Page 4 of Break the Barrier

My life has been dedicated to work and raising my daughter as best as I can.

Thea’s face drifts through my thoughts, and I frown.

Ever since Thea Weaver moved to town a few years ago, her presence has always gripped me in a way that was unfamiliar. We’d become good friends, always asking after each other and making sure the other was doing well.

But something beneath the surface with her worried me. Not about her, but about her past. There was a shadow in her eyes that never fully cleared, worry piled on her shoulders nine times out of ten, and I wished I could take that burden from her.

Even if that wasn’t my job.

But it may be now. Something serious was going on with her, something she wasn’t even telling her sisters.

I was eager to get to the bottom of it.

I enter the barn and take in the smell of fresh bedding and the sounds of horses shuffling around in their stalls, eating leftover hay from breakfast.

Sometimes, I’m in early to do the morning feed, but I had a parent-teacher conference this morning, and Stetson took over for me this morning.

I hear Dani encouraging her client from the open doors that lead to our indoor arena, and I peek in. On the horse is a little girl named Laura, and her mom, Sharee, was standing at the gate, watching with a proud smile.

Sharee peaks over her shoulder, sensing my presence, and gives me a smile before turning back to her daughter.

The clients who come to this ranch become somewhat like family. Most of them come nearly three times a week to give their child something that they loved to do, and with grantfunding, Dani could offer her work at a good rate so anyone could come, regardless of their financial situation.

“Yo.” I turn and see CT leaning against the wall of his tack room, and I wander over to him. “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” I say, going to the stall across from him where Dani’s horse, Lady, has her head poked out. Giving her head a rub, I look back over to CT. “What’s going on today?”

“Got a client coming at eleven.” CT hangs the bridal he was rubbing clean on a hook above the door of the tack room, stretching out the long reins and running a cloth over them. “How’d Lue’s conference go?”

I smirk at my future cousin. He loves to pretend he doesn’t care about anyone but Dani, but the truth is, he has a heart of gold and needed to know that everyone in our family is doing well.

I was thankful that Dani and he had worked out their shit because it was hard being friends with him, knowing that Dani was still having trouble trusting him.

“It was good. Her teachers sang her praises.” This wasn’t a lie. Lue was terrible at one thing—math. But as far as everything else, she excelled. And not only that, she is one of the kindest girls they’d ever had in their classrooms. My girl went out of her way to make sure everyone was feeling okay and to make sure everyone felt welcome in her school.

It was one of her best traits, and I hope this harsh world never takes away her kind heart.

“Of course.” CT nods like this information was what he expected.

“Just gotta get her math grade up.” I watch CT crinkle his nose.

“I fucking hate math.”

“Who does your books?”

“Dani, thank God.”

I frown. “Who did your books when Dani wasn’t around?”

“I did, and if you recall, I damn near lost the ranch.”

I click my tongue. Man, that feels like forever ago. “Well, thank God you got your head out of your ass.”

“That, and my brother and I are with women who like to take over the finances of the ranch. It works out.”

CT was referring to his brother Graham, who works as the local handyman, and his fiancée Quinn, who runs and operates the ranch’s yearly festival with the help of their dad.

“It does indeed,” I say absentmindedly, my mind wandering again and wondering what I could do to make that happen for me. I shake my head and refocus. “Where’s Stetson?”