He raised a dark, dangerous brow. “So that’s where you’ve been hiding out all week, eh? George thought you were shagging that girl in town again.”
As was his habit, he walked away without waiting for an answer. Lacking any better ideas, I followed, trailing him to the stall housing the ponies we’d rescued from the beach. One of them was doing well; the other, not so much, and I knew it weighed more heavily on Joe’s mind than my near sex life ever could. I fetched warm bran mash and molasses and fed the weak pony while he checked the other one over.
It was a while before I noticed his gaze drilling a hole in the side of my head. “What?”
“Seriously? That’s what you’re going with?”
“What else would I go with if I don’t know why you’re staring at me?”
Joe came to lean on the stable door. “You know why I’m staring at you. Because it’s the third morning in a row I’ve seen you creeping out of Cole’s place. What’s up with that?”
“What do you care?”
“About what you might be doing in his boho man cave? Not much. About you? A hell of a lot, and you didn’t come skipping out of there with a smile on your face this morning.”
So much for sneaking around. Though, I should’ve known. Not much happened on Joe’s farm without him knowing about it. Still, I was pretty sure Cole wouldn’t appreciate me confessing our dirty secrets to him. “Nothing’s up with anything. We got talking and I couldn’t be arsed to go walk home and back in the space of a few hours.”
“Three nights in a row?”
And the rest.“So? I stay on the farm all the time.”
“In the bungalow with my sister.”
“Your sister isn’t here anymore.”
“And you’ve stayed with Angelo and Dylan every night since then, or on my couch.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I didn’t fancy listening to you lot bang each other’s brains out.”
Joe’s brows shot up as if I’d taken a swing at him, but it took me a moment to realise it was because I’d never said a single sexual thing to him in our entire ten-year friendship. I’d never said a sexual thing to anyone I didn’t have my hands on at the time, and those three girls still made a grand total of, well, three.
Four, including Cole.
Flushing, I turned my back on Joe, even though the weak pony had long finished eating and had staggered away. It was in Joe’s nature to grip my shoulders and force me to look at him again, but he didn’t. He sighed, tired like he always was. “Well, if that’s the case, I’m sorry about that, but if it’s something else, you can talk to me about that shit if you want... or not. Just be careful, okay? Cole’s got a lot on his plate, and I like him. I’d hate to have to punch him because he’d upset you.”
“He hasn’t upset me, and I don’t need you to punch people for me anymore. That died with my dad.”
“Never mind, eh? Anyway, I’m going to work Shadow this morning. Come find me if that pony gets worse.”
“Be careful.”
“With Shadow?”
“Yeah. He’s been in a funny mood all week.”
“He ain’t the only one.”
I had nothing to add to that.
Joe sighed again, then walked out of the stall, leaving me to contemplate the sick horse alone. I watched it wobble around the stall with the heavy sensation that often came with watching an animal die, but it felt like more than that. I’d spent the last three days floating on a happy cloud of being naked with Cole, and now it was over, the sense of grim reality was a scary thing.
Or maybe I was just hungry. Cole didn’t seem to eat much, especially in the mornings.
With that on my mind, I left the stall, turned the rest of the horses out, then made my way to the house where Angelo was cooking breakfast. He was alone in the kitchen and looked as though he wanted to say something, but the world and his farm joined us before he could speak, lured in by the scent of Angelo’s chilli-hot sausages.
They were too spicy for me. Angelo gave me scrambled eggs instead. He was a gem. After breakfast, I washed up for him and helped him put the pots and pans back on the rack. When I was done, he pressed a foil-wrapped package into my hands. “For Cole,” he said with a wink. “I hear you see quite a lot of him these days.”
I cringed. Damn Joe had a big mouth. Or maybe he didn’t and the whole world had seen me mooning over Cole day and night since he’d got here. Either way, I just about wanted to die.