But whether or not his mother had just cause, in that moment he could see...the vindictiveness. When she was hurt, she wanted to hurt back. She wanted to get her own. Not that he could judge, necessarily, but something that changed his perspective on a few things.

And it all sat heavily in his gut. But he didn’t have time to worry about it. Not now. He had just rolled into Get Out of Dodge with two horses in a trailer, ready to take part in this demonstration for the guests at the ranch.

Jamie had already been there. She had offered to come over and help him get Gem prepared to go, but he had figured it was probably best if she stayed the night at her place and got up the next morning and had breakfast with her family.

Mostly because Gabe had the feeling that Wyatt might be able to see down inside him, and maybe guess that he had slept with the other man’s sister. And that was basically the last thing on earth that Gabe wanted to be contending with right now on top of everything else.

Of all the things happening in his life, Jamie was the sweet spot. The steps he was taking with the ranch were good, but they were complicated. The issues with his parents were...

Hell, he was pissed.

He hadn’t even talked to Caleb or Jacob about it. He probably should. But he didn’t want to. Not till he had everything settled.

Either way, Jamie was the one thing that was fun. Working with her to get ready for this had been about the only thing he’d enjoyed the past few days. Well, except holding her in his arms every night. Taking her in his office whenever he could find a moment.

He knew that she had some concerns about that, considering she was supposed to be on the clock, but he’d waived that by virtue of being her boss. Which she had said was not less problematic.

But she had also kissed him enthusiastically and locked the door behind them. So he figured her protests were pretty empty.

He pushed those thoughts to the side as he parked near the covered arena, moving around to the back of the horse trailer.

He looked up and saw Wyatt walking toward him.

“Morning,” Wyatt said.

“Good morning,” Gabe responded.

The other man stuck his hand out for Gabe to shake and Gabe took it.

“Glad you could make it out.”

“Thanks for inviting me.”

“No problem. Jamie thinks the world of you,” Wyatt said.

The words made the hair on the back of Gabe’s neck stand up. “Well, that’s always nice to hear.”

“She practically lights up when she talks about working at the ranch.”

“She’s great with horses. And the work that she’s putting in to help me figure out the way forward with this new endeavor...it’s great. She’s great.”

“Yeah,” Wyatt said, his eyes searching. “She is.”

It was safe to say that Wyatt was suspicious. That wasn’t overly ambiguous, but the strange thing was that Wyatt seemed not at all very interested in punching him in the face.