Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 110360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Nobody in the world had been more relieved when Alex finally came home from the hospital than Johnson. Though Brianna and Apollo were a close second, and for the life of me, I could not figure out how the hell Apollo fit into that equation. Devon had made me swear never to tell him if and when I figured it out.
As it turned out, Leo was indeed a softie when it came to love. Devon still consulted on cases for Guardian. Though he did it from the farm, only traveling back to Chicago when Leo absolutely needed him. It was an uncomplicated balance that worked out well for all of us.
Devon’s transition to living on the farm had been relatively smooth, all things considered.
Once Dad had decided Devon was his old buddy Roger, he never looked back.
Well, not completely true. Some days he’d stop dead in his tracks and ask, “Who the hell are you?”
Devon would laugh, and reply, “Lawrence, quit messing around. You know my name is Roger.”
They’d laugh and then head out to the barn together.
Devon was always so patient with him. The two of them would wander around doing odd jobs around the property for hours, Daddy explaining the correct way to do things Devon had been doing correctly his entire life, Devon nodding along like he was hearing it for the first time.
Daddy had told Terry once, with complete sincerity, that he could stand to be more like Roger.
The look on Terry’s face could have curdled milk. Terry was a good man and everything Jenn needed him to be. He had also now been ranked below an imaginary mechanic in his father-in-law’s mind and found it understandably insulting.
Devon had studied his boots while grinning.
Jenn had choked and excused herself from the table. I found her in the hallway thirty seconds later, where we burst into hysterical laughter. We stayed there until we could compose ourselves, which took considerably longer than either of us would admit.
It wasn’t all good days though. The bad days still came. The confusion, the fear, the heartbreaking effort of watching someone you love fight to hold on when everything kept slipping. I sat with him through all of it and I would keep sitting with him through all of it for as long as I had him.
One of those particularly bad days, Devon had gotten a front-row seat to Daddy breaking down about Mama being gone. A memory had slipped through. Something about her hands, and the way she used to rest them on his arm when she was listening. And for one brief, terrible moment there had been absolute clarity in his eyes. He remembered that she was gone and never coming back.
It had only lasted a few minutes.
But that was more than enough.
Devon had quietly excused himself out to the barn.
After I’d gotten Daddy settled back into the version of the world where Mama was just at the grocery store, I’d gone to find him.
He was standing at the fence line, arms folded on the top rail, eyes aimed out over the field where the horses were moving slow and easy in the late afternoon light. He didn’t turn around when he heard me coming. He just waited.
I hadn’t said anything. I’d just stood beside him, and after a while, his arm had come around me and pulled me into his chest.
We stayed like that for a long time.
Finally, he’d said, “I can’t decide if he’s the luckiest man in existence because he doesn’t have to live with that pain on a daily basis. Or if the fact that he never truly gets to process it and has to keep reliving it over and over again is the most horrifying cruelty imaginable.”
I hadn’t had an answer for that.
I still didn’t.
I’d just pressed closer and held on.
“All of their stalls are wet,” I called out to Devon as Beans trotted out to join his friends in the field. “This is going to take forever to clean.”
Chuckling, Devon walked into the feed room and cut off the water to the barn.
When he returned, he came straight to me and wrapped me in a hug from behind.
“I’m serious about hiring help,” I told him.
“You’re serious about avoiding work.”
“Same thing.”
A white envelope with my name scrawled across the front suddenly appeared in my line of sight.
“What’s that?”
I felt him shrug. “It’s addressed to you, not me.”
I tipped my head back and looked at him. “Where’d it come from?”
“Me.”
I curled my lip. “What’s in it?”
He shrugged again.
“Is it the list of names you hired to dig out these stalls after using your ninja mind powers to predict Salty would do this?”
“Uh, no. And now that I think about it, I probably should have waited because, with expectations like that, I’m afraid you’re gonna be seriously disappointed.”