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Midnight whinnied over her shoulder, and Beth laughed.

“Sorry!” she called to the mare. “For all three of us.”

Eli lifted his cattleman and scrubbed his hand back and forth over his hair. Then he set the hat back on his head and sighed.

He wasn’t sure how this would be healing for him, but it felt like Boone and Beth were both pushing him in the same direction, and he was losing the will to push back.

“I call the shots,” he began, closing his hands around her wrists. “While we’re out there, I’m your riding instructor, your doctor, and your…” He stopped himself before another word slipped out because he didn’t know what the hell that word was supposed to be.

Beth pressed her lips together, holding back a grin.

“My…boss?” she asked, feigning innocence.

Eli clenched his jaw. “No.” He groaned. “Yes, I’m your boss, but that’s only when we’re in the clinic.”

She nodded and stepped closer. As he loosened his grip on her wrists, she slid her arms around his waist.

“But you’re my whatever-that-word-might-be?” She tilted her head up and looked at him with such earnestness in her green eyes that he didn’t know if she was mocking him or sincere.

He swallowed, his throat dry, and Beth smiled at him sweetly.

“Don’t worry, cowboy. This is brand new. We don’t need to name it. But if it makes you feel any better, from here on out you can be my whatever.”

Whatever.

Such a throwaway word that meant nothing, yet he was hers. He hadn’t been anyone’s anything in the years since Tess, and until now he’d thought his work, his few close friends, and his brother had been not only enough but all that he deserved.

But maybe Beth and Midnight falling into his life on the same damned day was some sort of message from the universe. If he could give both her and the mare what they needed to heal, then maybe Eli would heal something in himself as well.

“When I said I was rusty at all this whatever, that was an understatement.” he told her.

She nodded. “We’ll figure it out together. But can we keep this just between us? For now at least? I don’t want to get my sister’s hopes up that I’m staying in Meadow Valley for good. We both know that we’re just taking this day by day, right?”

Eli cleared his throat. “Right. Of course. I’m not a big talker anyway. No reason for me to say anything to your sister about what doesn’t concern her.” It didn’t matter that every part of that promise caused crack after crack in his carefully constructed facade. He already knew it would hurt like hell to watch Beth leave, but he’d endured the worst a man could go through already. He’d somehow make it through. He just had to remind himself that for now, she was his whatever, which was already more than he ever expected.

With Beth by his side, Midnight had let Eli attach the lead to her halter, but when he tried to get her to follow him out of the stall, she wouldn’t budge.

“What’s wrong?” Beth asked.

“She’s scared,” he replied. “I’m not sure how she was treated by her previous owners. I only know that they found her worthless after her injury and were ready to—”

“Don’t say it,” she interrupted. “I don’t want Midnight to hear what they were going to do to her.”

“She doesn’t know what we’re saying.” He gave a soft tug on her lead, but the horse still held her ground.

Beth petted the mare gently between the eyes, fingers brushing over her white star.

“You don’t know that,” she insisted. “When I talk to her, it feels like she understands. Just like I know if her snorts mean she’s content or agitated.”

Eli narrowed his eyes. “How is the Spence sister without the animal whispering gene suddenly a horse whisperer?”

“I’m not,” she replied in the sweet affectation reserved for speaking with a beloved animal. “But somehow, I’m her whisperer. I can’t explain it.”

Eli offered her the lead.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Beth asked. “I can talk to her, but I don’t know how to handle her yet.”

He motioned again for her to take it. “Why don’t we test that theory? Maybe you’re wrong.”