“Sounds to me like Randy might be a little defensive that his human named him Randy and not Sin Eater.”

He chuckled. “My mom named him Randy. Her next oldest brother is my uncle Randy. They’re close but they fight a lot. One of her favorites is to call him a horse’s ass. So when I got the horse, she joked that we should call him Randy. He doesn’t care as long as you give him carrots and apples.”

“You know, Ezra, you’re adorable. I won’t tell on you or anything. But you are so soft when it comes to the people and animals in your life.”

“I’m ferocious. I’m dark and broody and broken.”

“I love that song,” she said to the lyrical reference to “Threatened,” one of her favorite Sweet Hollow Ranch songs.

“I wrote it after I was back here. There had been an article about me. About rehab and my addiction. But it was more like, hey this guy’s writing will be even better now that he’s gone through all this gritty stuff. And then a few days later an article responding to that one came out saying I was too broken and now that I was clean my songs would get boring.”

She curled her lip. “People are dicks.”

He snorted. “Yes. And so I thought, fuck you, I’m going to write a whole goddamn album of hits. Heroin didn’t make my success.”

“And you did.” That album had broken all sorts of sales records.

“I don’t like to be told I can’t do something.”

That moment, when he chose to rise above and prove all the doubters wrong had been a huge turning point in his recovery. He’d taken his life back and wasn’t going to let anyone make choices for him. And he’d been that way ever since.

“I bet they never did again after that.”

She was right.

“I can’t lie. Nope they never did.”

“You proved yourself. That’s important. But people are still dicks and hearing that makes me want to punch that guy in the nose for saying you were broken.”

“I’d love to see that.”

They got back to the stables and she insisted on helping the stable manager with the horses so he stayed through that part, liking the harmony of physical activity with her. Once they’d finished up, he took her back to his place.

“Look, I need to handle this situation with the coyote. He’s going to spook my animals.” Or worse.

She nodded. “I understand. What do you need me to do?”

“Stay here. I’ll be back in about an hour.”

“Nope. I’ll come with you. I can help.”

“If you think I’d let you come out into any situation you could be harmed you’re out of your beautiful mind. I’m going to call my dad to let him know what’s happening. He’ll call wildlife while I do a check. But I need to take the ATV and a weapon.”

Then she flattened her lips. He could tell she wanted to argue but she didn’t. Which gave him wood. Jesus, this woman.

He kissed her hard. “It’s not that I don’t think you’re capable. I need all my focus on this thing that threatens my land. Do you understand?”

She smiled a little, her posture relaxing a little. “I do, but thank you for saying it that way. Maybe I’ll toodle over to Mary and Damien’s. Since Paddy and Nat are out tonight doing something fancy and all.”

The party.

“Actually, can you do me a favor?”

“Of course.”

“Can you run down and grab some food for the cats? I’m nearly out and they’ll kill me and eat me in my sleep if their dishes are empty tonight.”

She gave a look at the spot Goldfish stood on top of Peanut, whacking him in the head repeatedly while he chewed on her tail. “Yeah, I can see that.”

He wrote down what he needed. She’d have to go to the feed store for it, which would eat up some time, as well.

“Just tell whoever is behind the counter to charge it back to the ranch’s account.”

She nodded and headed out. He watched until she’d driven out of sight and then called his father while he retrieved his shotgun and shells.

Damien showed up as he was strapping things to the ATV. “Dad called. You’re a jerk for not calling one of us to get help.”

“You all have stuff happening right now. I sent Tuesday down to the feed store because she wanted to come visit your wife.”

“She’s over at Paddy’s right now anyway. She and Nat would have been bummed to have their surprise ruined. Good call on sending her away. Shitty call not to use the help you’re so freely offered. Asshole.”

“I’m an asshole because I don’t make you come out to maybe kill something? It’s not my favorite, either.”

“You’re an asshole because you don’t let us help with the difficult stuff. We’re grown men. This is our land, too. It’s shitty and stupid for you to do everything all the time.”

Ezra sucked in a breath. “Yeah, okay. Fair enough. Let’s go.”

He keyed his ATV on and they headed out.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

TUESDAY PARKED AT the feed store and headed in, only to bump into Michael Hurley. He gave her a hug when he saw her.

“Hello, sweetheart. Fancy seeing you here. I was just talking to the wildlife guy about the coyote thing. Are you all right?” He looked her over carefully.

“I’m fine, thanks. Ezra has good horses and he was there to talk me through it when she got spooked.”