Apart from dinner last night, which he consumed largely in stoic silence and one-word answers, I’ve barely been able to locate Aiden all day, much less hold a conversation. Somehow, I had an easier time keeping track of him in a town with hundreds of souls than I am in a house and property with only three.
Around noon, I arrived at the barn right in time to see him leave it, flying off on… I still haven’t confirmed if Aiden is in agreement with us calling the mustang Helios, since the one time I tried to bring it up again ended in Aiden telling me I could call him whatever I pleased since he belonged to me.
But he doesn’t. I’ve told him that, too. Multiple times, each as unsuccessful as the last. But given that he seems to view any assistance as pity, it’s not hard to guess why.
What we need is a chance to actually work together, for him to see how good things could be, how goodwecould be as partners.Maybe then he’d understand it’s not only the horse that’s his. That when I’d said a fifty-fifty split, what I’d really meant was that he could take everything, and I wouldn’t care.
“Dolly,” I call out, taking my hat off as I walk back in following an unsuccessful venture out with Cerberus. Fortunately, I don’t have to go far, finding her in her usual chair by the window in the kitchen. “What are your thoughts on us riding in with you later? When you head over to your place?”
I tried my very best to make the inquiry sound casual, but the look on her face when she puts down her sewing to consider me tells me she’s onto me. “My thoughts? On which part?”
“Too big of a risk?” I ask her, knowing she rode into town this morning and would have listened to the locals. “Would we…cause a stir?”
She laughs. “Isn’t that always your aim?”
“Not in this case,” I tell her, not sure why I’m bothering to reassure her and myself when the one person I need to convince isn’t here. “Thought we could keep things…”
“Boring?” she offers, and I feel the corner of my mouth quirk.
“Contained,” I say.
She tilts her head, her fingers going back to the needle and dress fabric. “I’m still waiting to hear back from my contact near Soldana, but what I can tell you is there’s already posters hanging at the station.”
“Maddock’s got a friend in the stagecoach business,” I supply. “I’m sure he’s the one printing them for him. Would keep him from having to go through the law.”
“Wouldn’t be uncommon,” Dolly agrees. “Means word will have spread though.”
“So you think it would be better to not? To not risk it, that is?”
“Didn’t say that.” Dolly shrugs. “You know how things are at my place. We handle our own. We take care of our own.”
I nod, glancing out the window. “And you’ll include Aiden inthat?”
“If you do,” she replies. “That what he is to you? Your own?”
I nod again.
“He know that?”
“He will.”
“When?”
I sigh. “When I think he might actually want to hear it.”
“And until then?”
I start to answer before a flash of movement outside catches my eye, prompting me to look out the window again as Aiden comes racing into view, pulling the mustang to a stop in the side yard. He dismounts, using the front end of his untucked shirt to wipe sweat from his brow as he catches his breath, and exposing no small amount of toned stomach in the process. “Well…” I say, swallowing since my mouth has gone dry. “A significant bit of yearning, if I were to guess.”
As soon as I come in for dinner, I begin the process of removing my hat and boots, knowing better than to bring either into Dolly’s home. The obscene number of books stacked on every surface don’t take away from the fact that it is also neat as a pin.
“I appreciate it, but don’t bother,” she tells me before I manage to work my left boot off, walking toward the door with what appears to be a long winter coat even though the majority of the mid-spring day heat is still clinging outside. “We are on our way out.”
“Oh?” I repeat, wondering where it is they are headed and if Cypress will wind up getting himself into another calamity in the process. “You taking a walk?”
“A ride,” she informs me. “Cypress is bringing the horses out front, so we can go over there together.”
“Overwheretogether?”