Right. Like that was gonna happen.
He grabbed a towel to dry dishes as Asher washed and Merit rinsed, his gaze straying to Raine as often as possible without being too obvious. Even though it wasn’t quite a week ago, it was hard to recall back when he thought she was a spoiled little rich girl. Yeah, she’d had her moments, but he’d also seen her work hard both in the ring and cleaning stalls, and with her own personal workouts. She was determined and dedicated, and he had no doubt she was going to ride Fire all the way to gold someday.
Which meant it would be stupid to imagine her in any way as part of his new-found desire for more in his life.
Dev carried the last of the dirty plates to set on the counter for Asher to wash, then grabbed a towel to help dry. “It would appear you and Raine called a truce,” he observed in a low voice.
“For the most part.”
“A truce?” Merit glanced over. “What were you two fighting about?”
Reyes grimaced. Talking about Raine in front of Merit and Asher—and damn it, here came Loyal—was not something he wanted to do. “Not fighting. More like not seeing eye to eye on her training. It’s fine though. We’re good.”
“Well, I don’t envy you. Raine can be stubborn as all hell.” Merit handed him another dish as Loyal leaned his butt against the island. “When we were visiting them in Texas one summer, we were all playing hide and seek and ended up looking for her until after midnight.”
“I remember that,” Loyal groused.
“Did she get lost?” Reyes asked.
“No.” Asher chuckled. “She just refused to come out until we found her.”
“Even after we called out the game was over.”
“I think she was six at the time,” Loyal said. “We were all worried she was lost and afraid in the dark, but when she found out she was the last to be found, she declared victory.”
“Uncle Matt always said she takes after her name.” Asher and Merit exchanged a smile and they both said together, “Can’t stop rain.”
Reyes shifted his gaze to Raine just as her head whipped around.
“Oh my God—what are you guys talking about?” she hollered from the other side of the kitchen.
“Want to play hide and seek?” Merit teased.
She rolled her eyes, though a smile tugged at her lips. “Say what you want, I beat all of you guys and my brothers that night.”
Loyal pushed away from the island and went to lift Maverick out of Robert’s arms. “First and last time we ever played hide and seek with Raine. But we’ll play with you some day, little man.”
The baby grinned, drool wetting his chin as well as the hand stuffed in his mouth. He was six months old, but having been born seven weeks early, he and Ava were near the same size despite the two months difference between their birthdays.
“It’s not my fault you guys were sore losers,” Raine retorted.
Celia and Shelby jumped into the fray as the cousins continued to tease each other while Grandma Irene tossed in a story or two about Raine’s dad and the senator. Reyes kept drying, smiling as he listened to them joke about her side of the family’s ridiculous obsession with dares. It made him think of when she smacked him across the face last week.
“You know what you’re doing?”
Reyes winced at his brother’s low voice beside him. He didn’t need to ask what Dev meant; he heard the real question in his tone.
“We’re friends,” he said, as much for his brother as himself.
“You don’t look at her like a friend.”
Yeah, Dev saw him watching her. Wanting her.
What he didn’t know was how damn hard he was fighting to not fall for her.
14
Reyes mentally psyched himself up for the Monday morning session with Raine while turning the horses out and cleaning stalls. Being friends with her, getting to know her and really liking who she was wasn’t working for him.