weeks had gone by in much the same manner without them saying anything else on the subject. Not that she wasn’t a little relieved. She didn’t know how to explain herself. She’d stated in the beginning that their arrangement was temporary. She could blame her outburst on PMS or hormones or homesickness, but the truth was staring her in the face. She was in love.

Honestly, the fact that they’d not brought it up once was beginning to worry her. Had they resigned themselves to making the most of what remained of her time in Divine? That was what she’d wanted in the beginning, or so she’d thought. Now she wanted both. She wanted to be in Divine with them and she wanted what belonged to her in Colorado.

She frequently thought of Zephyr and prayed that she was being well cared for. She worried sometimes what she would find when she got Zephyr back, but she felt certain she would get her back. Hopefully whoever was boarding Zephyr knew how valuable she was.

When she walked in the door humming an Eric Church song, Tutti immediately nickered to her, making her smile.

“Hey, Tutti Frutti,” she murmured as she grabbed the currycomb and body brushes from the shelf in Tutti’s roomy stall. “I think you and I are both due for a spa day, girl.”

Tutti nickered and shook her head as Gwen started at her left shoulder, below her neck, and made swift work with the comb then repeated the process on her right side.

“I’m serious, later on today when it warms up, it’s you, me, and the wash rack, girlfriend. Wilbur’s daughter sweet-talked him into installing that water heater out here. The least we can do is put it to good use.”

Tutti sighed and Gwen chuckled. “Then it’s my turn. What do you think? Haircut? Highlights? Mani-pedi? Will you give me time off for that?” She’d noticed her hands in the shower the night before. The damage done during her trip through “the wilderness,” as she now referred to it, had healed but they still looked weathered. Owning horses was rough on the hands but that didn’t mean she didn’t care about looking like a girl.

She’d always carried on conversations with Zephyr, and Tutti seemed to enjoy the stimulation just as much. After she’d finished brushing the mare down, she opened the other door in the stall that led out to a paddock located next to a corral on the east side of the barn. Even with the benefit of having shade in the afternoon, the paddock boasted a roofed enclosure just outside the doorway. Tutti could come in out of the pasture, to which she also had easy access, if the weather turned foul or she needed shade from the blistering sun.

“Let me see to your stall and the livestock and then you and I are taking a run, girl.”

Tutti snorted softly and ambled out into the paddock to get some fresh air and wait while Gwen did her chores. Weather permitting, Gwen planned to allow Tutti to stay in the pasture, with access to the enclosure in the paddock so she could get her exercise and graze to her heart’s content. She’d seen the harm it did to a horse to spend too much time in a stall. Because Tutti was a relatively young mare and full of energy, it was even more important to give her room to breathe and be a horse.