Grass and dirt were easier on the horses’ hooves and joints, so the areas they stayed mainly on were topped with that. Marcus and Remy had stone in front of the office, so it looked more formal. The houses at the front of the ranch had a mixture of the same stone, gravel, and grass in front of them, making the areas look quaint.
Before Addy had come along, I’d built a rockery between the two main houses, which belonged to Remy and Marcus. It was now blooming and looked freaking awesome. She’d bought a hot tub and put it on a covered patio behind Marcus’s place, and that’s where we hung out for our book club with Sadie, who was married to the eldest of the Townsend-Rossi brothers, Elijah.
The ranch was like its own little world, and I loved it.
Seeing one of the guys, Gus, standing with the radio at his mouth as he spoke into it, Remy slowed to a stop in front of him and lowered the window.
“Everything okay?”
Gus looked behind him at me and winked. “Nice eyes, Remy. I’d heard about them, but they’re even better in real life. Luanda’s foaling now, and Santé’s refusing to eat. We’ve called Kenyon to have a look at her, but I don’t want to take my eyes off Luanda in case she needs help, so I’m calling Jay down.”
“I can—”
“No, you can’t,” Remy said firmly, cutting me off. “You’re taking today off and getting your stuff unpacked.”
“Right on,” Gus shouted, pumping his fist in the air. “About time y’all stopped messing around.”
I watched as Remy’s head slowly turned until he was looking at Gus again. “Tana’s roof’s been leaking for a while, and the storm last night brought the ceiling over her bed down. She’s staying at my place until it’s fixed.”
Gus’s smile dropped off his face. “We’ll head and look at it once Kenyon’s been. I’ll leave two guys here, and the rest of us will head up and get to work.” Moving his eyes to me, he asked, “You hurt?”
“No, Wrecker woke me— Oh, my God,” I broke off with a cry and grabbed Remy’s arm. “I forgot to pick up his food and stuff. We need to go back.”
“I got it, baby, when I went back in. It’s in one of the boxes.”
Hearing his name, Wrecker scrambled across the center console and onto Remy’s lap, just as Gus asked, “Who’s Wrecker? He your man, Tana?”
I swear he looked disappointed. Well, that was until Wrecker raised his head to look through the open window at the new person.
“This is Wrecker,” Remy introduced, scratching the top of my puppy’s head.
Gus’s expression was hilarious. “Holy shit, y’all got a dog?”
“No, my grandpa and brother got me the dog,” I corrected. “And it’s thanks to him I moved out of the way just before the ceiling came down and ruined my bed. Not that it’s a major loss to the world it’s a goner. I swear, sleeping on the floor’s probably softer and more comfortable than that mattress was.”
I shut my mouth with an audible click when I realized both men were staring at me in amusement and something close to anger. I know the contrast between the two emotions was huge, but I swear it was right there on their faces.
“You go and get Santana settled,” Gus suggested, “and we’ll figure out the situation with her house. Marcus knows a guy in town who can double-check if it’s structurally sound because it sounds like that’d be a good idea to check while we’re fixing shit. I’ll get the number off him and get him to come and look it over while we fix the roof.”
Structurally sound? Just the thought of it collapsing while Toby was in it made the hairs on my arms stand up.
“If you need any help with Santé and Luanda, shout. I’ll be at home,” Remy told him before setting off to where his house was, right next to Marcus’s.
It wasn’t until we parked in front of it that I snapped out of my stupor and dared to look at him and realized he was beyond pissed.
“I swear, if I’d known there was a chance the place wasn’t safe, I’d never have taken To—”
“Stop talking,” he cut in, undoing his belt angrily. “It’s not your fault, it’s mine. I should have had it checked out before you moved in there. When we bought this place, they did a report on it and the ones the others live in, and they said they were fine. Fuck, I never thought to double-check it.”
“You know, I have a feeling that when you watch the news, you blame yourself for everything the reporters talk about,” I said as I undid my belt and opened the door. “Starvation, poverty, lack of drinking water, wars, corruption… I don’t know why I didn’t see the root cause of it all before now.”